to North Bay
2011/09/18
Drove from Ottawa to North Bay today. Two stops along the way.
First was Cobden, Ontario. We lived on a farm a couple of miles outside of town, briefly, when I was a toddler. I’m pretty sure the house was located near one of the barns in this picture. It’s no longer there.
My earliest memories come from this place. It’s where I said my first word, which was, of course, “tractor” – I’ve always been easily impressed by big, noisy machines.
One or the other of my parents would drive up this hill to go into town for supplies. I used to get upset when one of them left, and the other would sing to me – I still remember some of the songs my father would sing. My mother used to sing too, but sadly I don’t remember that.
I remember there being a swing hanging from the ceiling in the room I spent most of my time in.
And that’s about all I remember; it’s surprising I remember anything at all from this place since I was between 1 and 2 years old.
There was a bee hive above the kitchen door and I was stung near my eye once. I’m told it swelled up pretty badly, but luckily no permanent damage was done.
In the winter we would follow the tree line behind that barn and go for a picnic in the snow – imagine sitting on a blanket on the snow (the kind of snow that makes styrofoam-like crunch sounds because it’s so cold out), drinking hot chocolate out of a thermos.
Less than a 30-minute drive away are the Bonnechere Caves – surprisingly, I don’t think we ever went to them before. Luckily I arrived just in time for a tour (you can’t go in the caves unless you’re on a tour). The tours are about an hour long. I really enjoyed this, and I highly recommend it if you’re in the area – just make sure you arrive in time for a tour.
Cave teeth!
Cave bat!
Cave goatse!
Outside Cobden was this interesting historical note:
And later on I also passed a plaque about the NPD Reactor, but not knowing anything about it I didn’t stop.
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Service notice
2011/09/17
I will soon be entering the hinterlands of northern Ontario again. Between here and Winnipeg I will have little or no cell phone service, and internet access might be a bit spotty too.
I’m taking a different route this time, to see more of the landscape and scope out some potential places to buy land.
For reference, my tentative itinerary of places to stop for sleep is: North Bay, Timmins, Hearst, Thunder Bay, Fort Frances, Winnipeg. Subject to modification as things develop, of course.
Ottawa day 2
2011/09/17
Today was all about hitting the local museums. I got a multi-museum passport that covers something like 11 of them.
Canadian Museum of Science & Technology
This was actually very much like the Ontario Science Center, though a bit smaller and with fewer interactive exhibits.
They had some steam locomotives that you could go inside the cabins of, which was cool.
There was an exhibit on Canadian-made automotives. This one was steam-powered, manufactured by a jeweler and had no brakes:
And I’m sure you all recognize this lovely little thing:
A mock-up of the cargo bay control area of the Space Shuttle (yes, with a Canadarm and no, you couldn’t move it):
Mockup of a Tokamak fusion generator. Sadly nonfunctional, but it had pulsating purple lights inside, and that’s always impressive.
Quite a few other interesting exhibits, but like most educational museum-type stuff, not terribly photogenic.
Canadian Aviation and Space Museum
Sadly I wasn’t able to get one of the biplane rides today, but for reference they do allow cameras on the flights. I wanted to take the flight over the parliament buildings. Oh well, next time.
The rest of the museum is pretty nice. Assorted pictures:
And yes, that hangar would make a great storage room, workshop and living space for me.
Canadian Museum of Civilization
Which includes the relatively small Canadian Postal Museum (mainly about the origins of mail delivery and postage stamps, with a very large collection of Canadian stamps) and Canadian Childrens’ Museum (mostly interactive stuff for kids).
It’s a decent museum, but…
I liked the postal museum especially,
but the large section on aboriginal history didn’t interest me much,
(although this looks awfully familiar):
and the well done Canadian history section was for me a repeat of the more authentic stuff I’ve seen at regional museums and places like Upper Canada Village, so I didn’t take a whole lot of pictures.
They did have an interesting temporary exhibit on Japan, but photos weren’t allowed in that section. That’s pretty typical of museums, I’ve found – no flash photography, and no photography in the temporary exhibits for some reason.
Shot of Parliament and the core hotel from the museum grounds:
And that pretty much ate up the whole day. Still a couple of museums, the art gallery and the mint that I haven’t seen, but they can wait for another visit, another time.
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Ottawa day 1
2011/09/16
Short drive from Montreal this morning, got a room, then spent the day being a tourist.
First stop: the Canadian War Museum. It was pretty interesting and I could easily have spent a whole afternoon there. They have a good collection of tanks and some rather odd vehicles for various countries. A few pictures:
Next I went to the Currency Museum, which is free. It was pretty fascinating, actually – I took my time in this one. They have a great collection and it renewed my interest in coin and banknote collecting.
Here’s a couple of historic units of trade I had always wondered about, mostly thanks to reading the Asterix books. The first is a Talent, and the round ones are Sestertii.
Early Canada had a lot of competing currency issuers. Many of them had to perpetrate some hacks or do outright illegal things in the interest of practicality or to get around overbearing regulations imposed from overseas. Witness the $4, $6 and $7 bills: (click for full size to read the legend)
And here’s the largest legal banknote ever issued in Canada: $50,000, legal only for exchange between banks (ie not publically available).
I then went and walked around the Parliament buildings a bit:
It’s a very, very nice building. I really like it – fantastic stone work. There are several other very nice, large stone buildings in the area too.
And here’s the Rideau Canal:
By this time all the tourist attractions were closed and I was hungry, so on the recommendation of a co-worker I ate at Chez Lucien, which is just around the corner from where he used to live in Bytown. It’s a small place but popular, and was super crowded. I had the Lucien Burger, which has bacon and cream cheese on it. It was pretty tasty – that’s actually a good combination.
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En Route to Ottawa
2011/09/15
Another driving day. I’m on my way to spend a couple of days seeing the sights in Ottawa, but getting there from Edmundston was too far to go in one day, so tonight I’m staying in Montreal again – tomorrow will be a short drive and I’ll have time for some sightseeing in the afternoon after I arrive.
Today was the first really rainy day on my trip. There have been some storms on other days, but today it rained almost all day, and when I got near the St. Lawrence river there was thick fog for a while too. I had to slow down because of poor visibility and all the water on the road.
My tires are starting to look a little worn – I think I’ll get a new set when I reach Calgary, at the same place my father bought me these ones. Until then I have to be careful about wet roads.
Quebec lacks scenic viewpoints along the highways, but they do have an ample supply of rest stops with picnic areas, which is nice. About every 50 km on average, along the main highways. I was really groggy this morning so I made use of these convenient stopping points to stretch my legs and get some air.
On the highway, Quebec drivers have an annoying habit of just sitting behind you and doing nothing for long periods. I’ve never encountered this in any other province. Today I had one guy following me for nearly an hour, until I pulled off for a rest – and this was on a divided highway; he had ample opportunity to pass. He even passed other cars when I did, and then pulled in behind me again instead of taking the opportunity to pass me. That really annoys me – I am not your goddamn cruise control!
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