Goodbye Stars & Stripes, Hello Maple Leaf


After three very short days, we have assimilated into a very lively group. Everyone we've met has been very nice; many veteran travelers, rallyers, and/or caravanners and yet none has been condescending to 'rookies'. This is a relief, but they don't know us.

Highlights included the opening banquet (Studebaker's in the Soo) which was much like Saturday Night Live for the elderly. Heckling from the audience is not only tolerated, but seems to be encouraged. Our leaders, the Rich and Kathy Griffin, Dave and Carole Keller Show (picture Lucy and Desi, Fred and Ethel Mertz) are competent, covered with road leather, and resilient.



A trip the following day, via the ferry Hiawatha , yielded an X photo, formed by the stream of pennants in the wind and a skyward overhead crane of the Algoma Steel company, the first move in a tic-tac-toe game through the famed locks. ---------->>>



Later in the afternoon, we were privleged to join Jim and Liz Sullivan, Dave and Kathy Carlig, all Chicago area residents, for an entertaining lunch at the Antlers Restaurant, a Soo tradition and notable saloon that features the largest collection of deceased stuffed animal parts in the U.P. This must be the dream internship for any taxidermy student working on a PhD in animal autopsy. Combined with the legendary bells, sirens, and whistles, the Antlers rocks. Here, a polar bear expresses a silent opinion as he welcomes the girls to the restroom.

Late afternoon Lynn and I hosted the first GAM meeting. This is not the slang term referring to the legs of beautiful women, but an acronym for get acquainted meeting, in airstreamspeak, the happy hour. Good fun, the Smiths from Wakefield, Oh., the Tagues from Ponca City, OK, the Tills from Oxford, Pa. and our old friends from the antlers, The Sullivans.

In the early evening, the first meeting of the journal staff convened. Attending, Fran Perrucci, Brenda Cribbs, Doris Jean & Chuck Cabalka, Bonnie MacDonald joined Lynn and me. Fran and Brenda are veteran journalists, Bonnie a grammarian, editor, champion speller, and the Cabalkas advanced computer IT experts, so they appointed me chairman. They will do all the grunt work and my responsibility will be to take the credit. Lynn was assigned to keep me awake during the meetings. This group has real chemistry, from day one.



Clockwise from the left; Chas, Fran, Brenda,
Chuck, Doris Jean, and Bonnie.

Photo credit: Lynn



Tomorrow we enter Canada across the International Bridge (no guns, potatoes, firewood, or blueberries allowed), destination, Sudbury, Ontario in 189 miles.