To Schreiber ON

When one travels left and right, up and down on the map, certain things keep needing adjusting. Three days ago I could leave at 6:00am and it was breaking light. On this morning it was black. Pitch black. I packed up and headed out into the darkness. Which is asinine in this part of the continent. Why? Moose! Out here there are moose. A moose is a gigantic creature. The body of an adult male can be 1,200 to 1,600 pounds. Um, that is easily half the weight of your/my car. What makes it even more dangerous is that the greater portion of that mass is above the hood of your car. That means mooseseses have long legs. Being hit by a vehicle moving at 60 miles per hour is bad news for the moose whether its legs are long or short. But for you the long legs can easily spell your death.

First, imagine you are sitting in your car and it is stationary. Now, imagine a mass weighing about 1600 pounds (725 kg) floating about three feet off of the ground. 1600 pounds is similar to two 100 gallon (378 litre each) barrels filled with water, ...but a moose is much denser than water so lets freeze these barrels just to get things right. Got all that? Next imagine these frozen barrels hurtling toward you, three-feet off of the ground at 60 mph (96 kph.) Oh gee, is that about where your windshield is? And that mass will hit you where? Hmmm, looks likt the top half of your car will be pancaked. Isn't your trunk a lovely place to end up mangled with ground moose? Oh, it's not? Well then, don't be a fool. Don't drive in moose country after dark! Moose are dark in color, their coats don't reflect light and their eyes are too high up to do so. Even during the day they can be hard to spot.

My host, Rafal, at the Parkway Motel said if he ever has to drive at night he will wait until a large semi-truck passes and follow the truck. Sure, he might have to wait 5-20 minutes for the truck. But it beats running into a moose.

So why did this brainless idiot leave in pitch black? Perhaps because he was stuck in a day-frame 500 miles south and two weeks earlier. Why, again? What was I doing? This isn't about getting anywhere, it's about traveling . Quite obviously I was in dummy mode. So the dummy drove the first hour in blackness.

Dusk was beginning to show and I pulled over to eat. Further on I found a dirt side road to explore. I went 15 or 20 miles up and came back taking pictures. I went to make a recording and started putting the recording kit together. Geepers O'Reilly! I was missing my microphones! This was not good at all. Of course my cell phone doesn't work out there (nor anywhere I have been in Canada so far, which is OK, they want to charge me 80 cents per minute, thanks Cingular.) I ended up driving 75 miles back to the Motel where the wonderful owners (ok, I'll give them another link) www.parkwaymotel.com had found them and had left a message on my phone as well as sent me an email. They must have also sent out a psychic message because I knew the mics could be no other place. I turned around and went all of the 75 miles back to the hotel.

Five and a half hours after initially setting out I left my motel a second time. This time it was light and I was able to see where I was driving through. This is how it should have been done in the first place. What did the dummy gain by leaving in the dark? Hopefully he learned a lesson.

So the day became a much longer one than had been anticipated. Even through an area as lovely as the stretch between Wawa and Schreiber 300 miles becomes wearying.

Schreiber is a quaint little town. It is nestled picturesquely between rocky hills in a wide, open space. It was built by the railroads long ago. I stayed at a very nice little motel called the Barrel Inn. They have a spa inside a building shaped like a giant barrel. It too, is a recently refurbished motel and the owner did a beautiful job, they even have color-coordinated towels in the bathrooms. I was checked in by the owner's brother who wasn't enjoying his stay in Schreiber.

"I wish I was doing what you are... passing through."

"Why is that?"

"I hate it here, I'm not into the service industry, I need more to do. I just came here to help my sister."

Family ties notwithstanding, he was not a happy camper. He had only been there a few months. He probably won't last the winter. But his was not the only opinion to be found in Schreiber. Later I was talking to a local couple in the pub next door. They chose to move here.

"You don't have to worry about your kids. After school they can go out and do things. There are lots of things to do here for them. You don't have to worry about watching them every minute. I have friends in Winnipeg and they worry about their kids all the time. If it is not some stranger, they have to worry about them getting into drugs & things. We don't have to worry about that here. It's safe, very safe.

"Housing is cheap too. You can buy a nice house for $50,000 [Canadian.] There are all of the outdoor activities that you have up here Winter and Summer. They have a nice little beach. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else."

"Don't you think it is a little far away from everything?"

"Oh no, not at all. If ever you need something that you can't get locally Thunder Bay is only two hours away. And they have concerts and things there. If you want culture, they have a symphony, even the 'Who' played there on their last tour."

Schreiber, is perfect for these folk. It is beautifully situated, it is a safe place to raise their kids and has the things they need and desire. What more can one ask for from a place to call home?