(Mark) After a brutal month or so of work, car breakdown, house & garden maintenance and various annoying health problems the drive in Enosh’s large F-150 super crew cab to Minneapolis. Everyone at Jim & Susan’s: Nate, Kos, J&S, Nicci & Tyler (and their dogs Quinn & Archer), Katie, Matt and 1 year-old Jack.
(Jim) Fun night last night. Katie, Matt and Jack came over along with Nicci, Tyler and the dogs. Lots of great food- pulled pork, potato salad, watermelon, salad and very tasty muffins featuring Jack’s unhappy birthday decorations.
Lots of fun for the girls to see everybody and for them to finally meet Matt. Had some great beverages including Nate’s ceremonial top shelf cognac that will keep on giving during our canoe trip.
Up early this morning. I made pancakes and sausage for breakfast and surprisingly quickly we were packed and on the road. After Mark’s car died, Enosh was nice enough to loan us his big crew cab pickup truck with topper.
There is plenty of room in the cab for everybody and just enough room in the back for all of our gear. It only took us two stops to finally get out of town.
Enosh is proud of his truck and encouraged Nate to “step on it” to see what the mighty V-8 could do. Although Nate was reluctant to speed, we had to try it lest Enosh call us names.
It’s a 6+ hour drive. We listened to satellite radio all the way. Nate and Kos were in charge so we heard a great, eclectic mix. After a ska song, Mark commented that, "Ska music is what you get when you give a 13-year-olds a bag of jelly donuts". Nate followed with, "Ska music is what plays in the head of an 11-year-old when they get mozzarella sticks for dinner".
We stopped for lunch in Virginia. Mark insisted that we eat at the Village Inn, but past experiences led us to explore other options before committing. We did a quick look at a couple of places before declaring that, yes, Mark was correct. Village Inn has always been a pancake house to me, but they had a pretty expansive menu. The place was packed at 11:30 am with lots of cotton tops out for a bargain meal. We all ordered sandwiches which came with fries.
Chowing down at Village Inn
Village Inn is also famous for its pie. I was so full after eating that I got a piece of cherry to go. When it came time to pay, Mark whipped out a yellowing $10 off card that he had gotten the last time he ate here several decades ago. The waitress wasn’t sure what to do with it and after a five-minute consultation with the staff, reluctantly accepted it.
Cherry pie and discount cards make everyone happy.
One of the things that Minnesota is famous for, like a lot of tourist meccas, is their roadside attractions. This includes the giant sunny in Orr, MN. We had to stop.
We reached Atikokan around 5:30 and went directly to Canoe Canada, our outfitter. We prepaid and made final arrangements for a dropoff the next morning.
Then we checked in at the White Otter Inn. It’s a classic 60’s motor inn but it is starting to show its age.
The lobby wasn't exactly inviting...
The White Otter welcoming committee.
Mark remembers it as having been pretty fancy but not so much anymore. It, like the town, looks pretty rough. Atikokan was a big iron ore mining town back in the day but when the mine closed in the early 70’s, the town went downhill rapidly. From a peak population of 9000, the town now numbers less than 2000. There are only three restaurants in town and two of them are open only occasionally. There is one grocery store, one gas station, a government “beer store” and not much else.
When you know that you are in the Great White North. A pine moth on our hotel door.
The motel was clean and comfortable though, so it was fine. We then set out to find some dinner. Our only option this Sunday night was the Outdoorsman Cafe. It’s a pizzeria/pasta place. Being the only restaurant open, it was packed with locals and canoeists. The staff was overwhelmed and a very harried waitress warned us that our order might take a little while longer than usual. She wasn’t kidding. Mark and Nate ordered beers and they took 20 minutes to get. 20 minutes later she took our order. After waiting all of this time, I decided to get myself a beer.so I approached a kitchen workers who promptly told me to be patient which is Canadian for "leave me alone".
As we were waiting for our order, Nate spotted a photo on the wall of an old-time, super pumped weight lifter. He wondered if maybe that was the owner from a long time ago. This was too good to be true. So I asked the owner who looked harassed and busy if I could take his picture next to the original. He snapped, "You'd better make it quick!”. And I was ready.
In 
his Back in his body building days he was known as “Steve the Greek”, and when he finally delivered our pizza, it became obvious that he was authentic. “Here’s your pizza” he said with a thick Greek accent. We got an extra large and it was way more than we could eat so we divvied it up to eat in the morning. After we got back to the motel, I decided to walk off a little of the load. We packed and repacked all of our stuff we so could get an early start in the morning.
