Day 4 - Wawa, Ontario to Thunder Bay, Ontario

Well, it just doesn't seem to be one of our trips without some rain. We began the day by checking the weather online and watching this large patch of rain going across Lake Superior on the satellite map. We assumed that we would be getting wet at some point today and we were right. We popped in to downtown Wawa for some breakfast and a picture of the big goose (yep, Aunt Patti, it's still there!). Then we headed on down the road to see what was in store for us. We made it almost half way, to Marathon, when it just started misting. We decided to stop for some lunch and wait out the clouds for a bit. After all, the satellite map made it look like it was maybe an hour or two before it would pass. So we ate...then we waited....and waited a little more because it kept raining. I didn't have any service on my blackberry and there was no wi-fi in the area so we couldn't check the weather maps. We wandered over to a small strip mall to see what was in there while we waited. The local newspaper had an office (two desks) in the mall so I popped in and asked the woman there if she would mind checking the weather for us. She kindly obliged and it looked like the cloud was just over us, inching it's way past. We knew we'd have to don our rain suits and I remembered the last time I rode in the pouring rain and my gloves were like sponges. So I went in to the grocery store in the mall and bought some lovely blue, rubber dish gloves to wear. Um, the guys were laughing at me quite a bit and I think all the bikers I waved at on the road probably wondered what the heck I was wearing too :) After waiting almost two hours for the rain to clear, it actually started raining harder so we decided to just boogie down the road and see if we could clear it. On went our rain suits and off we went. Once out of Marathon, we only had about 20 minutes or so of heavy rain and then it dried up. It was still foggy, very windy and quite cold for the rest of the drive though. We stopped at a couple of viewpoints for breaks (and to warm up) and boy, Lake Superior was really choppy and stormy looking. It made me think about all the shipwrecks out there on these lakes. Yikes! So aside from the chilly and damp weather, the ride to Thunder Bay was outstanding. Beautiful scenery, the road curving in and out of the rocky bluffs with fabulous Lake Superior views coming and going as the road wound around the coast line. We made it to our motel around 8pm and ordered pizza delivered to our room. After a cold day of riding we didn't feel like going back out. Now the fog has rolled in off the lake and visibility is low. Tomorrow's forecast looks pretty good for our ride down through Minnesota, no rain and Duluth is saying low 80's. That sounds nice after today.
You can click here for pictures from today. There aren't a lot of them due to the weather.
Tomorrow night we stay at a friend's cabin and we're pretty sure there isn't going to be wi-fi there, so we might not be posting again on our normal schedule. We'll check in again when we can.