Two weeks ago, we embarked on our first Road-Trip to Toronto to visit our kids and grandkids.
Mur googled our route. We will spend our first night at Thunder Bay. Our second night should be at Hampton Inn at Sadbury, skipping Sault Ste. Marie. That’s two hours less. And by midday the next day, we reach Toronto.
As a passenger, I keep my wife/driver alert and amused. It’s a bonus I enjoyed the roadside’s scenic beauty; it’s lakes and rock mountains formation.
I am puzzled. It’s funny how they named their towns and localities. A town called Serendipity amused me. I forgot what the word means.
I asked Mur.
She said. “It’s a movie”.
I laughed!
“There are two movies of that title. I mean what the word Serendipity mean?”.
“Who cares,”. She said!
I searched it up on my cell. No signal. I realized – not all of Ontario had internet.
Meanwhile, I got piqued again by this place called Yellow-Brick Road. That’s Elton John’s songs!
I almost wanted to jump out of our car with this one: Wawa!
Now we reach a point where trucks and cars are getting scarcer and scarcer. And no cell tower in sight, meaning no GPS (Global Positioning System) guide.
Four hours of that eerie quiet place, on its bend, an arrow sign appeared: Hwy 144. 80 kms. Its entrance – an unasphalted desolated dirty track, forested on both sides. Thirty minutes passed, we didn’t see any vehicle neither coming onto us or behind us.
Mur remembered a story she read on the internet about a couple disappeared after losing their signal and then found dead afterwards.
Once in a while, we saw a car coming onto us.
“I think we should come back,”. Mur said.
“Come back…? That’s another 8 hours before we get to Hampton Inn for our nightcap,”. I said.
“Let’s make a distressed wave if ever we met a car coming onto us. If they stop, we can ask if we’re threading the right way,”.
So, we waited. 30 minutes passed. Cloud of dust approached us. We both waved at the passing car.
It zoomed at us. Bathed us with dust.
We stopped, just wait for another.
“How can we make a distressed wave?”.
“Maybe like a car wiper blade cruising on storm.”.
We stopped our car and waited.
A Camper Truck coming!
We waved our hand like a busy car wiper blade.
The Truck passed us! But Mur looked at her side mirror. The car stopped and drove backward.
I come down, approached the White old couple.
“Are we on the right track?”.
“Yeah. You save two hours drive,”.
“How come street is like this?”.
“It’s not government’s. A Loggers’ road. Only Logs Truck passed here,”.
“On our way back home, we’ll not skip Sault Ste. Marie. Nevermind if it’s two hours more. I pity our car,”. Mur said.
Jess Fernando 