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05/22/2007: "The 7th Quadrant"

Thunder Bay to Upsala - 100ish kms

It feels like we are getting closer to the Prairies. The road has flattened out, but there is still evergreen (planted) forest on either side of us. Fin is as happy as ever -- I haven't decided when I'll break the bad news about how I'm selling him at the end of the road. I guess I should just let him enjoy the ride.

We stopped in Upsula for a washroom break, and when I got back to the car, Nathan was gone! There was el ferrocarril right beside the highway, like usual, and I thought maybe Nathan was tiring of his company and wanting to become a solo bindle stiff (see page 111 of Earth To Nathan Blue). I was searching around when I heard Nathan shout, "It's Waldo the Killer Small-Shark!"

Sure enough, beside the Upsula gas station, there was a raised monument to a mythic fish that many an Upsulite had tried to catch. It was a hard to read the plaque below him, but you didn't really need to. All you had to do was look at the gilled and grilled fella (see photo).

"Super-slick!" Nathan announced, and when we got back into Fin, he started regaling us with his own version of the myth of Waldo, which included a battle between the Loch Ness Monster and Waldo, with Waldo coming out on top. I suggested to Nathan that he become the Talk Less Monster, but he would have none of it.

Upsala to Dryden - 250ish kms

Nathan was mid-way through his seventh version of the Waldo tale and we were coming around a bend in the road, when he went completely silent, and Fin, on his very own, slowed the car down. On the other side of the road, going the opposite way, was a bald man in a burnt orange robe . (As Nathan says, "No joke.") As we drove past the man, we saw his serene, contented face and his bare feet as he walked along!! Nathan wanted to stop, but Fin was in a groove, and I just thought the guy looked so peaceful; I wouldn't have known what to say to him.

Some time later, we saw a sign that said, "All rivers run north from this point on." Pretty cool. A few minutes later, another sign said, "You are now in Central Time Zone." Nathan nodded seriously and patted me on the back, "We've finally reached the 7th quadrant."

When we reached Ignace an hour later, I dropped another piece of Nathan in the return slot at Ignace Public Library. The Librarian Cheryle Potts had really wanted to meet him, but she and her fellow Ignacians were fishing and hunting for the long weekend. I noticed that Ignace had a 9-hole golf course, and it was a gorgeous day, so I decided to stop for a quick round.

Inside the clubhouse, Nathan and I were paying for our clubs and greens fees, when another golfer warned us about losing our golf balls in the woods "on account of the snakes and bears." I laughed, but the man's face went completely serious. He said, "No joke," and that's the last I saw of Nathan for the next couple of hours.

I didn't see any snakes and bears on the golf course, nor were there any birdies or eagles. The Terrifying Bogey, an invisible but deadly creature of golf green, reared its head (and heads!) and almost had me running for the car. On the 7th hole, it was a 4-headed hydra, laughing evilly at my swing, but I just ignored him (Never look a Bogey in the eye!) and played on.