Road Trip to Pickle

Hey everyone! After a three-day road trip, we finally arrived in Pickle Lake! We had a short but lovely visit in Huntsville, and then headed out early in the morning around 8:00am on route to Thunder Bay. Big thank you to Martha Lapp for the hospitality in Huntsville as well as sending us with enough food to get us through 24 hours (we may or may not have had cookies for dinner). After 15 hours in the car, we were definitely ready for a rest. We arrived at the Days Inn, where we were hopeful to get one room and grab some food before heading to bed. On a side note, it is smart to assume the worst and always book a hotel before arriving anywhere. We’ll chalk that one up as a learning experience. It turned out almost all the hotels and motels in Thunder Bay were completely booked due to conferences, a hockey tournament and the snowstorm coming through. Luckily, Elaine looked online for any other hotels in the area, and found a “Holiday Inn” to call home for the night. After a long day, we were all ready for some sleep before getting back on the road. We woke up on Thursday morning to 15cm of snow and half a Tupperware of cookies (they made surprisingly good breakfast food). We had to pick up a few more groceries at Wal-Mart to fill our van. Aaron’s teammates family from the Queen’s Football team owns a lovely bakery in Thunder Bay called Nucci’s Bake A Deli (***if you are ever in Thunder Bay we highly advise stopping in***). We popped in for sandwiches and Persians (a legendary Thunder Bay delicacy and also our first meal of the day) and headed out. Although we may have had bad luck with the hotels and weather in Thunder Bay, all of the residents and people we met there were nothing but helpful and friendly, which we were grateful for. We had about 500km to drive that day and knew we had to get on our way. The “yellow car game” became the “car” game as we drove to Pickle Lake up the 599. It was only the open road, and our Dodge Caravan until we arrived and met up with Lucy who we had been in contact with before departing. Upon arriving, we had a quick tour of Crolancia, the school John and I will be teaching at. Lucy showed us to our bed and breakfast where we will be staying for the next six weeks. We were happy to finally see the accommodations and unpack our tired van. After unpacking, we had a visit from Brent, who is one of the teachers at Crolancia. He is friendly and knowledgeable, as he has lived in the area for four years. We heard more about the Canadian Ranger program that he is a part of and we hope to join them on a few out trips. After dinner (not cookies) we headed over to Brent’s house where we enjoyed a campfire and some tunes alongside a few of the local teachers. This afternoon Lucy is taking us for a tour of the town, and we are looking forward to meeting more people and starting at the school on Monday. #WeTheNorthJenna and John