Northwest Ontario Eastbound Part 2

We left White Lake continuing east towards Sault Ste. Marie, we would stop at White River to visit a monument to Winnie the Pooh.

This link is to the Northern Ontario Travel site: https://www.ontariotravel.net/en/listing/Winnie-the-Pooh-Statue/38455

Origin: A. A. Milne named the character Winnie-the-Pooh after a teddy bear owned by his son, Christopher Robin Milne, on whom the character Christopher Robin was based. The rest of Christopher Milne’s toys – Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo, and Tigger – were incorporated into Milne’s stories. Two more characters, Owl and Rabbit, were created by Milne’s imagination, while Gopher was added to the Disney version. Christopher Robin’s toy bear is on display at the Main Branch of the New York Public Library in New York City.

Harry Colebourn and Winnie, 1914

Christopher Milne had named his toy bear after Winnie, a Canadian black bear he often saw at London Zoo, and Pooh, a swan they had encountered while on holiday. The bear cub was purchased from a hunter for C$20 by Canadian Lieutenant Harry Colebourn in White River, Ontario, while en route to England during the First World War. He named the bear Winnie after his adopted hometown in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Winnie was surreptitiously brought to England with her owner, and gained unofficial recognition as Fort Garry Horse regimental mascot. Colebourn left Winnie at the London Zoo while he and his unit were in France; after the war she was officially donated to the zoo, as she had become a much-loved attraction there. Pooh the swan appears as a character in its own right in When We Were Very Young.

Statue in Winnipeg of Harry Colebourn and Winnie

(Wikipedia).

From here our next destination was Wawa, we needed to stock up on groceries before continuing to our Sault Ste. Marie for the evening.

Wawa has some history of its own in mining and the fur trade, it also has a large Goose Sculpture.

Wawa had some interesting people in the past, these are just a sample.

After our visit to Wawa we continued straight to Sault Ste. Marie, there was not much to stop and visit on this stretch to the highway, but there were lots and lots of trees with some nice glimpses of the lake and some small communities along the way. It was around 8pm when we arrived, therefore we headed over to the local Walmart to spend the night with a few other travellers who were already there.

Next day we found a local restaurant for breakfast. One of the signature dishes was Whitefish Eggs Benedict, this is what Stew ordered while Cat had a breakfast bowl. From here we went to visit the locks between Lake Superior and Lake Huron.

Sault Ste. Marie has a few interesting statues along the waterfront park.

We stumbled upon a brewery just behind the Bushplane Museum, where we  sampled a couple of their products, from here we strolled back to our home on wheels, stopping to have some dinner along the way.

Next: Southwest Ontario

 

1 thought on “Northwest Ontario Eastbound Part 2”

  1. When i was in my 20’s I crossed Canada by car a half dozen times. Wawa was one place the hitch hikers did not want to get let off as a person could be stuck in Wawa for days. Fortunately I was driving so i had the pleasure of picking up a couple there once and heard the horror story’s of being dropped of in Wawa. Lots of history, enjoyed all that info on very colourfull people.

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