Day 2: February 15, 2001

Good weather greeted us this morning as we awoke in Rouyn-Noranda. All the vehicles started just fine, despite the -25 C temperature, thanks to block warmers. Our troubles getting all the photos sent to Ho the night before were ended with a few minutes’ more time on the computer, after which we packed and headed out to the next stop – Amos. As a quick diversion, we stopped by the town’s snow sculpture exhibit.

I suppose that people with so much snow around them feel the need to do something with it besides make simple snowmen.

Naturally, our Canadian friends needed a stop at the Tim Hortons for doughnuts and coffee (we Yanks still don’t get it) before the drive. In deference to Cindy, we left in the wrong direction against her good judgment and had to turn around and head back to restart the journey.

The trip to Amos was rather uneventful, except to say that is was a bright, beautiful day with barely a cloud in the sky. Although the locals and others have said this is an unusually dry season, all we Americans see are massive piles of snow everywhere, covering everything, and no likelihood of them melting any time soon.

We came upon the small petrol station in Amos like vultures on a carcass. After filling up each truck, we took all the jerry cans down from the roof racks and filled them, too.

Sniffing the gas fumes got our stomachs grumbling, so we headed off to lunch.

Amos’ main landmark is a gigantic cathedral,

St. Therese d’Avila, which drew our attention after eating. The group spent a few minutes looking at the stained glass and architecture, and hit the road again.

We drove a few hours through a gorgeous pine forest with only a few locals and "gros christ de" logging trucks for company.

As sunset approached, it was agreed after some discussion over the CBs that we stop for some photos. Little did we know what extra fun lay in store for us, thanks to Mickey. He was in the lead, so it was up to him to pick a spot of high ground in order to get good shots. He decided to park creatively, as it were,

in a high bank of snow alongside the road, burying the truck past the headlights. Once we had "oohed" and "ahhed" at the view and took our pictures, we had to extricate Mickey, which took some doing.

It wasn’t long before we arrived at the last stop for the day, Matagami. It is a small logging town, but despite its name, it’s not on a reservation. It has several hotels, but we chose the one with the big party. We ate our dinner to the thumpa-thumpa of a band playing next door in the bar and retired to Michel and Cindy’s room to get this page written by T.J., who is quite obviously taking way too long because everyone else is complaining that it’s turning into a novel…

au revoir…