Zebulon Montgomery Pike Trail to the sources of the Mississippi 1805 — 1806

Day 35: September 14th, 2002 Sudbury — Owen Sound

Slowly I adjust to the new time zone. I am checking out around half past eight. I ask again for a decent breakfast restaurant. They recommend the Cardwill Motor Inn, which is a motel with a restaurant. I follow the way description and find it immediately.

The restaurant is pretty crowded. Maybe because it is a Saturday. But I receive a table without waiting. It takes some time until my server finally shows up. All in all the service does not really convince me here. There is one server who is really fast. But of course she does not serve my table. At least the breakfast is really great. I pay around a quarter past nine and drive over to the next gas station.

While filling up someone asks me where I am coming from. I answer “From Germany“, which really surprises them. When they saw my license plate they thought, that I am from Pennsylvania like they are. When I ask them from where they are, they answer “Pittsburgh”! What a surprise! They are from the town where I have my base station in the US. They are currently on their way to fishing with their boat.

Highway 69, ON

We say good bye and I drive on, now on Highway 69 South. The landscape is slowly changing. The rocky hills are getting less and give room for big planes, interrupted by some trees or little forests. Slowly this area reminds me of the US again.

The road takes me along the Georgian Bay along Lake Huron. However it is only possible to see the lake from some spots. Most of the time I drive through planes.

I–400, ON

Eventually I reach I–400. I follow this interstate in the area of Barrie. But I am not able to find the turnoff for Highway 26. I drive on and follow my nose and the approximate geographic direction. Unfortunately I have no GPS coordinates for this area. Otherwise it would be much easier. After I pass a small village I am suddenly on Highway 26. Looks like that was instinct!

Highway 26, ON

I follow the highway until Highway 26 turns north in Stayner. It’s still very early in the afternoon when I reach Collingwood. Therefore I decide to proceed further to Owen Sound. There is a Best Western which will be a nice ending of my trail for sure.

The temperatures are already back in the 90s. I cannot believe this. It seems like I have taken all my thick and warm shirts just in vain.

On my way to the motel I am afraid that I have missed a branch. But it is really quite a drive out of the city. It’s just past three when I arrive at the Best Western motel. But even then I don’t get a room on the first floor. At least I receive an AAA discount which saves me 10 percent.

Then I put my stuff in my room. The room is really luxury. This really looks like a nice ending. A restaurant with the same high class standard is within the motel. Hopefully they let me in the restaurant with my not anymore so clean Jeans.

But first I go through my video taping. Then I fill in my spare gas can, which I don’t need any more. After I have finished everything there is still a lot of time left to dinner. I check what might be on TV. There is a John Wayne movie starting right now, which gives me the chance to listen to the original voices.

The movie finishes just before eight. Now it’s a good dinner time and I walk over to the restaurant. There is almost no one present. Let’s see what the prices are around here. As expected they are more on the upper end. But thanks to the current exchange rate everything is still affordable for me. Only my outfit might not really be appropriate for here. Probably most people think that someone with a Jeans like that is not able to afford this dinner.

I order a good wine at my server. Here I have a chance to get the wine by glass and not by bottle. For dinner I order my usual steak. This is also excellent, which you almost expect for that price. When I am almost finished with my dinner I hear that some German tourists are taking the table behind me. Unfortunately these are really tourists in a negative sense. I hope I am able to hide my German accent when talking to my server, so they don’t recognize me as German.

But I am able to hide my accent pretty well. So I make my escape as a local. When I arrive at my room I watch the weather forecast. Tomorrow shall be some rain. But it will stay warm. Hopefully they don’t search through my whole truck tomorrow in the rain when I re–enter the US. Let’s see what happens there. But I am good in time which should also cover a longer time at the border crossing and still not being late at my friends in Detroit.