Day 3: Sudbury to White River, ON via Sault Ste. Marie and Wawa, ON

Wawa has gas! I'd been seeing signs for Wawa for many hundreds of kilometers. The last few I paid special attention to because the gas I had left in the tank just might get me there. In the end it did though the engine sputtered on a few of the hills. Was I nervous? Extremely. I wasn't too far and I could have hitch-hiked (fairly common up here) but I was really trying to avoid that. Lesson: any time the tank is below half and you see gas, get some!

More on that later, time for dinner.

OK, now that I've eaten and found a place to stay (motel tonight) I can recount the day. This morning was beautiful but chilly. In fact the whole day was chilly, I saw my thermometer go above 50 twice and trust me, I was watching it. I put my thermal liners in this morning and that wasn't a mistake. I still got a little cold a couple times and had to stop to warm up. The handlebar grip heaters were running all day. I do have a couple extra layers I can use but if it gets much colder I'm going to have to start taking warming breaks every hour. So aside from the cold, I mentioned its beautiful here. The foliage was in full color outside of Sudbury. I stopped at the Spanish river to eat a scone I grabbed at breakfast and switch gloves and I finally broke out the big camera. The best stuff I saw was just off the highway so I didn't get pics but I have them in my mind, around every turn was a beautiful scene.

Sault Ste. Marie was a nice looking town but nothing grabbed my attention lunch-wise so I continued on and found a little beach spot on the side of Lake Superior and ate a Cliff Bar and some peanut M&Ms while I warmed myself in the sun and took more pictures. The ride around Superior was also beautiful, just the bluest water today. Whenever a view of the lake opened up it also brought a blast of wind but I had to take a peek over anyway in spite of my bike getting pushed around.

All kinds of gas stations and motels so I pushed on, even past my half a tank of gas. Then I realized I hadn't seen gas in a good long time and I had about 80 miles left in the tank. That should get me the 50 miles to Wawa. Then I started gaining elevation and my 30 mile buffer dropped to 18, and at the same time I realized I ran out of gas last time at 16... 30 km to Wawa, 20, 10 then I hit a hill and the power drops. I shake the tank a little and it keeps going. Then again. I see a couple more hills but no gas station. Somehow I keep going and there on the left, some gas pumps, but the building has boarded up windows (something I've see ona lot of building up here, and whole towns too). I'm doomed. But somehow the BMW keeps pulling and I see an Esso, and it's open! But it's not only on the other side of the road, it's off a sevice road so I have to drive 1/4 mile up and loop back. I don't know how she made it but I limped into that service station on fumes. But after all that I had a full tank again.

Gas is generally first priority on the road. Second is water and food. I found a trucker restaurant next to the gas station and ordered something to get me through the cold night, a bacon cheeseburger and fries with cheese and gravy. After I somehow destroyed that plate and a Pepsi (out of root beer) I felt rejuvinated and decided to put on a few more miles before dark.

I felt a little guilty at spending over 100 for a hotel last night so I was thinking I'd try for camping. I wasn't seeing much for official camping so I was starting to consider "distributed" camping, ie find a dirt road, hide the bike and pitch my tent. I'm just really leary of police or the angry land owner waking me early and rushing me off. I even explored a picknic area to see if it explicitly said "no camping", it did, after "caution". Caution for what? I guess I didn't want to find out. So the sun was rapidly decending and about every 100 feet they have beware of moose, night danger signs so when I found a cheap looking motel I grabbed it. So here I am, internet and all.

Tomorrow I should definitely reach Thunder Bay and beyond towards Winnipeg. The weather report for Glacier has me worried. Banff will be cold but with night temps in the low 20s Glacier might not be doable formy rig. We'll see. It seems every night I feel worn out and beat but every morning I'm renewed in my quest so start taking bets on who wins over!