Also, did you know the Roberta Bondar is the Soo's very own hometown hero?
We had a waterfront view of the International Bridge to the USA-Michigan. This bridge crosses over the locks allowing ships to move from Lake Superior to Lake Huron and back.
Onto Sudbury with the highway once again long and winding. Passed Bruce Mines, Thessalon, Blind River, and Massey; small mining towns along the way to Sudbury. So many small houses - who really needs to huge monstrosities we construct on the West Coast anyways!! In 1883, the first nickel discovery was made at Murray Mine near Sudbury.
People ask - 'Why did you go to Sudbury, it is a pile of toxic waste!' Yes, we noticed, and expensive as Jan notes below. The answer is simple, because it was in our way as we travelled from Winnipeg to Niagara. The people of this province refer to anything above Barrie as 'Northern Ontario', and they sneer as they say it. In fact, Sudbury and the Soo are both below Vancouver in latitude, and Thunder Bay is not much further north than Campbell River. But if you are convinced that Toronto is the center of the universe (as Torontonians think it is) then anything north of cottage country is beyond the Pale. And they mean it. Across Canada, as far exactly as the Ontario/Manitoba border, the Trans Canada highway was two lanes each way. After about a kilometer into Ontario it dropped to one lane each way, and the highway was renamed as a provincial route, 416, rather than Highwaty 1. Automobile traffic dropped severely east of Winnipeg, and about 75% of the vehicles were freight trucks. And the highway was rough and pitted with last year's frost heaves, though they were doing a lot of road repairs and we were caught in that several times which we didn't mind as you can stretch your legs a bit. Across the prairies towns appeared here and there but there was always signs of habitation. The fields were actively farmed and signs of human activity were constant. Just a short way into Ontario, that gave way to brush, lakes, muskeg, and little else. A lot like the road to, say, Uclulet or perhaps from Sayward to Port Hardy on the Island. A lot of barren country and open road. Very, very inhospitable. All the way to Sudbury.
Arrived in Sudbury around 5:00 p.m. and for the first time, we had to search to a motel that wasn't booked. Apparently there was no special event. Sudbury is just always busy because it is a crossroads for travelling north, south, east or west. Very expensive!!
