Day 143 of the relay, another chilly northern Ontario day. I was back driving the medal bearer shuttle with Kayla as the host. Our meeting point was at the Dryden High School. |
More inspritational school hallways |
One of the teachers at the school showed us a newspaper clipping from when Rick came through Dryden 25 years ago. |
It was a full house in the gymnasium for our presentation. |
So many students, the medal bearers had to grab a spot on the floor. |
Barn was in charge of the technical side of the presentation, a shot of Rick Hansen on his computer was the next picture up on the big screen in the gym. |
Outside, Jeremy and Marilyn fine tune the bikes for their medal bearer escort duties. So far they have been able to keep pedalling despite the weather. |
We had four school stops this morning, the kids showed their support outside of the St. Joseph Catholic school in Dryden. |
I love the effort the kids put in to make the signs to cheer on our team |
They were lined up the entire block |
Tyrone, medal bearer escort for the day, and Kris, the medal bearer nominated by Open Roads school in Dryden head towards the school. |
Not to be outdone, the Open Road students lined up, waiting the arrival of the Rick Hansen medal. |
It was pretty cold out, so we decided to get the medal bearers off of the shuttle bus to lead the students in our warm-up dance. |
One of the bigger employers in the town is this Domtar pulp mill |
The final medal bearer of the morning had a lot of people waiting for him at his insertion point. |
Aaron was the the school choice at the New Prospect school in Dryden. |
Here he comes with friends, peers and family in tow, making his way to the school. |
down the road towards...... |
Egli's sheep farm, wool, and sheepskin shop. |
This place was really interesting, the sheepskin is imported, apparently the sheep they have on the farm are for meat. |
Forget the cold, it was still a beautiful scene at the farm. |
The store had everything from sheepskins, to mittens, slippers, hats, clothing, socks, and on and on. |
Kayla bought some gloves and socks, my wallet stayed frozen in my pocket! |
Back to Dryden for our last of two nights in town. |
It was a good idea, we ended up having a little picnic in the breakfast area of the hotel. Nice change. |
Day 144, one more day on Shuttle 1, I could tell we were heading west, I could see sun rising in my side and rearview mirrors. |
Just outside of Vermilion Bay was this bigfoot statue, I remember this thing when we came through on the Olympic Torch relay. It even has it's own website here. |
Our first medal bearer meeting was at the Woodland Arena in Vermilion Bay. I was kind of surprised to see an arena in a town of only 1200 people. |
But, like in Ignace, a hockey dressing room makes a great place for a meeting. |
I had to take a picture of the garbage can, I think it has been hit with a couple of pucks and sticks over the years. |
Inside the arena was this autographed hockey stick that the town acquired from Bobby Hull, when he played for the Winnipeg Jets in the old World Hockey Association. |
Hanging out in the arena, a place I have always been comfortable in. |
Our endurance athlete Joey arrives on his hand cycle ready to hand the Rick Hansen 25th anniversary medal to the first medal bearer of the day, Shelly |
The medal transfer is complete |
There were only four medal bearers this morning, so they decided to walk together for their segments. |
A glimpse of Vermilion Bay in the background |
Yah, in a couple of years, I might just have to check this place out! |
Heading into Kenora, our last stop in Ontario, a province we crossed into on Oct. 26, 2011, almost 3 months ago. |
A lot of water around here, Kenora (originally known as Rat Portage) is on Lake of the Woods, an amazing body of water consisting of many islands and 65,000 miles of shoreline. |
Heading downtown towards our 2nd medal bearer meeting point at the Thistle Pavilion |
This was more of a information center and office, but we managed to accomadate everyone. |
Our end of day celebration was next door at the newly (sept. 2011) opened Winkler Harborfront park |
This was a super cozy briefing, but we still managed to find room to do the warm-up dance. |
Natalie, who was our 2 hour advance person (making sure everything is ready for our scheduled relay stops), was directing the convoy traffic into the McDonald's parking lot. |
And here it comes! |
After we dropped off our final medal bearer, we headed back for the end of day celebration. Outside of the pavilion, there was a plaque to honor the 1907 Kenora Thistles, who actually won the Stanley Cup. |
Another one of the places I need to get back to in the summer time. I was told the population triples at that time. |
End of day celebration in the new pavilion. I think the turn-out would of been better if it wasn't so cold out, minus 20 celsius with a wind chill. |
A rousing rendition of O Canada |
Day 144 Kenora medal bearers. |
Kayla has found a new friend. |
Lake of the Woods |
Our hotel for 3 nights, kinda looks like the building from the space age cartoon "the Jetsons" |
No comments:
Post a Comment