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05/28/2007: "Flat-as-a-pancake Prairies"

Omission:

Nathan reminded me that I failed to tell you about Mo from Chapters in Sault Ste. Marie. When we entered the store, Nathan took off to the Religion section to learn more about Buddhism and "why that follicle-less humanoid was walking without zapatos." I went to find a staff member so that I could sign some books, and I met Mo (see photo).

Mo and I went to get my books, and we got to talking. He asked about the trip and was only mildly impressed by the amount of hours I was driving each day. "My dad and I used to race in separate cars from here to Toronto," he said. "And we did it in around 12 hours. He often beat me because of a secret short-cut along a logging road."

Now, I know Nathan says that his brother, the Twerp, has ears the size of Smash Derbie Wheels, but in truth Nathan's the real "Dumbo" of the family. Before I knew it, Nathan was standing beside Mo, tugging at his sleeve, asking about the secret short-cut, how we could have missed it and how he suspected that I had been going the wrong way all along.

Dryden to Winnipeg - 400ish kms

Needless to say, for the rest of the drive in Ontario, Nathan had suddenly become an expert on secret short-cuts, discovering them at every logging road, turn-off and driveway along the highway. Luckily for me and Fin, just before the Manitoba border, something on the road finally got Nathan off track.

The car ahead of us suddenly slowed down and pulled to the side of the road. He did so because a young moose was crossing the highway (see photo). I scrambled for my camera, as Nathan did play-by-play. "The moose has stopped. It's turning toward us. It's serious-staring us down. It's going to charge us."

It was true, sort of. Just before I took the picture, the moose was sizing us up, and indeed looked like he might run us down. Anyway, he didn't and we were thrilled to finally get a moose on camera.

When the three of us finally hit the flat-as-a-pancake prairies, Nathan was flabbergasted. "The sky just grew 10 trillion times bigger," and Fin purred softly, "This is the rrrrroad of my dreamssss."

In Winnipeg, we stayed with Dr. Jenkinson, a super-nice guy and an expert on books for young people. While I talked and talked and talked with Dr. J about books, books and more books, Nathan played with Syrus, their babylion, and had staring contests with their two cockatiel wing-floaters.

The next day, it rained buckets while I made my first big entry on this site and then visited McNally Robinson bookstore to sign more copies of my books. When we got back to Dr. J's in the afternoon, he smiled at us and stated, "Some weather," and Nathan replied glumly, "Yeah, it blogged all stinking day!"