We both woke up at 5am and couldn’t fall back asleep since we had slept so early the night prior. Our original plan was to leave White River at around 9am, but Hohyun suggested that we make the most of us being awake and start the drive early. I agreed and we checked out of the hotel at 6am.

Before leaving the township, we wanted to see the Winnie the Pooh statue of White River. I didn’t know this prior to arriving in White River, but the bear that Winnie the Pooh was based on was from White River. As we were taking pictures of each other, a really nice lady offered to take our picture for us.

We made small talk with her and learned that she was a truck driver making a rest stop in White River. She told us that this part of the Trans-Canada highway was called the “suicide highway” because people crash here and die all the time, which was really reassuring given that we were about to head out on this highway. She kept talking about how she liked to dress up her dog, her daughter, and her life as a truck driver, mentioning that she has done the drive through White River multiple times. At some point, we had to leave so we wished her well and went to buy breakfast.

At that time of day, the only thing that was open was Robin’s Donuts, which sold coffee, baked goods, and breakfast food. The store itself was really busy and was filled with truck drivers getting food before heading onto the road. While we were waiting, I noticed a CrimeStoppers sign that I found really interesting since I had never seen anything of the sort before.

The visibility on the road was horrible, and we had a thick layer of fog permanently in front of us for most of the drive. I was pretty tired and felt bad sleeping as he drove (leaving him with no one to talk to for a couple of hours), but Hohyun let me sleep in the car as he did the whole drive. I woke up when we were almost at Ouimet Canyon.

Ouimet Canyon was one of the places that I wanted to see after looking at photos online. Since we left White River early, we had time to do a small detour there. We drove there, hoping that it would be open, but the gate for the trail to the canyon was closed. We turned around and decided to just head to Thunder Bay, and we saw this small black bear on the side of the road. We were both pleasantly surprised and stopped the car to take pictures. We were engaged in a small stare-off, and the bear crossed the road right in front of the car to come over to my side to stare at me before returning to its original spot on the side of the road. This definitely made turning into Ouimet Canyon worth it.

On our way out, we drove to the Eagle Canyon Suspension Bridge as a last attempt to see the canyon, but after running into the owner, we found that all Ontario Parks were closed because of Covid. We decided to head straight to Thunder Bay since we were running low on gas anyway. Right before we made it into the city, there was the Terry Fox Memorial off the side of the highway, which we did a detour to see. For me, it was really cool to see something so historically Canadian and I learned a lot by reading the words written on the monument. It was just a sombre atmosphere all throughout the monument. Unfortunately, the fog was so intense that we couldn’t see Thunder Bay over the lookout.

We made it to the gas station with 10km of range left, and a really nice guy there complimented my car as Hohyun was getting gas.

We stayed at the Super 8 Thunder Bay and when planning, Hohyun booked us for 2 nights in Thunder Bay to give ourselves a rest day. We arrived at 1pm and were thankfully were able to get an early check-in. I took my meetings as Hohyun settled in, worked on the dashcam footage and took a nap.

For dinner, we decided on getting burgers at Prospector’s Burger Barn after looking at ratings online. The drive-thru line was insane, which to us, meant that it would be good if even the locals liked it. The prices were really reasonable for the quality they gave. Hohyun ended up loving the place so much he insisted that we go back for dinner there the next day. I thought the fries were fabulous.

On our way back to the hotel, we decided to drive through Lakehead University just to see it. Unfortunately, the university itself was closed because of covid but we were able to drive through the residences and the buildings. The way the residences were laid out reminded me of a summer camp with the communal rec areas in the middle and they looked a bit older.

We were so tired we didn’t even bother working out. We ate dinner, watched Superstore, and played Ticket to Ride, which is one of my favourite board games.

We called one of our mutual friends, who we’ve also known since high school, then went to bed shortly after. Since we didn’t have to drive anywhere the next day, we didn’t need to plan out when to leave.