Isy and I were off on another mainland adventure and this one was going to take over two weeks, with 27 hours of driving each way.

Not to mention, crossing the Cabot Strait into Nova Scotia as well.

While I can get annoyed with the whole Newfoundland ferry experience, I was going to enjoy tonight's crossing as I'd printed out an exciting article from The Magazine of Maine: Down East, titled, "Every Maine Lighthouse Ranked".

Isy crossing was also improved with my getting her attention to point out each Maine lighthouse I've already visited, lol.

Landing in North Sydney at 7am, we crushed the 16-hour drive to Gatineau, dividing it up pretty evenly between the two of us (partly because I had to work remotely in the car).

After not sleeping well in the passenger lounge area of the ferry, I can tell you that I was pretty damn tired by 1am on the A-50 Autoroute out of Montreal.

We spent a day visiting Isy's father, where I left for a few hours to head to a nearby skatepark. Not wanting to go all the way to Ottawa, I popped over to Thurso Quebec where there was a basic, but fun park.

The best part may have been the school in the background letting out just as I finished throwing the bike back in the car. The skatepark was clearly the Thurso hangout too, as it was littered with 50+ teens within minutes. I let out a Newman-like delightful cackle at my fantastic timing.

Instead of tackling the remaining nine hours we had to drive in one straight-shot, we headed from Gatineau to North Bay the next day, a drive a little over 4 hours.

As this was our last chance for cheap Quebec beer, I'd looked up the spot in Gatineau that's renowned for its prices and choices.

Here's probably a great time to mention the astute observation my friend Shelloo once made, that I'm a very decisive man, EXCEPT, except when it comes to two things: life decisions and buying booze.

There were a few problems here. First, there were a lot of choices, but a lot of them were macrobreweries. Sure, I know I wanted some Busch and some Hoegaardens, but I also wanted some obscure Gatineau/Shawinigan/Laval/whatever local microbrew.

So I went from room to room, and here at the Beer King, that meant four separate coolers littered with beer.

I was also going to an island without services to hang out with Isy's brother and her cousins. She said to get a good amount of beer, but what's a good amount? Are these guys total boozehounds? Or are they guys who have one microbrew while cozing up in living room chairs discussing the current worldy topic du jour?

Anyway, all of these conundrums meant I spent about a half-hour inside the Beer King, while also forgetting that Isy asked me to be quick as she had to use the washroom and waited in the car.

She wasn't too pleased when I popped back out, lol!

It wasn't long before we were in North Bay, and having never been to North Bay, I was pretty excited with the prospect of exploring a new city in an unfamiliar area.

I was even more excited when I thought to look up the local OHL hockey team's schedule and magically found that the Battalian were in town and playing on this random Thursday night??! Score!

I actually knew very little about North Bay's arena until I did research following my visit to Sudbury's OHL Arena. In Sudbury, they're still trying to get a giant entertainment district built and I'd often see comments about how they can't renovate the old Sudbury Arena because "look at what North Bay went through."

Originally built in 1955, North Bay's Memorial Gardens hosted the North Bay Centennials of the OHL until they left in 2002 for Saginaw to become the Spirit. With the Brampton Battalian struggling to attract fans in the early 2010's, an agreement was made that if the North Bay Memorial Gardens were renovated, that the Battlian would move and North Bay would once again be home to an OHL club.

The part that Sudbury uses as a cautionary tale is that the cost of North Bay's renovations were only supposed to be $12 million. Then North Bay accepted a $600,000 cost overrun; but then in the end, following an audit, the renovation was actually $16.2 million due to things like the construction company simply deciding to update the concession area kitchens because they thought the $12 million was only a ballpark figure.

(The city also wasn't helped by the fact that they earmarked $1 million in federal funding that the arena didn't actually qualify for. So maybe Sudbury should still consider renovations but with better accountants.)

Anyway, all of these renovations brought private boxes, new dressing rooms, increased seating, plus a narrowed and lengthened ice surface to make it the 200' x 85' standard of the OHL.

Later renovations must've brought the LED lighting that a lot of rinks have nowadays, as I had a really tough time with the balance of not blowing out the ice while also showing cool things like the square corners and the giant beams framing the east seating area.

The game itself was pretty good with the score being tied 2-2 after two. Peterborough then went on to score three in the third to take the game 5-2. Mason McTavish, 3rd overall pick of the Anaheim Ducks in 2021, had two of Peterborough's goals.

North Bay was my ninth OHL arena and I'm starting to find it funny that I may eventually visit all twenty with a finishing run of four or five boring, mini-NHL, cookie-cutter rinks. It makes sense that I'd work to see Niagara Falls, Peterborough & Sudbury as they were threatened or are currently threatened, but having seen Saginaw, Flint & North Bay by chance, I'm leaving a lot of boring rinks for last.

Sarnia's 1998 Progressive Auto Sales Arena, London's 2002 Budweiser Gardens, Barrie's 1995 Sadlon Arena, Mississauga's 1998 Paramount Fine Foods Centre, Oshawa's 2006 GM Centre, bleck. At least I have the cool rinks in Kitchener, Hamilton & Ottawa still to go.

The game ended in no time since I arrived after puck drop, so I decided a quick beer was in order after the game.

North Bay had some pleasant old homes and neighbourhoods I longed to explore, but since we had to get going early tomorrow morning, this was the best I could do for exploration.

The Station Tap House & Steak Co appeared amongst the houses where I was walking, and situated in an old brick building on a corner, I figured this would do.

Walking in, I took a seat at the bar behind a Hoegaarden tap, and on the three screens right in front of me were Thursday Night Football, the Bruins game, and my boy Walker Buehler taking on Patrick Corbin in a pitchers duel. Holy fuckshit was I not in Newfoundland anymore.

Plus, after my one beer, the bartender even rushed out when I tried to leave my camera bag behind. Good thing I stopped to take that crappy exterior shot with my cell phone!

Anyway, I was enjoying North Bay and I'd like to go back one day, but I needed to get some shut-eye.

Continue to Part 2...