{"id":317,"date":"2015-06-06T22:51:50","date_gmt":"2015-06-07T02:51:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/?p=317"},"modified":"2015-06-08T19:28:39","modified_gmt":"2015-06-08T23:28:39","slug":"day-5-dan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/?p=317","title":{"rendered":"Day 5 (June 5): Dan"},"content":{"rendered":"
Thunder Bay, ON<\/div>\n
1,770 km<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Last night I stayed at the The Twilight Resort, at Montreal River Harbour on the South End of Superior Provincial Park.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
It’s cold this early morning — 12 degrees; like Fall or early Spring<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Dan somehow manages to be aloof and matter-of-fact at the same time through eyes that pierce through wire-framed specs resting on his nose. He listens and thinks before speaking; and, when he does, the words flow slowly and precisely through a long, grey beard and moustache.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Dan is the proprietor of the Twilight; and he’s opened the cafe \/ chip wagon for me so I could get a cup of joe before hitting the road this early morning. We chat about him, the North and his pig roaster as I sip the eye-opening brew.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Originally from Southern Ontario, Dan lives in Sault Ste. Marie — “It’s 3-1\/2 hours to anything,” he muses — in the winter and runs The Twilight in the summer these days.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Taking another sip, I stare out at the road and confide in Dan that I am blown away by the fact that I’m still in Ontario after almost a week.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“I get that a lot,” he chuckles. “Especially from cyclists. The ones coming from the West say it took them a couple of days to cross a the prairies; and they’ve been in Ontario for days.”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I ask him about the oil-tank-pulley contraption sitting in the yard just outside the cafe.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
He straightens and beams with pride. “It’s a pig roaster,” he tells me. “Made it for my daughter’s<\/p>\n
\"The<\/a>

The Pagan Pig<\/p><\/div>\n

wedding from stuff we found in a junkyard. It has parts from an old washing machine… there’s part of a snow blower… handle’s from a refridgerator…” Opening my eyes a little wider (it’s still early), I take a good look and appreciate the beauty in something created from bits and pieces that were designed for something else altogether; a bit like a Salvador Dali work. In both cases, the rules of “proper” and “correct” have been thrown out the window to produce a pleasing result. This kind of thought takes courage. He has a right to be proud.<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Gulping the last of the coffee from the Styrofoam cup, I shake Dan’s hand and say goodbye. Getting on my bike, I suddenly remember I didn’t pay him. I dismount and run back into the chip wagon.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“I just realized, I forgot to pay you,” I say.\u200e<\/div>\n
“Don’t worry about it,” says Dan with a grin. “I forgot too.”\u200e<\/div>\n
\u200e<\/div>\n
Welcome to The North Country.<\/div>\n
\u200e<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thunder Bay, ON 1,770 km Last night I stayed at the The Twilight Resort, at Montreal River Harbour on the South End of Superior Provincial Park. It’s cold this early morning — 12 degrees; like Fall or early Spring Dan somehow manages to be aloof and matter-of-fact at the same time through eyes that pierce […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=317"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":323,"href":"https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317\/revisions\/323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelhorserover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}