Fort Frances

Today, we bid Manitoba farewell and departed into the depths of western Ontario. The big thing about Ontario, is that outside of the St. Lawrence region, the rest is all Canadian Shield. For those of you who don't know, this means that the highways are awful, and traveling on them is like going on highway 63, times 5.

The usual route we take going to Ottawa is traveling in the northern part of Ontario near Dryden, going through some of the densest parts of the Canadian Shield. Today however we decided to take the more obscure southern route, taking us to the border town of Fort Frances.

On the way there I was quite surprised, I'm used to the dense forests of western Ontario, but near Fort Frances, there were all sorts of farms like in Alberta and Saskatchewan.  Being here gives me a sense of continuity with my trip, and I'm very glad we took this route.

Some pics of the Canadian Shield.

Another thing worth mentioning is the cost of goods. When living in Fort McMurray for half your life is that you kind of just accept the prices of goods as a little high, but relatively normal. Today however I visited a Wal-Mart to buy some dog food, and I found them selling the exact same food for half the price. You really have to wonder how much the people of Fort McMurray are really being ripped off.

One final note is about my cell phone. Fort Frances is still part of Canada, we are on the western tip of Lake Superior, however my phone no longer receives a signal from Canada, and is instead picking up an American cell company. Ten years ago this would be ok, but in 2012 the cell companies need to do better and work to having coverage across the entire land.