White River, Canada - Polarsteps

We got packed up early and held off on breakfast until the proper rest stop at Manitouwadge, where we also thanked my old, busted tires for their service and gave them maybe a less-dignified burial than they deserved. We did a good riding day; Marathon is where the highway leaves Superior for a little bit, and the hills were less extreme inland. We finished the day exactly where we'd wanted to end up, in the "unofficial cyclist campground" at the birthplace of Winnie the Pooh. We were rusty on our Pooh history and thought we were heading to A.A. Milne's former home ("Wasn't he British? I thought he was British"), but White River is actually where the original bear was born and sold as an orphaned cub for $20 at the train station before eventually moving overseas to her life at the London Zoo, where children including Christopher Robin would visit her in her pen and feed her spoonfuls of honey (those were different times). The town milks the bear sale for all it's worth; there are 'WHERE IT ALL BEGAN' signs 200km before you get there, and the 'Winnie the Pooh Memorial' stands by the highway. It's a cute stop in the middle of not-much-else.