RAD HOSE AND KIND STRANGERS - Kenora To North Bay

Kenora is a rad town. I gotta say its good to be back in Ontario. About 15 mins after we go to town we found the Lake Of The Woods Brew Company and walked into a ripping Saturday night. We didn’t have our cowboy hats yet, but we were pretty sure we didn’t need them. We took Sunday off to explore around the town and take pictures of Truck. Funny we didn’t see a single cop on the highway until we got to Ontario. I’m not kidding- not a single one. Cars were going past us like we were standing still because we had it pegged at 60mph.

After a soothing day off we gassed up truck and spray painted a couple rust spots in the Canadian Tire parking lot. We planned to drive as far as we could south and get as close to North Bay where we were due at a car show for the North Bay Cruisers around 6 pm. We stopped for lunch and had burgers. If you’re into fishing and being way up north there are some great motels to stop at for sure, it’s a friendly place.

Elgli’s Sheep farm is the place where we found our cowboy hats. We had been looking for bonafied cowboy hats and Elgli’s provided them. It’s a sheep farm where you can buy all manner of glove, sweater, or hat made out of sheep and even go pet the sheep. It was pleasant and they didn’t try to sell us anything that wasn’t cowboy hats. Thank you Elgli’s. I gotta say, I think a cowboy hat really completed Don’s look and since we have been home a few girls in the neighborhood have been remarking to me about how dashing he looks in his new hat. I have to agree, ride on cowboy.

We watched Lake Superior come in and out of view for the rest of the day and listened to Hank Williams and the engine. Coming to the top of a hill we pulled off to a siding to get a look at a great view. As I got out, I saw we were leaking coolant. It was right around the top rad hose where it is clamped to the engine. I didn’t even notice that the engine was screaming hot and probably about to over heat. We just wanted to get the view so we stopped. Road magic like that is real. A bad over-heat like that is not something you ever want to have happen this far away in case something breaks. I let it cool down and tightened the clamp a bit before limping into the town of Schwieber, Ontario. Walked up to the cashier at the only gas station for a while and asked if they had coolant. They didn’t. Fortunately the guy ahead of me who had just paid for his gas heard me ask and, long story short, Ray is the best guy you could ever meet in a situation like that. He didn’t have to be so kind to two guys from Toronto who he didn’t know at all. Road magic. After Ray showed us a bunch of pictures of his ’53 Chevy dump truck, we got outside and cut the hose off where it was cracked around the lower clamp and stuffed it back on. Ray got us a few more clamps and also some rubber tape incase we needed it. “Watch out for the ditch donkeys, they are real bad this time of year” Ray told us as we got on the way. He’s right, if you look closely there are tons of smears left from animals big and small all over these roads. Deer stains. My eyes are working hard because the tree line is close and the ditches are dark and full of life.

It wasn’t 20 min later that we came up a hill on a curve and saw a tractor-trailer in the ditch all folded up. Cops weren’t there yet but about 8 other tractor-trailers had stopped along the road and lit the whole scene up with their spotlights. They had hauled a couple of guys out of it I think I saw, I didn’t get a good look at it. Don did, but didn’t want to talk about it after. It was spooky and we were pretty quiet until we realized there wouldn’t be any gas open for longer then we had gas left. We stopped in Wawa and slept for a few hours. We learned in the news that one of the guys died in the wreck. Probably wasn’t even his fault- these roads are so dangerous. You notice the guardrails are all beaten in around the corners and there are tons of deer stains all over the concrete. You gotta take it easy, stop if you have to, don’t drive at night if you aren’t comfortable, and make caution your good friend. You can count on some road magic along the way but the danger is real, and it’s subtle sometimes, which makes it all the more dangerous.

We got to North Bay and rolled into the car show. Super great folks there and there were probably 70 or 80 cars. Best part was I got to meet Don’s Mom and Dad. Don and I have been on this ride together for a while, and it was good to see where he was from. Guys at the car show loved Truck and had all kinds of stories about owning one or having a friend who did. One guy talked about how he would race his buddy who had a ’70 straight 6 F100. The guy would get it all wound up in 4th gear and then pull out the choke and take off. Don’t know if this works or if I’ll try it, but the stories were incredible. It’s like this thing was the Volkswagen Beetle of American cars, everyone of a certain age has a story with one. I gave out a bunch of LMC Truck hats because they are one of our sponsors and people were really excited to get them and hear about why we were there, especially with BC plates still on. Nice people up there I’ll tell you, thanks to the North Bay Cruisers for having us.

David: “What’s that way off in the distance Don?”

Don: “It looks like something’s on fire”

David: ‘That’s right, that’s the first sign of Toronto”

Don: (smiles)