August 31

 Saturday August 31st

Today was definitely a traveling day for seniors. Nothing like the Roadtrek days when Karl was up at 5 am and hauled me out of bed at 6 am to “get on the road”, lol!!


So we had a leisurely picnic breakfast in our room, finally using the toaster and egg cooker that was part of my scathingly brilliant idea to save money on restaurants.  It actually turned out great.  Our room was cozy with a table and chairs and a kettle that the girl in the office kindly gave us to make tea.  


I have to say that the scenery was beautiful with lots of small lakes and gorgeous views everywhere.  We only drove about 6 hours today, from Kenora toThunder Bay, but there were long stretches between towns.  I even saw signs that warned you to check your fuel (before passing a gas station) because the upcoming area is not well serviced.  


A lot of the names in Kenora and in fact most of the small towns were definitely indigenous.  


Not a lot of excitement.  We booked our hotel for tonight using “hotwire.ca” yesterday.  It looked simple, but our booking (which was paid on charge card - non refundable) disappeared without indicating the name of our hotel!!  I went to their website and managed to find a contact phone number (a miracle these days). The fellow who answered could not have been nicer and not only explained what had happened (the room was not available) but also booked another one for us and gave us a further discount for our inconvenience!


Our hotel for this evening turned out to be the Valhalla in Thunder Bay which is actually quite an expensive hotel.  Our room was $175 including taxes and fees (? fees) which is reasonable for any motel these days.  


After our experience with outrageous prices for supper last night, we thought we would check out the restaurant in the hotel for prices “before” we go.  The chicken dinner is $35 and even a pasta dish is $28. Nachos (a starter) are $22.  We will look elsewhere……


After careful research on both our parts and running it past Google, we decided to go to Joey’s Fish and Chips, only to find out when we were seated that a simple fish and chip dinner was $26 and another $3 if you wanted coleslaw with it, never mind a drink! Are we on another planet??? Sigh, for the first time ever for Karl (not so for me ), we got up, apologized, and left quietly.  So much for fast food!!


Across the street was a Chinese restaurant and how can you go wrong with them? We thought we’d just get something simple and call it a night.  The food was “okay” and the bill came up to $50 plus tip anyway…..  Sometimes you just can’t win.  When did restaurant prices go bonkers?


We’re back in our room and thinking about a swim. 

Nite all 

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