Clarkson was adamant that if I was flying home from Sudbury, then he wasn't driving back along the desolate highway between the two cities alone. He also wasn't going to go at all if the weather was inclement, which he insisted was highly probable.

Fortunately we woke to a passable morning on the Friday following Cancun. It was cold and grey, but nothing that would affect driving conditions.

Pulling out of Barrie at midmorning, we were headed up to go check out the old Sudbury Community Arena, before yet another mid-sized city built its new sterile Events Centre out on the sprawling edge of town.

The promised desolation was delivered as the Trans-Canada Highway went through very few towns up here and if it did they were small. It was apparent he wasn't lying about the weather either, because a few abandoned motels and houses beckoned, but the deep snow on the ground left us cruising along in his Volkswagen crossover.

Instead of stopping at a generic Tim Horton's along the highway, we gambled on Parry Sound and hit the jackpot with a Don Cherry's, haha.

I used to visit Burk's Falls, Magnetewan and Parry Sound in my younger years, but it'd now been a decade and a half since I'd travelled past Barrie. I could remember key locations such as the main street in Burk's Falls or that bridge in Parry Sound, but little of the passing landscape.

Without any places to stop we simply drove through these unfamiliar lands, past birch stands and rock cuts, occasionally speeding over mighty rivers like the French River and to a lesser extent, the Magnetewan. I stared out the window and thought about how this is the area that's close to Barrie, but within a short distance for weekend endeavours. If I lived in Barrie these would be the exits and the scenes I'd explore and camp upon.

It was a funny thing to have plans to go to Sudbury following a trip to Cancun with all your buddies.

Maybe a dozen different people asked about my flight plans and how I was going to get back to Newfoundland. Each time I had to amusedly explain that heading back to Newfoundland was for suckers, and instead Clarkson and I were off to alluring Sudbury.

This being a Toronto-centric crowd with some experience in Northern Ontario, this was usually met with raised eyebrows, questions of why on God's green earth were we headed to Sudbury, and sarcastic comments about the beauty of Sudbury in January.

Sudbury did itself no favours as we approached, although I guess nowadays every Ontario town is encapsulated with the same cookie-cut Canadian Tires, Swiss Chalets and Shoppers Drug Marts. Sudbury then sprinkled in some Soviet-style housing blocks, which mixed with the grey and dreary January day, made for a laughable welcome.

That wouldn't be the whole story though. Once we passed that initial sprawl wasteland, things improved as the land grew hilly with buildings actually built around the landscape, as well as a couple of lakes off to our right.

I BMX'ed in Sudbury and produced a video clip a long time ago, and the sight of these lakes and Laurentian University jolted back fond memories of that sunny summer day. It was easy to see how this lakeside area would look a whole lot better if we were here to see an early season or late playoff matchup.

We also passed an enticing abandoned hospital that I guess RISK is using to create Canada's biggest mural as I write this.

Not to mention Sudbury got spots too, damn!

Our first stop in Sudbury was the arena itself, to grab Clarkson a ticket now that he was coming along. If I wasn't excited enough already, the stately exterior and handsome lobby helped things even further, and that's not to mention the passing glances I stole of the arena bowl.

Going for an exploratory downtown stroll, the arena sat exactly where an arena should sit: right in the heart of downtown with interesting buildings all around. Behind it there were skyscrapers and high-rises, while beside it there were historic and appealing bars we noted for later. In front was the VIA rail station and a vast train yard.

We had left the sprawl wasteland and found a taste of the real Sudbury now. It felt great to be exploring a new city.

Kitty-corner from the arena was an interesting old hotel shoehorned onto a wedge of land between Van Horne and Elgin Street. Originally opened as the Sudbury Hotel in 1907, I'd imagine it used to do pretty good business during the ages of rail travel.

(The hotel suffered a fire in the 1950s, so not all of it dates to 1907.)

It was hard to tell what was going on at the Ledo Hotel. There was a closed entrance to a lounge on the backside, some boarded up windows, as well as Philly-style hand tag graffiti on the other side.

I peered into the lobby, loving the cursive "Dining Room Downstairs" sign, along with the overall look of the split-level interior and disused front desk. Briefly considering opening the door and checking things out, an older man came out and we skedaddle

He didn't seem to pay us any mind as he walked away, which is why I now regret not going inside after he left.

There isn't much about the Ledo Hotel online, save for a Reddit thread where apparently this was a formative dive for some Sudbury adolescents in the 80s and 90s. Apparently the lounge was a strip club back then, one that didn't I.D. anyone looking to purchase alcohol. Therefore a lot of Sudbury teens had their first bar experience involve cheap pitchers as well as naked ladies.

Another Reddit commenter said his work buddy saw "Tom Cockeran" get thrown out of the Ledo in the 80s, haha. "Buddy, life is a highway and so is Van Horne Street! Hit the bricks!"

Today the Ledo Hotel is two floors of storage on the bottom with 25 long-term stay rooms up top. There were plans for a new architecture school to buy the building in 2010, but the school instead bought and renovated Sudbury's farmer's market further up Elgin Street.

Instead of checking into the Ledo or one of the costly downtown hotels, we headed over to the Gatchell neighbourhood southwest of downtown, home to the reasonably-priced Canadiana Motel.

Going into this trip I waffled regarding some of this motel's negative reviews, but eventually decided we would take the gamble.

Clarkson works with a bunch of Sudbury guys and apparently they are blown away that this is where we stayed.

It really wasn't that bad though and I figure the Canadiana is like the Hotel Corner Brook, where it has a reputation amongst residents and people say things based on word of mouth seven times removed, but if you actually stay there the place is just a bit old and stale.

Then again there was graffiti on our window, lol.

Instead of making me scared, the graffiti instead made me think of why they stuck us in this room when there were maybe 10 people staying at the entire hotel. Also why weren't they scraping the paint off the window ASAP?

But I guess that's how a place gets a reputation.

Part of the reason I could book the Canadiana was that I knew Clarkson wouldn't have any problem with a 40 minute walk to the arena.

The only problem would be from me, with nature calling after we drank afternoon beers and mezcal back at the Canadiana. On the other hand, this afforded us checking out strange New Mexican homes off of the main arterial highway, as well as a pleasant wooded area where Junction Creek flowed under downtown (the creek actually goes under a corner of the Sudbury Arena).

A pedestrian tunnel brought us under the rail yard, then soon after we exited the cold night into the warmth of the stadium and its crowd. The lobby was fun and retro, while the ice area was spectacular.

Clarkson would later tell me about how he rarely goes to Barrie Colts games because they play in a boring, modern rink and that if he lived in Sudbury, he'd go to more games because it reminded him of the old Windsor barn and what attending hockey should feel like. Of course I was pleased with this revelation.

White people only came to the Sudbury area in the 1880s.

It's in 1883 that French Jesuits built a mission and small settlement here called Sainte-Anne-des-Pins, but during the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, nickel and copper ore were found in abundance and settlers started to flood the area to work in the mines of a new, booming town.

Only 9 years later, Sudbury's first indoor rink was constructed in 1892. Known as Martin's Rink, it was home to the city's first game when a group of men came together during the 1892 winter carnival. This rink wasn't exactly Detroit's Pizzarena, as it was basically four wooden walls and just about the same temperature as the bitter winter outside.

Knowing this interior cold from going into abandoned buildings, I would have loved to see and experience this. Then again, the Curl Sudbury website instead says that Martin's Rink was open air - so maybe it was just four wooden rink boards instead of a building?

In 1904, Sudbury would get an indoor rink without any question marks. Built by local businessmen James Orr and James Purvis, The Palace was located on Durham Street near Memorial Park, which by that description is around where the YMCA is located today.

The Palace would burn down in 1910, but was rebuilt and served Sudbury until it was torn down in the late 1930s.

I can't figure out why The Palace was torn down when it then forced Sudbury teams to travel to the nearby company town of Copper Cliff. Although, at least Copper Cliff was home to the new and breathtaking Stanley Stadium, with its artificial ice and built in the vein of hockey stadiums to come.

I mean look at that marvelous structure!

(Sadly Stanley Stadium was demolished in 1976.)

I've seen a couple websites where they regurgitate the same fact that Stanley Stadium was the third indoor rink built in Ontario.

Just off the top of my head I know this is incorrect because you had Windsor Arena (1922), Maple Leaf Gardens (1931) and the Galt Gardens (1922) all built before the stadium in Copper Cliff.

The Great Depression and World Wars didn't affect Sudbury as much as other cities, since there was still a need for nickel in The Great Depression and that need skyrocketed in wartime. In fact, one of the local mines supplied 40% of the nickel used by the Allies, while Sudbury was America's source of nickel when the Yanks were stockpiling it afterwards during the Cold War.

Although there were economic doldrums, Sudbury was at times a very wealthy city where so many people were coming for work that there wasn't room to house them all.

It's with these facts that I find it odd they didn't build an arena before demolishing The Palace in the late 1930s, and even more weird that they didn't build an arena all through the 1940s.

Finally in 1951 the Sudbury Arena was constructed upon the site of the old Central Public School. It was built at a cost of $700,000 and with 4760 seats.

Fast forwarding a few decades, in 2007, 150 of these seats would be removed as the arena underwent extensive renovations completely and benevolently paid for by Wolves president and governor Mark Burgess. These renovations added 12 new suites, a club section with padded seats and beverage service, new washrooms, new scoreboard with Kiss Cam possibilities, a lounge and new concession stand.

Alas, it's still a rink from 1951 and owners/execs dictate that's unacceptable in today's Ontario Hockey League.

The Sudbury Wolves would be sold in August of 2016 to a man who was also working for the True North Group trying to get a shiny events centre built. You know, one of those places where you're bordered by empty land, eat your pregame meal at a standardized Boston Pizza just like your home town, then stay in a Comfort Inn just like every other rink you visit.

Plenty of people have come aboard with this events centre idea and believe Sudbury should spend $100 million in taxpayer dollars building this on the eastern outskirts of town. Part of the prevailing reason seems to be the state of Sudbury's downtown, with people complaining about the drug use, homelessness and lack of parking. Instead of trying to bring something healthy downtown and turn it around, they seem to be in favour of simply abandoning it and building Sudbury's new arena/casino/hotel/festival space/motor track out on the feeder highway known as the Kingsway.

(Aside: researching the future of arenas in Sudbury, it's amazing how many people focus entirely on parking. You would think these people are trying to find a parking space in New York City with the way they complain about finding a spot on gameday.)

September of 2013 featured an infamous game at the Sudbury Arena that had to be postponed due to fog on the ice. By October of 2013, council was voting on whether to speed up their decision on what to do with the arena.

In March of 2015, a report was completed and council had their numbers: $50 million to renovate Sudbury Arena, or $65 million for a new arena (this has gone up to $100 million in the meantime). Some of council were skeptical of the renovation choice, as the arena in North Bay had recently went $4 million over cost during its own renovation (admittedly, this was a much smaller renovation).

June of 2017 would bring another report, this one stating that downtown was the best location. In fact, downtown would have ranked even better if the consultants knew there was a plan to build a 600-car parking lot upon the construction of a new downtown Sudbury Arena.

In July of 2017, council split the downtown arena vote 6-6 and in the case of tied votes, the motion fails. Next up was the events centre vote concerning the building out on The Kingsway, which passed 10-2.

The next step in getting the The Kingsway Entertainment District (KED) built was to get through any appeals. Five of which were brought to the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal.

Where originally The Kingsway was supposed to be built by 2020, it's now pushed back to late 2021/early 2022 and maybe even later. Meanwhile they haven't even sorted out the process of how the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal works.

This is good news for anyone who likes old arenas, haha.

While here at the game, I thought it was a 99% done deal that the Wolves would be playing in a new rink by 2020. Now that I know this isn't the case, I'm pretty happy things have been delayed. Not just because this rink is simply old, but because I was finding this to be a great old barn in person.

I loved the Sudbury Wolves dark blue paint making everything intimate and homey for the the club. I also loved the wood roof that reminded me of Chicoutimi & how the seating area was still dimly lit, which I guess is because they haven't bought the same blinding LED lights that I've seen in places like Sydney and Shawinigan.

While I would assume this feature would go to the new rink, another fantastic thing was that whenever the Wolves scored they'd release a taxidermied wolf down a zip line over the ice.

I made sure not to tell Clarkson, then waited for the Wolves to get their first goal.

We were seated almost right beneath the wolf and it was hilarious in its ridiculousness. They should probably start doing something similar at Minnesota Timberwolves games.

Looking for a bar after the game, we passed about five establishments within two blocks of walking. Eventually we decided on one that looked a little fancy for us, but wasn't all that busy.

The Red Fang Tavern would fill right up, but with spots at the bar and dedicated service from the friendly bartender, we didn't have to deal with bumping shoulders of jockeying for position. We simply lounged and had good beer, tasty meatballs and listened to decent music. I would never have went in here if I saw this crowd initially, but now I'd go back.

We'd go on to the Towne Inn afterwards and then I have a picture of Clarkson in the motel room at 4 a.m., so it was a good, long night in Sudbury.

Saturday was quiet during the day itself. I'm happy in hindsight that we went for a walk when we first got to Sudbury, because Saturday involved sleeping in late, watching soccer, then going out for a bite at one of the other restaurants by the arena (where Clarkson got hilariously upset as the stoner waiter screwed up both of our food orders plus Clarkson's drink order - the only thing he got right was my Caesar...score!)

With breakfast at 130pm and a 45 minute walk to the arena to get there early to take pictures, our Saturday was right back to the Sudbury Community Arena in no time.

I was thankful that Clarkson was up for watching another hockey game, but he was there when we went to see the 2-12 Rams against the 3-11 49ers at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, so I think he's a pretty easy sell in terms of sporting events.

As for the old arena, it doesn't seem like it's going to sit around like the Windsor one. Council already has plans to tear it down and use the site for its new $108-million dollar convention centre/art gallery/library. The only problem is that now the Kingsway is not moving along according to plan and the city getting so restless and worried about lost funding, that they are examining other sites in case they can't tear down the occupied Sudbury Arena anytime soon.

(The new owner of the Sudbury Wolves said in June 2017 that he wanted to reuse the Sudbury Arena as a "museum, library, art gallery and performance space", but also said "it's just an idea" in a very strange CBC article where it seems like his pontifications are all that is needed to create a news article. He has also courted the city in terms of trying to get them to build their new convention centre out at his Kingsway development instead, as well as buying the old Sudbury water tower with promises of lighting it up when the Wolves score, but not doing anything about that all the way into 2019.)

Although I stated that some of these pictures were taken 45 minutes before puck drop, the sparse crowd might lead you, my beloved reader, to believe Sudbury needs a new events centre funded by the taxpayers. It should be noted though, that the Wolves were the worst team in the Ontario Hockey League in 2017.

"...BUT A NEW EVENTS CENTRE WILL HAVE A BALL PIT AND A JUNGLE GYM AND BARRY MANILOW SINGING IN THE CONCOURSE AND PARKING MY GOD THE PARKING!" you say. To which I reply, "how about we spend $100-million turning Sudbury's depressing downtown mall into that instead?"

Whatever man.

I know I'm the dinosaur and people love new mall arenas. For the time being though, I was in Sudbury enjoying glass seats, Original Coors¹, a spectacular old building, room to spread out, and bullshitting with one of my best friends. It doesn't get much better than that.

1 - One of my favourite reviews of the Sudbury Arena gives it 2 stars and complains
that the beer is $10, "which is overpriced at an MLB/NHL game." Buddy then says he
"can't wait for the KED", where I'm sure they'll have $3 drink deals, lmao. Good luck to him!

We went back to the Towne House Tavern after the game, which was authentically aged and great, while also being busy on a Saturday and not just a sad barfly hangout on its last legs. It was pleasing to see a place like this doing well, when similar Windsor places like The Loop and Abar's are long gone.

I was also able to get Molson Stock Ale for the first time since I passed out in Bugler's back yard and someone happening to walk the 11th Street-Royal Crescent path discovered me and stole my case fifteen years ago. Plus they also had quarts of Molson Export! I didn't need a 22-ounce bottle at this juncture, but I have a hard time turning down beer in large vessels.

This led to me getting a poutine as well and just being a f'ing animal in the Sudbury night. Our plans of walking were soon squashed as we grabbed a cab to get back to the Canadiana.

Even though we called it early on Saturday night because Clarkson wanted to get back to watch Tottenham at 10am the next morning, I still had to go next door to the Boston Bruins-themed Beef' N Bird Tavern. (Complete with spoked B's in the 'Beef' and 'Bird'.)

It was a nice nightcap to get myself sleeping and snoring, making sure Clarkson didn't get much more than a lick of sleep through the night. Sorry buddy!

After a good morning/afternoon of watching soccer and lazing about Clarkson's basement, it was time to get dropped off at the Barrie bus depot where I'd take a bus so jammed that I had to put my knees in the aisle.

Before long, the extended Christmas vacation was over and it was back to that Western Newfoundland life.