THUNDER BAY — A travelling stuffed lobster toy from Prince Edward Island has managed to hitch rides all the way to Thunder Bay, but is still only halfway to its destination.
Over the past few weeks, he's become pretty famous.
Nicknamed Lucky, the plush toy travelling in an authentic lobster trap has been journeying westward since early July thanks to the goodness of strangers who've found room in their vehicles to take it a little farther down the road each time.
After owners Chris and Karen McCallum of Okotoks, Alta. were gifted the trap by a lobster fisherman when they were in PEI for a family event this spring, they bought the stuffed lobster and placed an AirTag inside it to keep track of its whereabouts.
They were flying back home, so it wasn't practical to take the trap with them.
"Chris's parents' roots are in Prince Edward Island, so we wanted a piece of the east for our home in the west. That was the reason we wanted this lobster trap," Karen McCallum explained Monday in an interview.
But it took awhile for Lucky to leave the island.
"We had this thing sitting outside of a cute little boutique hotel in Charlottetown for two-and-a-half months, and it wasn't until, goodness, early July, that it was taken to Moncton. It was at that point we thought, 'OK, maybe something's going to happen here,' " Chris McCallum recalled.
"Someone saw it, and created a TikTok video about it, and that's when it exploded. Our belief was as soon as it got moving, and we got a little traction, then it would be a fun thing."
Since the couple started a TikTok account about Lucky's journey on July 17, it's captured over 20,000 followers.
"So it's just gone absolutely crazy," Karen said, adding that it's also demonstrated the immense power of social media.
"This little lobster has connected not only Canada but the world. We do a live little video on our account each morning, and the world reaches out all the time wanting to know where he is now. They're also getting a good glimpse of Canada, because we repost every photo and every video that we get."
During his prolonged road trip, Lucky has been photographed at all kinds of attractions and has experienced things such as a ride in a race car, rollerskating, and a visit from the RCMP.
The couple tried to get a lobster trap to Alberta in a similar way in 2009, but it ended up in Chicago where it mysteriously disappeared.
"Of course, we didn't have social media like we do now, and we didn't have an AirTag," Chris said. "This has just been reaffirming, and reassuring that we are a terrific nation."
Lucky was driven from Sudbury to Sleeping Giant Provincial Park on Sunday by Theresa Handrigan, and is expected to pay a visit to the Terry Fox Monument on Tuesday or Wednesday.
The McCallums are eagerly waiting to hear about the next stage of his trip, and who might step forward to escort him from Thunder Bay toward Manitoba.
Handrigan told TBnewswatch she'd like to find a volunteer driver for Lucky before she returns to Sudbury in a few days.