August 13th, 2008
I’m stealing wifi in some one-horse town called Marathon. I was driving along the Lake Superior coast towards Sault Ste. Marie when I started getting hungry. My clock is still on Alberta time so I’m not getting hungry until 8 or 9 at night here. I saw a billboard for a town called Marathon which made the place look like an appealing spot to visit so I pressed on past some restaurants that looked quite good to get to this wonderful town called Marathon.
Pulling into Marathon it turned out that there isn’t much of interest here, and most everything was closed at 9 at night. So I elected for the one open place which turned out to be a greasy spoon restaurant with the sort of food one would expect from such an establishment. I did score some pistachio pudding as part of my meal though, so that made it alright.
I was also unsuccessful at scoring wireless internet in Thunder Bay; however, I was pleasantly surprised to discover an open wireless router somewhere near this greasy spoon in Marathon. Score!
Let’s rewind the tape though and I’ll tell you about today’s adventures.
Last night, after leaving Kenora (I did want to stay longer and I’m sure I’ll be back there one day) I drove for another couple of hours. Every day I’ve been shifting my clock ahead an hour because of the time zones with the consequence that I’m not tired early at night. What I tend to do is get in behind a tractor trailer, since it’s driven by a professional driver who knows the roads much better than I do, and use him as a pacecar. Last night was no different until my pacecar started drifting into the oncoming lane a few times. I slowed down to give him lots of room and it was a good thing too because he nearly drove into a guard rail! Fortunately he decided to pull into the next rest stop and call it a night. I think his amphetamine high must’ve worn off.
This morning, after another beautiful drive through Ontario lake country, I pulled into Thunder Bay. First thing I hit a gym to get some exercise to offset all the sitting in the driver’s seat. The gym was kinda weird. It’s a fancy new gym that’s filled with people who look like extras on the set of the new Beverly Hills 90210.
After the gym (and the much-needed shower) it was time to check out Fort William Historical Park. I didn’t really know what to expect and was surprised to find a large fort, carefully reconstructed and filled with actors who performed in character as though they were the actual inhabitants. The highlight for me was a fully-restored workshop where they made birchbark canoes. I got to hear all about how they steam the wood and sew up the birchbark panels to make a waterproof skin. The sewing stitches are water sealed using a resin formed from animal fat, spruce pitch, and charcol.
The other cool thing was having the “doctor” walk me though how he amputates limbs, complete with a demonstration of the saw, cutter, and tourniquet he would have used back in the day. So if he was to saw off your arm he would first put a tourniquet above the area, then he would use a curved blade to cut the skin around the arm, and finally apply 3 quick strokes of a saw to remove the arm. Once the arm was off, another implement was used to seal up the veins to avoid having the patient bleed to death. The veins could either be coterized shut or they could be tied off. Then the whole thing was stitched up and you were good to go!
He also showed us the mechanical leech they would use to extract blood in the case where a headache or fever was to be treated. Apparently leeches wouldn’t survive the cold up here so they have a contraption that sits against your temple and has 16 razor blade tips spring out to make a series of cuts in the skin. Once the skin has been opened up, the doctor applies a bell shaped glass tube against the skin. Inside the tube is a small bit of burning material which creates a vacuum and helps draw blood out of all the cuts the leech made. The more serious your condition, the more cupfuls of blood would be drawn out.
I also learned that dentistry was performed without any whisky to numb the pain. Molar extraction using a small set of pliers was quite popular, but it was done without any anesthetic at all! If something more painful was being done there was a mixture containing a little rum and a lot of opium that could be given to the patient. If it was me in the chair, I’d be downing that potion like water before they broke out those pliers!
After leaving the previous century behind I made it up to the Terry Fox Memorial to read about his journey and then on towards Sault Ste Marie.
My laptop is about to die so I’m going to cut it off here. I haven’t gone back and re-read this entry, so please forgive any grammar issues and the like.
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god bless amphetamines
Heh, you were in two towns near and dear to my family, my father was born and raised in Kenora until he left for WW2, my grandparents and great grandparents are buried there. Lake of the Woods is very pretty, but you need a boat to really appreciate it.
And Marathon, Mum and Dad lived there with my older brother from the late 40s to ’57 before moving to Crofton BC; 36 Ross St. In those days, there was no highway along the north shore of Lake Superior, the only way out of town was on the CPR.