By Mark Evans
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
You figured Bill Owens would be spending his last week as Nortel’s CEO cleaning out his desk and having farewell drinks with colleagues. Instead, he’s heading up to Chapleau, Ont. – a small town about a six-hour drive from Toronto where Nortel and BCE Inc. are unveiling broadband service and applications that demonstrate how remote communities can be served by the Internet. For those interested in a little geography lesson, Chapleau is about a two-hour drive from Timmins, which is best-known for giving us Shania Twain.
We Say: Given there will be four to eight inches of snow in Chapleau tomorrow, Owens will get a final taste of life in Canada.
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LOL, My girlfriend’s family is from Timmins. We were just there this July, and to anyone thinking of going to Timmins here’s a few warnings:
1) Notice the spry bounding deer is something else now? That’s a Moose Crossing sign. During the day your probably fine, but if it’s night, it would be ill-advised to go screaming down the highway, especially Thessalon Highway, at 120km/hr. My girlfriend’s dad was almost “moosed.”
2) Speaking of Thessalon Highway, it starts out nice, but rapidly becomes a very country road. This wouldn’t be a problem, except that about 1/3 of the way there you notice the right side is a cliff face (complete with “Falling Rocks” sign) and the left is a bloody river without even a guard rail. Now to be fair in the daytime it’s not bad. You can dodge the rocks in the road and it is a rather pretty rustic setting. During a dark night, however, take it slow. Oh and watch out for “transports” (18 wheelers) as you get ready to cross the single lane bridge!
3) Stop at Tim Hortons, you’re gonna need coffee for that drive. I know my girlfriends dog loves Timbits. In fact when her dad had him in his truck (he got sick of riding with us I guess) he stopped and went inside a Timmy’s to get more coffee, et al, the rugrat managed to get the Timbit box open :p
4) Get used to “‘eh” (A) at the end of alot of sentences.
Not a bad place to visit, but, not a lot to do either.