Winnipeg

The iceberg is closing in on the Titanic. Bill represents the latter; he has done most of the preparation. I am the former, looming in from the east not the north but  at times at the mercy of the forces of nature. I will end this laboured comparison with the hope that our meeting is less disastrous than the original.  

Nature on my return has provided more than mere backdrop. It began strictly scenic on Wednesday with better Autumn colour than I had seen up 'til then, especially between Sudbury and Sault Saint Marie.  On Thursday, there was a thick fog in the Sault at 7:30am as I pulled away from the Water Tower. This combined with the fact that my myopic eyes misread the GPS meant that I had to stop at a corner store to find out how to get to Highway 17 West. It turned out I'd been on it. After just a few kilometres the fog had cleared and the sky was a pale grey, against which the leaves were a subdued but beautiful tapestry of reds, orange, yellow and green. The horizon was very dark. Small drops of water appeared on the windshield, then more and larger. A brilliant streak of lightening rent the black sky ahead and then the deluge came. The first huge gouts of rain were soon followed by deafeningly solid sheets that the wipers could hardly clear away. I slowed down and moved to the right until I almost lost control of the car in the thick slush on the shoulder. Fortunately there were no cars behind me and very few coming the other way, so I gripped the wheel and hoped the summer tires would hold the road in spite of the quickly thickening layer of icy muck that was covering it. More lightening and thunder burst around me, the like of which I've only seen north of Superior. But it was all over within ten or fifteen minutes. As I dropped down to Agawa Bay, I saw a partial rainbow close to Twilight Road, the place where Jim and I camped in the Boler on our drive west. Shortly after, fortunately before I had the confidence to get back to 100km/ hour, a young moose walked across the highway. After all that sound and fury, the blue of Lake Superior and feathery yellow plumes of tamarac against green spruce formed the backdrop of an uneventful drive. 

However, I was still wound up when I arrived at Liz and Ross's, so I readily accepted her suggestion that we go to see "Suite Française". She had read the book by Irène Némirovsky and said it was very well written. We both sat spellbound through the movie. I had a good chat with both of them this morning because I had the time. I gained an hour heading to Winnipeg, where I am now seated in Danny and Rita's. They are out for dinner but left me a key and dinner. What a blessing after a long drive. 

The Sleeping Giant

The statue of Terry Fox where he ended his run, just east of Thunder Bay.