Well, it's that time again. In fact, it's earlier than that time. We're leaving a few days early so we can head a bit north for some Northern Ontario fun. Looks like a lovely drive doesn't it?
About 5 hours gets us to Britt, ON, on the Magnetiwan River. The most common fish in this river is the Muskie. They have to throw back the small ones; any under 56". I wouldn't go fishing for them in our canoe, they would take us on a Nantucket Sleigh Ride (that's what whalers call it when their dories are pulled around by whales).
Oops, another breakdown. We blew an hydraulic hose just as we arrived at the camping resort. Everything stopped working so we went looking for a motel for the next few days. Once we saw the options, we decided to get it fixed, pronto!
You can't see the guy laying under the back of Harvey, replacing the hose. As usual, these things aren't simple and after running back and forth to Parry Sound for parts and new hoses, our total golfing budget for 2 years disappeared. Nah, I'll just take it out of our kids inheritance, which doesn't leave much. Well, as they say, don't ride the horse if you can't take the fall. Actually I just made that up; pretty good though.
Repairs made and still on schedule; that doesn't happen too often. Can't go through Sudbury without seeing smokestacks.
Arrived in Sault St Marie without problems (whew) and got set up in a lovely campground.
After we picked up our train tickets for tomorrow we decided to check out the Bushplane museum, well, actually I convinced Grammie that would be a good idea. If we hadn't gone I'd of regretted it for days. Grammie gets to regret it immediately so it's a win-win, right.
The museum is full of planes that opened the north and serviced isolated communities. This was a commuter plane that flew out of Slave Lake. Talk about isolated. I should know, I grew up near there.
This DHC-3 Otter is a typical bush plane. Aren't you glad I'm educating you on planes? No thanks necessary.
This Norseman is parked beside a typical dock from years gone by. I'm ready to go fishing for 6' Muskies.
They did have a few other items on display. I've heard of Stanley Steamers for years but this is the first one I've seen. Another item off my bucket list!
A pilot for the Ontario forest service invented this tank which mounts above the floats on this Beaver. A pipe beside the float pulls in water and fills the tank which is then dumped on forest fires. Each tank held 80 gallons of water. Now water bombers hold 20,000 gallons, but this is where it started.
There are a lot of bush and firefighting planes in the museum but I've kept it brief; you're welcome.
Grammie is more a boat person and was drawn to this ambivalent vessel. Note the name: "Yankcanuck". Dual registry I suppose. If you thought this was exciting, just wait for tomorrow.
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