Thunder Bay is a wonderful city. On our way in, we rode 20km along Lakeshore Drive, passing well kept homes that look across Lake Superior to the Sleeping Giant. We met three cyclists riding in our direction, and we got talking happily. They happened to know Frank, our Warm Showers host in Thunder Bay, and in fact one of them would do a Round-Lake-Superior tour with Frank this summer.

Outside Thunder Bay's international hostel. Ian's pointing to the Vancouver one.

When we arrived at Frank's house, he was not home. Following his instructions, we let ourselves in, but felt rather awkward about it; so we waited in his backyard until Frank arrived on his bicycle minutes later. My first impression agrees with what I've come to expect from Warm Showers hosts: they are awesome. Frank was so excited to meet us and welcome us to Thunder Bay and to his home. His friend Jackie came by, and we all went grocery shopping, but had a hard time figuring out what we were buying, as we spent most of the time in the store wandering around madly talking. It was exciting. And "when the wind blows through Frank's] hair a certain way", he gets excited. About fruit salad, for instance. In the end, we cooked a delicious chicken curry with basmati rice and naan, a walnut and cranberry salad with blue cheese, and a fruit salad with the whole of a pineapple. It turns out Frank is also an amazing harmonica player, and had a gig with his friend Caleb that night at a local bar. We were going to show up at 10:00, but we talked with Jackie for so long that we almost missed it! The show was great, and Frank bought us some rounds as the following show (Tom Savage Trio) rocked out. It was an enormous change of pace from our quiet nights spent reading books inside a tent in the wilderness. When I began this trip, I had thought about avoiding the loud and commercial parts of civilization, to get closer to Nature. I'd also dreamed of declining any rides in fossil fuel driven vehicles, to make my summer wholly human powered. (This venture failed when we took the ferry to Manitoulin Island, but then failed again in Sault Ste. Marie when Doug drove us to his wind generators, and around the city.) That neither of these plans are happening is good, because for them to happen I would have to decline a great deal of hospitality, and that hospitality has been one of the best parts of the trip.

Frank is a bit shorter then us.

After the show, we returned to Frank's house and talked into the night. I asked Frank a tough question: how are you able to give so much of yourself for so long, without feeling weakened by it. His answer led us to many stories of his world tour and hospitality he had received and to philosophical musings about cyclists. I think Frank can give so much of himself because it gives him great pleasure to do so, and he is always genuinely excited by it. That's something to remember.

The next day, we woke and cooked up the eggs that Frank had bought for us. I spent a few hours reading through two cycle touring books, getting more information for the prairie and western coast sections of our trip. The day was fairly uneventful, which Ian and I happily used to relax and rebuild our overworked muscles. Frank was out doing a big group ride, so we cooked a quick pasta and then walked to the theatre to watch the new Star Trek movie. (And at that moment, my dream of avoiding the commercial side of society and being closer to Nature was utterly crushed. But willingly so.)

Thunder Bay has been a great experience. I love the feel of this city. Perhaps part of that is that the sunset after 10pm was gorgeous. Tomorrow we begin the long haul through unknown territory to Kenora. I don't know what we'll see, or how much food we'll be able to get, so I am a little nervous. We do, after all, eat lots of food.