I usually have a good idea of what I can handle but by late Thursday, I had to admit I had overplayed my hand. The events of the day certainly had something to do with it. After leaving Thunder Bay, I made good progress, with one stop to dry out the kayak and my wading gear while I took a nap. When I reached Ignace, things started to go wrong. There had been a traffic fatality further up 17 and the road was closed. The locals said it could be closed for many hours and one suggested that I take an alternate northern route that would bring me through Silver Dollar and Sioux Lookout. That made sense so I started up 599 and to my surprise I spotted Golf Course Road. I turned down it and found a 9 hole course that was raw but playable. After finishing there (again, beating 50), I drove toward Silver Dollar and realized that there was no way I was going to reach Kenora until dark, and that would have required driving straight through. I would miss the Palace and just have time to unpack and go to bed. 599 was a winding road but it didn’t stop people from driving very fast and one car had to swerve to miss hitting me. That was wearing and by the time I got to the phone booth in Silver Dollar—essentially the main feature of the place—I didn’t want to drive much more. I called and cancelled my Super 8 reservation in Kenora, and began to drive toward Sioux Lookout, expecting it to be little more than an intersection. I was very tired but I couldn’t decide to stop for a nap so finally I arrived in Sioux Lookout and found it a decent little town with a Robin’s Donuts shop and several motels and restaurants. I got some info at the visitor’s center and got a room in a slightly shabby but clean and relatively inexpensive motel. I dropped off for a long nap, felt relatively good and went for a walk and then fished a bit from the pedestrian bridge. I had a light dinner at a local eatery and returned to my room at 10:30. Though I was pretty tired, I got on the internet and found that the Super 8 was full for tomorrow, and that the only other places were in the 130 range. In the past when the Canadian dollar was a lot less than the American, 130 wasn’t that alarming, but with Canadian money almost at par, 130 was a huge chunk of my 170 dollar daily budget. Next I found that there were no rooms available in for Friday in Winnipeg for less than 170 (at least at the ten or so chains I checked) so now that was going to destroy my budget. Rooms have been between 90 and 100, and though I have stayed within budget so far, it looked like rooms in Canada were going to be a big expense.
Now I wondered what I really wanted to do. I was tired of driving, particularly on the back roads, and I began to think of cutting the trip back, perhaps just reaching the Big Horns and then Colorado and returning home. Driving out to California to see my friends meant a lot more time on the road and I wasn’t sure I wanted to do so much more. I was also feeling somewhat isolated and lonely, so that made things worse. I knew I wouldn’t sleep well and I didn’t.
Up at 5:30 I headed off to the coffee shop, and looked at my alternatives. I could keep on to Winnipeg and then go south back into the states. I could drive to Denver and take a train to California. I could head straight to Spearfish and then do the Big Horns and then figure out what to do.
When I got back to the room I called Amtrak and found out that they didn’t have anything but coach on the days I wanted, so that plan was out. Kenora and Winnipeg weren’t crucial so I settled on getting back to the US and heading for Spearfish, which would only be 925 miles and would get me to the West. I could be in the US by this afternoon and that sounded like a good plan, especially since my phone will definitely start working once I get across the border.