Smooth sailing

I'm in Wiky tonight. Dolly and I had originally planned to spend the night in the Soo and then go to Wiky tomorrow. But last night's snowstorm changed our plans.

We might have still spent the night in the Soo if we had decided to, but Dolly and I decided I should go ahead and proceed to Wiky today. Dolly called this morning about 7:30 saying she didn't have a ride to Espanola to catch the Greyhound. We agreed that we would visit by phone later this morning and discuss our plans further. In the meantime, i checked Ontario road conditions throughout the morning and ultimately decided it was safe to head for Wiky. I called Dolly from the Husky on 17 East and we decided to spend the day in Wiky instead. Otherwise Dolly would have caught a later bus and then made it to the Soo by about 11:30.

It would have been nice to hang out in the Soo overnight, but I"m happy things have worked out the way we did. We both had a great time in Wiky and Rabbit Island tonight. And Dolly's time at Rabbit Island was profitable, too.

With my delicious Husky 2X2 (two eggs, two slices of bacon, and two sausages) finished, I left Sault Ste. Marie a little after 11. In spite of all the snow that fell last night, the roads were already mostly clean and visibility was good. The roads were still wet and temps hovered around freezing. But the roads weren't slick in my experience. They were kind of slushy when I arrived on Manitoulin Island, but they were otherwise good to go.

I only made a couple of stops between the Soo and Wikwemikong. One stop was planned and the other stop was unplanned. The planned stop was when I pulled into the Tim Horton's at Blind River to use the washroom and then call Dolly and update her on my progress. My unplanned stop occurred just before I reached Blind River. An Ontario Provincial Police officer nailed me for speeding. She wasn't the most friendly officer I've dealt with, but she as nice enough to give me a little bit of a break. I don't like the fact that she kept me on the side of the road for close to 20 minutes, but things could have been worse. The ticket is $95, and I'm going to try to take care of that in Espanola before I head back to South Dakota. Otherwise I'll write a check and pay the ticket when I get back to South Dakota.

I arrived in Wiky around 3 local time, and it felt good to be off the road. I didn't feel especially tired when I pulled up to Dolly's door, but it's good to not have to drive so far for a while. Dolly was working at her dining room table when I arrived, and we hung out for a bit and visited and caught up before she fixed a delicious taco salad for supper. In the meantime, we made plans to head up to Rabbit Island to play Pokeno and even got in a few rounds of Guitar Hero II.

There were already lots of family members at Dolly's dad's place by the time we arrived. Once the game was in full swing, there were probably a dozen of us playing. Each of us vied to get a Pokeno, which would award whoever won the big pot.

I don't know the origins of the game, but I do know that Pokeno is a variant of bingo that uses "bingo" cards with playing cards on then rather than numbers and letters. But beyond that the game works much the same way as bingo.

All of us played for roughly an hour and a half after Dolly and I arrived. Dolly won a few bingoes and so did I. But during the final around, Dolly ended up winning the Pokeno. And her jackpot was $129. I'm really happy Dolly won. Usually her dad ends up winning the pot, but not tonight. Dolly doesn't know yet what she plans to do with the money, but I'm sure she'll put it to good use. Dolly and I retreated back to her house not long after the final round. We had expected Tara to stop by to pick up a DVD I have for her, but she never showed.

It's getting late now, and it's been a really good, fun day. I don't feel all that tired right now, but I'm about ready to lie down for the night and recharge my batteries for the coming day. This is going to be another great visit to Wiky; I just know it.