Maple Leaf Mailbag rock'N roadshow

We say our goodbyes to the sportsmen and drive back to North Bay to look for a hotel. The process of choosing a adequate place to sleep is somewhat simple. However, the results have varied throughout the trip. Price has become the determining factor in our decisions. With the pressures of the global financial meltdown fresh in our minds, we check into the Voyager Inn. In the evening the boys and I fraternize with the townfolk at a local speak-easy. What's the name of that street in Hollywood with all those retro clothing shops? Never mind. The good news is our contingent seems to have regained it's energy.

Started out in Sault Ste. Marie early this morning. Ontario takes considerable effort to drive across. The Endless Miles through Boreal forest lead us to a town named Callander on Lake Nipissing. If fishing is a sport, ice fishing is a spectacle. Hundreds of little huts stretch as far as the eye can see. Ski-doos race up and down the lake. Holes are drilled in the surface. Lines and lures are lowered to attract the evasive walleye. Then, the drinking starts. Good old boys spin yarns as they wait to land the big one. Scot, our host (and owner/operator of Glen Echo cottages), introduces us to a few of the expert anglers. We trade war stories over a couple cans of pil. Fishin' isn't necessarily about catching fish. It's about the ebb and flow of life, the dancing wheel of chance. We say our goodbyes to the sportsmen and drive back to North Bay to look for a hotel. The process of choosing a adequate place to sleep is somewhat simple. However, the results have varied throughout the trip. Price has become the determining factor in our decisions. With the pressures of the global financial meltdown fresh in our minds, we check into the Voyager Inn. In the evening the boys and I fraternize with the townfolk at a local speak-easy. What's the name of that street in Hollywood with all those retro clothing shops? Never mind. The good news is our contingent seems to have regained it's energy.

Not much to say about the drive, except that it's long. More movies, more chatting. Ian's onto this thing about art being totally useless, because we listened to the artist and inventor of "Cloaca", the poo-making machine on the radio. "I wanted to make a machine that is completely useless." Now Ian is convinced that Cloaca is the ultimate artistic statement, and wants to emulate it with our project. I suppose going ice-fishing but not catching any fish is sort of a useless activity. We're in Callendar by 3 pm, in time to meet Scott, our ice-fishing guide. Stay the night in a North Bay dive. The end is nigh.

( North Bay): Going ice-fishing, everybody is having fun on the lake...had some drinks with guys on a shack...We go out to a crowded bar where an awful band tries to play some Nirvana songs...