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In the 1960′s before I was drafted into the military, I would spend the summers with my father in Saginaw, Michigan. He knew Blacks in Windsor Ontario, and he would take me in search of Black history in Canada, across from Detroit, especially to  Chatham and Amherstburg. I learned things about the Blacks who escaped slavery in America on Harriet Tubman’s “Underground Railroad” for freedom in Canada that was not taught in school, and the life of Blacks in Canada. Of course he took me fishing in Ontario Canada. Sometime we would go across into Canada at Port Huron, Michigan to Sarnia, Ontario and follow Lake Huron to Sault Ste Marie, and back home through Mackinaw, or continue along Lake Superior to Thunder Bay to finally fish in Lake Nippon North of Thunder Bay. Sometimes he would go through Mackinaw to Sault Ste Marie to Thunder Bay. When he took the route to Thunder Bay from Sarnia, which appeared to be the long route, he would go through Barrie, Parry Sound and stop in Big Wood  to fish in Lake Nipissing, or  try his luck in the French River Provincial Park, then he would continue on to Sudbury, then on through Wawa, Marathon and to the final stop, Thunder Bay. I can truthfully say that the ride and sights were awesome. Fishing with my father was quite an experience. Fishing back in Mississippi was a RC cola with a moon pie, sitting on a stump on the bayou and dangling a string on a stick, with a safety-pin for a hook and a moonshine jug bottle cork for a bobber, and a worm or grasshopper for bait in the slow flowing muddy shallow water. On the humor side of things, sometimes I would take a can of peas and a baseball bat, sit on the bank of the creek, spread the peas on the water and wait until a fish come up to take a pea, and whack it in the head with the bat. With my father I had minnows, shiny spinner lures, all sort of fancy jigs, and a casting rod and reel. I was use to fishing in a pond or creek that I could spit across, and with my father I was fishing on some lakes that appeared to be as big as the Atlantic Ocean. It was tough getting the hang of casting out into the water without hooking myself, the person next to me, or a tree; I think I caught more trees than fish. I would say that there is not a lake, river, or stream with a possible fish between Sarnia and Thunder Bay that my father has not put a hook, feed the fish, or caught a fish in. Most of the times after fishing and driving for two weeks all my father had to show for our great fishing expedition was a flat wallet, frustration, a head ache, and big lies about the whopper that got away; or how he wrestled with a fish for two days to finally put it in to find to his amazement that it was a minnow. I tried to tell him that the best way or place to catch fish was at the fish market. When he did catch fish, he made a haul. The bottom line, if you can not catch fish in Ontario, you just can not fish, because the fishing is fantastic, more than words can say, and the big one seldom if ever get away. If you are a water lover and love yachting, and would like to boat on the open seas, the great lakes are all for you because they would be like boating on the open seas. In 1984 while deployed to Selfridge air national guard base near Detroit and to further deploy to Grand Forks  AFB near Grand Forks, North Dakota. I made a suggestion to several fellow Air National Guardsmen/Women that we buy a hoopdie, a clunker, a beater, an old car that was in fairly good shape, do some maintenance, such as oil change, new brakes, and new tires and drive over to Grand Forks through Canada and then sell the car and just may recoup our money. The plan was sound and five people bought into the idea. The plan was to follow the route that my father had taken years ago to Thunder Bay with a little twist, we would continue on to Winnipeg. We would start in Windsor, Ontario on the Canadian side of Lake Erie. We would spend an hour or so at Point Pelee National Park near Leamington to swim, sun burn, work on the tan, and play on the beach, then stop in Amherstburg at The North American Black Historical Museum Culture Center at 277 King Street. Our last stop before the big road trip would be Chatham because I wanted to tour some of the escaped African-Americans slave historic sites. From Chatham we would go West to Sarnia then North to Sudbury along Lake Huron to Sault Ste Marie to the confluence of Lake Huron and Lake Superior at Sault Ste Marie,  and west to Thunder Bay and Winnipeg, then South to Grand Forks, North Dakota. So we began, at first things went rather smoothly. Everyone was having a good time and enjoying themselves, got a little education, a slight tan, and a sun burn, but as the old saying goes; The best laid plans of mice and men go awry; one person in the car changed his mind and did not want to continue with the journey, so we dropped him off at the Greyhound bus station in Chatham so he could catch a bus back to Selfridge AFB and we continued on to Sarnia. However, because of continuing conflicts with the time, the route, the distant, who will drive, how long will they drive, how far they would drive, who would be in control of the keys, and what have you, another person wanted to drop out and take his fiancée, or a lady that he had designs on with him; but she vehemently said,”OH no baby, I am in this for the long haul”. Therefore, at Sarnia we went to Saginaw, Michigan to let him off at the Greyhound bus station for a ride back to Selfridge AFB and the rest of us spent the night at my father’s. Because I hadn’t talked with my father in a numbers of years, he was surprised to say the least to see me pull up in the drive way in a clunker with a white man and two white women. After a good home cooked meal and hearing my father talk about the areas that we had plans on going, everyone was more than ready to get on the road. The next morning after a hearty breakfast, to save time we went North in Michigan to Mackinaw City, and across the Mackinaw Bridge to Sault Ste Marie to the confluence of Lake Superior and Lake Huron, then up to Thunder Bay and Winnipeg along the Canadian side of Lake Superior; sad to say, we did not drive along Lake Huron nor make Barrie or Sudbury. However,We stopped in Thunder Bay where we found a hotel for the night. The next morning we were on our way to Winnipeg via Dryden, and Kenora.There were awesome sights and vistas along the way. We spent two days in Winnipeg, then we re-entered the United States at Pembina, North Dakota.The car made it to Grand Forks AFB just fine and we sold it for more than what we paid for it. I must say that the drive from Windsor or Sarnia to Thunder Bay or Winnipeg is not for the faint of heart and those in a hurry, but the drive is well worth taking. There is just too many things to see and do on this drive to be in a rush. If things are planned right and there are no on the road mishaps, you could conceivably spend the night in Barrie, Sudbury, Sault Ste Marie, and Thunder Bay on the way to Winnipeg. In closing let me give my usual travel book information:
Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and is located in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County Ontario, although administratively separated from the county government. Windsor is across the Detroit River and south of Detroit, Michigan in the United States, that’s right, it’s  the only major city in Canada where entering the United States actually requires traveling north!   Windsor is known as The City of Roses and residents are known as Windsorites. Prior to European exploration and settlement, the Windsor area was inhabited by the First Nations and Native American people. Windsor was settled by the French Canadians in 1749 as an agricultural settlement. It was the oldest continually inhabited European settlement in Canada west of Montreal. The area was first named Petite Côte (“Little Coast” – as opposed to the longer coastline on the Detroit side of the river). Later it was called La Côte de Misère (“Poverty Coast”) because of the sandy soils near LaSalle. Windsor’s Canadien heritage is reflected in many French street names, such as Ouellette, Pelissier, François, Pierre, Langlois, Marentette, and Lauzon. The current street system of Windsor (a grid with elongated blocks) reflects the Canadian method of agricultural land division, where the farms were long and narrow, fronting along the river.Today, the north-south street name often indicates the name of the family that at one time farmed the land. The street system of outlying areas is consistent with the British system for granting land concessions. There is a significant French-speaking minority in Windsor and the surrounding area, particularly in the Lakeshore, Tecumseh and LaSalle areas. In 1794, after the American Revolution, the settlement of “Sandwich” was founded. It was later renamed to Windsor, after the town in Berkshire, England.The Sandwich neighbourhood on Windsor’s west side is home to some of the oldest buildings in the city, including Mackenzie Hall, originally built as the Essex County Courthouse in 1855. Today, this building functions as a community centre. The oldest building in the city is the Duff-Baby House built-in 1792. It is owned by Ontario Heritage Trust and houses government offices. The François Baby House in downtown Windsor was built-in 1812 and houses Windsor’s Community Museum, dedicated to local history. The City of Windsor was the site of the Battle of Windsor during the Upper Canada Rebellion in 1837. It was also a part of the Patriot War, later that year. Windsor tourist attractions include Caesars Windsor, a lively downtown, Little Italy, the Art Gallery of Windsor, the Odette Sculpture Park,and Ojibway Park. Windsor was a major entry point into Canada for refugees from slavery via the Underground Railroad and a major source of liquor during American Prohibition.
Leamington is a Southern Ontario municipality in Essex County, and has a population of 31,113. It is located near Point Pelee. It has a large H. J. Heinz Company factory and is known as the “Tomato Capital of Canada”, with about 2 miles of this crop in the vicinity. It also lays claim to being the “Sun Parlour” of Canada due to its southern location. Leamington was incorporated as a village in 1876. It was a crossroads hamlet with about 300 residents and was known for its lumber products rather than its tomatoes. There were several docks, and fish were plentiful in Lake Erie, so much so that sturgeon could be speared from the shore and fish was the cheapest food available. Leamington once had many tobacco farms but now they are virtually nonexistent. In 1908 the H. J. Heinz company came to Leamington, bringing many jobs to the area and contributing to Leamington’s growth. In the early hours of Sunday, June 6, 2010, a F2 tornado ripped through portions of southern Essex County, stretching from Harrow, through Kingsville, to downtown Leamington before dissipating near Point Pelee National Park, creating considerable damage, but no loss of life.
Chatham-Kent is a city-status single-tier municipal government in Southern (Southwestern) Ontario, Canada. The municipality is mainly rural and agricultural, with industry in the larger urban areas. The former city of Chatham began as a naval dockyard in the 1790s, as it straddles the Thames River. The town was named after Chatham, Kent, England, which was also developed around a naval dockyard. In England, the name Chatham came from the British root ceto and the Old English ham thus meaning a forest settlement. Following the American Revolution and the Gnadenhutten Massacre, a group of Christian Munsee Indians settled in what is now Moraviantown. During the War of 1812, the Battle of the Thames took place between Moraviantown and Thamesville on October 5, 1813. During the 19th century, the area was part of the Underground Railroad. As a result, Chatham-Kent is now part of the African-Canadian Heritage Tour. Uncle Tom’s Cabin Historic Site is a museum of the Dawn Settlement,established in 1841 by Josiah Henson near Dresden as refuge for the many slaves who escaped to Canada from the United States John Brown, the abolitionist, planned his raid on the Harpers Ferry Virginia Arsenal in Chatham and recruited local men to participate in the raid. The small village of North Buxton, part of the African Canadian Heritage Tour, also played an important role in the Underground Railroad. Chatham Kent was a major part of the underground railroad and as such hosts the Buxton Homecoming each September. This celebrates the areas rich black culture and the roots laid by early black settlers in the Buxton area. Chatham Kent is also home to many historic buildings which are part of an annual ghost tour offered each year at Halloween. The participants go on a guided walk of downtown while the guide informs them of various ghost stories tied to the local buildings in which they pass. Chatham Kent plays host to so much paranormal activity, that numerous books have been published on it. Chatham Kent has many historic festivals throughout the year, such as the battle of Longwood’s reenactment, which takes place on labour Day. In 1998 the County of Kent and the city of Chatham became one city because they were amalgamated to form the new Municipality of Chatham-Kent, Orntario.
Sault Ste. Marie on the St. Marys River in Ontario, Canada. It is the third largest city in Northern Ontario, after Sudbury and Thunder Bay, with a population of 74,948 Residents of the city are called Saultites. With a mission established by French Jesuits in 1668, claiming of the area by Simon-François Daumont de Saint-Lusson, in the name of Louis XIV of France, and fur trading posts soon after, this was one of the oldest European settlements in Canada. Sault Ste. Marie is bordered to the east by the Rankin and Garden River First Nation reserves, and to the west by Prince Township. To the north, the city is bordered by an unincorporated portion of the Algoma District, which includes the local services boards of Aweres, Batchawana Bay, Goulais and District, Peace Tree and Searchmont. To the south, across the river, is the United States and the city of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. The two cities are joined by the International Bridge, which connects Interstate 75 on the Michigan side and Huron Street on the Ontario side. Shipping traffic in the Great Lakes system bypasses the Saint Mary’s Rapids via the American Soo Locks, the world’s busiest canal in terms of tonnage that passes through it, while smaller recreational and tour boats use the Canadian Sault Ste. Marie Canal. Sault Ste. Marie is the seat of the Algoma District. The city’s census agglomeration, consisting of the townships of Laird, Prince and Macdonald, Meredith and Aberdeen Additional and the First Nations reserves of Garden River and Rankin, had a total population of 80,098 in 2006.
Barrie is a city located on Kempenfelt Bay, an arm of Lake Simcoe in the central portion of Southern Ontario, Canada. Although geographically within Simcoe County, the municipality is politically separate. The city’s north and south ends are separated by a deep valley which contains the downtown area along Kempenfelt Bay (Lake Simcoe). It has a population of 128,430 residents making it the 35th largest city in Canada
Greater Sudbury was created in 2001 by merging the cities and towns of the former Regional Municipality of Sudbury, along with several previously unincorporated geographic townships. It is the largest city in the Northern Ontario region by population, and the 24th largest metropolitan area in Canada.  By land area, it is the largest city in Ontario, the seventh largest municipality by area in Canada and the largest municipality outside Quebec legally designated as a city. Greater Sudbury is one of only five cities in Ontario—the others are Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, and Kawartha Lakes—that constitute their own independent census divisions, and are not part of any district, county or regional municipality. It is also the only city in Ontario which has two official names; its name in French is Grand-Sudbury. Unlike designations such as Greater Toronto or Greater Montreal, the name “Greater Sudbury” refers to a single city, not a conurbation of independent municipalities. However, Sudbury is still the more common name for the city in everyday usage. The city’s Census Metropolitan Area consists of the city and the First Nations reserves of Whitefish Lake and Wahnapitae, and had a population of 158,258 in the 2006 census.  Statistics Canada estimates the Greater Sudbury CMA’s population as 165,322 as of 2009.  Informally, some residents of the area may also consider the metropolitan area to include the towns of Markstay-Warren, St. Charles and French River, a region commonly known as Sudbury East, as well as the outlying unincorporated communities of Estaire and Cartier.
The French River has a colorful past. For thousands of years before Europeans arrived, Aboriginal people used the river as a place to meet and exchange trade goods. Early French explorers and missionaries began traveling through the area in the early 1600s, leaving behind intriguing journal records about the river and the people who lived along its shores. Before Canada became a country, Voyageurs were paddling its waters – brigades of canoes portaged around rapids and waterfalls – transporting furs from Canada’s great Northwest to market in Montreal. Because of its historic significance, “the French” was designated a Canadian Heritage River in 1986. Flowing about 68 miles from Lake Nipissing to Georgian Bay, this waterway park has more than 230 interior campsites and offers a variety of water-based recreational activities in an outstanding natural setting.
Georgian Bay is a large bay of Lake Huron, located
in Ontario, Canada. The main body of the bay lies east of the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island. Georgian Bay is surrounded by (listed clockwise) Manitoulin District, Sudbury District, Parry Sound District, Muskoka District, Simcoe County, Grey County and Bruce County. The Main Channel separates the Bruce Peninsula from Manitoulin Island and connects Georgian Bay to the rest of Lake Huron. The North Channel of Lake Huron, located between Manitoulin Island and the Sudbury District, west of Killarney, was once a popular route for steamships and is now used by a variety of pleasure craft to travel to and from Georgian Bay. The shores and waterways of the Georgian Bay were, and are, the domain of the Anishinaabeg First Nations peoples to the North and Huron-Petun (Wyandot) to the south. The bay was thus a major Algonquian-Huron trade route. Samuel de Champlain, the first European to explore and map the area in 1615-1616, called it “La Mer douce” (the calm sea). It was named “Georgian Bay” (after King George IV) by Lieutenant Henry Wolsey Bayfield of the Royal Navy in 1822.
Parry Sound Hugging the shores of Georgian Bay (Lake Huron) is the world-renowned jewel of the 30,000 Islands of Georgian Bay. Located approximately 2 hours north of Toronto, and forty-five minutes away by air, Parry Sound is the commercial hub servicing a year-round population of 18,000 and a seasonal population of 60,000 plus. Parry Sound is rich in arts, culture and heritage. The Charles W. Stockey Centre for the Performing Arts and Bobby Orr Hall of Fame is home to the international chamber summer music festival, the Festival of the Sound. The Hall of Fame pays tribute to home-town hockey hero, Bobby Orr. If you are looking for an oustanding vacation destination or a really great place to live, you will find it all in Parry Sound.
Kenora originally named Rat Portage, is a small city situated on the Lake of the Woods in Northwestern Ontario, Canada, close to the Manitoba boundary, and about 124 mi east of Winnipeg. It is the seat of Kenora District. The town of Kenora was amalgamated with the towns of Keewatin and Jaffray Melick in 2000 to form the present-day City of Kenora. Kenora’s future site was in the territory of the Ojibway when the first European, Jacques De Noyon sighted Lake of the Woods in 1688. Pierre La Vérendrye established a secure French trading post, Fort St. Charles, to the south of present-day Kenora near the current Canada/U.S. border in 1732, and France maintained the post until 1763 when it lost the territory to the British in the Seven Years’ War — until then, it was the most northwesterly settlement of New France. In 1836 the Hudson’s Bay Company established a post on Old Fort Island, and in 1861, the Company opened a post on the mainland at Kenora’s current location. In 1878, the company surveyed lots for the permanent settlement of Rat Portage (“portage to the country of the muskrat”) — the community kept that name until 1905, when it was renamed to Kenora.
Winnipeg is the seventh-largest municipality in Canada, with a population of 633,451 in the Canada 2006 Census. Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Regional, with more than sixty percent of Manitoba’s population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers (a point now commonly known as The Forks). The name “Winnipeg” comes from the Cree for “muddy waters”. The Winnipeg area was a trading centre for Aboriginal people prior to the arrival of Europeans. The first fort was built there in 1738 by French traders. A settlement was later founded by the Selkirk settlers in 1812, the nucleus of which was incorporated as the City of Winnipeg in 1873. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Winnipeg was one of the fastest growing cities in North America. The University of Manitoba, founded during this period, is today the largest university in Manitoba. Winnipeg has a diversified economy, with sectors in finance, manufacturing, food and beverage production, culture, retail and tourism.
Travel light – preconception and prejudice are unnecessary luggage

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