We both woke up at 7am, which annoyed me a bit since I wanted to sleep in (my body was used to the “waking up early” schedule already). Since we were up early, we did a half-hour yoga following a YouTube Tutorial (Yoga with Adriene) then showered, packed, picked up the free breakfast from downstairs and left.

The drive was a bit gloomy since it was so cloudy. It affected our moods as well, and the car ride just felt a bit longer to me. We ate the free breakfast on the drive there. We passed by the time change plaque in Northern Ontario and obviously had to take some pictures.

We went to use the washrooms before we left, and started talking to a man and his wife setting up for lunch in their tent trailer. We told them what we were up to, and they mentioned that they were from Fort McMurray driving out east, and had left there 4 days prior. Since they had recently driven through everything we were about to drive through, we asked them about what to expect on the drive out to Banff. They warned us about the rainy weather in Manitoba and Saskatchewan and the wind gusts, especially in Saskatchewan. They also taught me about chinooks, which were really sudden bursts of warm weather in the winter in Calgary.

We kept driving and drove through Aaron Provincial Park. We didn’t bother stopping to see anything though because the weather was so bad.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express Dryden and it was the nicest hotel we had stayed in thus far. It was newly renovated when we went. We found out that we had to order the complimentary breakfast off a menu at the check-in, which would be hot and premade for us the next morning. I think that was my highlight of the hotel.  After we settled in, we walked across the street to the A&W to get lunch since I was starving. We went back to the hotel a bit for me to eat and catch up on my journaling.

We went to see what Dryden had to offer afterwards, which took us a total of 9 minutes. To be fair, the weather was really rainy and gloomy, which didn’t help.

#1: Max the Moose

According to Google, this was Dryden’s main attraction. It was literally a huge moose. Hohyun didn’t like how it was constructed and just how it looked in general, but it was alright. There was a gift shop next to Max the Moose, but it wasn’t open because it was the weekend and because of covid. Behind all this, there were these huge Petro Canada tanks and gave off a lot of smoke (I still don’t know what they are or what they’re called)

#2: Roy Wilson Suspension Bridge

We parked at a nearby motel and walked to the suspension bridge, which was closed. We took a few pictures there, but the water was really murky and the weather was grey, so we didn’t stay long.

#3: The Dryden Sign

It was really close to the bridge and since there was nothing to do, we went there to take pictures. The sign was located just at the entrance of downtown Dryden.

#4: The Chip Box

We had seen all of what Dryden had to offer, so we decided to post our postcards, get food, turn in early and rest up for the next leg of the trip. We decided to get food at The Chip Box, which had some really good reviews online. Apparently, their fish and chips were really good, so we got that along with chicken fingers, fries, and poutine.

As we were waiting for the food, I made small talk with an elderly man who was also waiting for his food. He told me that he was born at the Dryden Regional Health Centre nearby, spent his whole life living in different small towns surrounding Dryden, and decided to settle down in Dryden with his wife. I told him that we were going to pass by Kenora the next day, and he suggested we go see the waterfront there. When I asked him what there was to do in Dryden, he said that there were lots of things but they were all closed because of covid. The bar scene in Dryden is also dying since there were none in Dryden anymore.

#5: Dryden Museum

On our way back to the hotel, we passed by the museum, so we wanted to stop by and take a look. It looked like a private residence, and we were only able to tell it was a museum thanks to the Dryden flag and the word “MUSEUM” out front. Like everything else, it was closed, but there was a small garden/front yard thing that wasn’t so we went there. There were a lot of flies/mosquitoes, so we went back to the hotel.

We went back to the hotel after, ate the food and watched Superstore and The Office. Since I was really tired from the day before, I just fell asleep at some point without really having planned out the next day’s schedule.