Passenger Princess Log, Day 13, North Bay, Ontario to Munising, Michigan

An even higher number of miles. I think somewhere around 5,500 🙂

Today was an experiment. We left the hotel without a plan, a reservation, or even a set destination. We knew the direction to head and the approximate number of hours we wanted to ride; the rest was left to chance.

Chance turned out to be an excellent tour guide.

The first surprise happened before we had even left North Bay. Our dorm room hotel didn’t have breakfast, so we headed for a McDonald’s. I expected my old standby, not the glory that is the BLT Egg McMuffin. The egg still had a runny yolk, the tomato tasted like a tomato, and the bacon was crisp. America, take note.

One day I go missing just to show up in Canada for this sandwich

We rolled into  Sudbury, Ontario, expecting little more than a fuel stop. Instead, we found ourselves exploring the town to find Alex Trebek’s high school, the world’s largest nickel, and film sites from the shows Letterkenny and Shorsey.

Sudbury Secondary School must have a rigorous curriculum

The world’s largest coin, the nickel

MoDean’s Bar and the hockey rink that were used as sets in the shows Letterkenny and Shorsey

We were surrounded by lakes and rivers, but the roads were lined with trees, so I was getting a little bored. I was just about to pull out my book when I spotted a horse and wagon racing along the highway.

They were moving right along

We soon came upon a sign that declared the upcoming Echo Bay as home of the Loonie. The town erected a roadside display of the world’s largest dollar coin to honor village resident, Robert R. Carmichael, wildlife artist and creator of the distinctive design on the coin.

While the nickel was bigger, this is worth 20 times as much 🙂

Apparently giant coins were the theme for the day, but we weren’t done with world records. 

As the day went on, one spontaneous decision led to another, and we found ourselves crossing back into the U.S., destined for Munising, Michigan, on the shores of Lake Superior.

We haven’t had much time for tourist activities, so we splurged on a sunset cruise along the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. With a couple of hours before boarding, we wandered the waterfront, found a food truck serving freshly caught whitefish and chips, posed with the local bigfoot, and settled into a local pub for a Michigan beer.

Today was a good day for the belly

I’ve been chasing bigfoot for years, but he finally caught me instead

The shoreline from the water was spectacular. The weather was just a little chilly, so we cuddled closer and laughed at the guide’s dad jokes in between snapping pictures of multicolored cliffs, arches, and waterfalls.

I felt sorry for the hikers we could see on the shore in the distance–they had put in the work but didn’t get the views

As the sun dipped past the horizon, we captured a quick selfie with just our noses peeking out of our hoods and congratulated ourselves on a day well done.

We hadn’t planned breakfast. 

We hadn’t planned Sudbury. 

We hadn’t planned the world’s largest coins. 

We certainly hadn’t planned ending the day with a sunset over Lake Superior.

Sometimes no plan is the best plan.