CareyMeHome

Saturday is winery day. We started out with the intent of driving to Niagara on the Lake, the place the our train friends told us had many wineries. Being Saturday, the traffic was a bit heavy going toward Niagara, so I decided to give Curt directions off the highway. We were about 40 minutes outside of Niagara on the Lake when we started to see the winery signs. We thought why go all the way, why not just hit a few wineries here and be closer to home. We hit 4 wineries and made sure we shared tastings and ate food along the way.
Winery #1 – Rosewood Winery. This one had 5 stars and also had a patio area. We are not fans of standing at a bar tasting one after another. We like to take our time and enjoy the views and tastes. Wine tasting in this area is a bit expensive. In Washington, in most places the tastings are complimentary, or waived if you purchase any bottle of wine. At this winery, it was $5 for 4 tastes. We sampled a chardonnay, a rose, a pinot noir, and a cabernet franc. The view was much better than the wines. We had a view of Toronto across Lake Ontario across the vines…Gorgeous!!

Winery #2 – Angel’s Gate Winery. $5 for 3 tastes. We tasted a gamay noir, a pinot noir, and a red blend (gamay noir, merlot, shiraz), standing at a bar! The red blend was the favorite here, so we purchased a bottle to go. Unfortunately with the impending border crossing, we are careful how many bottles we purchase due to the duty. We picked this winery because they had a restaurant attached, but they only offered pizza and Curt wanted to move to another one, we wanted a charcuterie tray to enjoy a glass of wine. We asked the wine tender to recommend another winery and she pointed us to another one.

Winery #3 – Kew Winery. We thought she said “Q” and had a little trouble finding it. But once we did we loved this one. It was like walking into someone’s house. Unfortunately the seats on the patio (there weren’t enough tables—poor design) but we sat by the open French doors and had a great view of the patio and the vineyards. $5 for 3 tastes: pinot noir, pinot gamay and a red blend (1/2 cabernet franc and ½ cabernet savignon). Here we were finally able to get a cheese and bread tray with a glass of that red blend. The dipping sauce for the bread was made with their chardonnay, and was so good, we got a bottle to go! Again we did some people watching, and were annoyed with one small little boy (about 5 years old) who was running around the place. There was a gas fireplace that had river rocks in there and he was throwing the rocks, we were just waiting for him to break something. His father, who tried reasoning with the child for 10 minutes, finally came to his senses and took the child out to the car. He must have given him a good talking to when they left, because the boy came back and was much better behaved. But really I don’t think a winery is a place for kids—thank goodness we didn’t get the winery bug until the kids were able to stay home by themselves.

If you look close, you can see Toronto in the distance (above)

Winery #4 Good Earth Winery. We chose this one because it advertised a bistro and winery. Instead of doing a tasting, we headed to the Bistro for a snack. Curt ordered the charcuterie tray (only okay) and I ordered the French fries (Yummy!!). Everything we ordered, even the cannoli for dessert had “grass” on it. I think they were some kind of bean sprouts, but certainly did not belong on my cannoli. We shared ½ bottle of a red blend, that was full bodied, we corked the bottle and took the rest home.
Home in time to have another campfire…because of the cooler nights, these are really necessary.  Watching the fire sure beats watching our choices on TV!!
Sunday was a day of rest. We went to breakfast again and then went to the Canadian Super Store (like a Walmart) for some essentials like bacon and eggs and wine! Tomorrow we are headed to Niagara Falls.

 

**my apologies for my followers, due to the poor internet and then getting caught up in Philadelphia with family and friends, I am very late posting these**

After stressful drive in, we needed a day of relaxation. So we slept in, headed to breakfast in downtown Milton and then drove down to the outlet mall. There was a 40% chance of rain, but it turned out to be a nice day to walk around in the OPEN AIR Outlet Mall. Doesn’t it snow here? We thought for sure this would be an indoor mall. But the rain never came (probably because I carried an umbrella around). It was pretty crowded; I think everyone else had the same idea. The parking lot reminded us of the mall parking lot at Christmas. We were a little surprised by the “outlet prices”, although there wasn’t much on our wish list, but we were hoping to get some summer attire at end of season prices. But that was not the case, so needless to say the only thing we got was a pair of sneakers to replace my sneakers that were falling apart and that was only after visiting 6 different shoe stores. I didn’t want to spend the money, but Curt finally talked me into getting them reminding me it was Canadian money (but also Canadian taxes – 15%!) so I think that cancels it out.
Home to another quiet evening and a campfire.

Our trip to Toronto on Friday started early-ish, as we wanted to let the rush hour folks get to work first. Our first mistake was thinking we could stop on the way and get a Starbucks or Tim Horton’s (which are usually on every corner here in Canada—except for today), but as luck would have it, we did not see any and got on the train without breakfast (I, however, had my morning tea during my walk with Daisy). The train was long and the cars were split level, so actually had 3 levels: main level, mezzanine, and penthouse.

We did not venture off the main level, so not sure what was beyond the stairs—but during the trip we saw many a stroller head up the stairs. Sitting across the aisle from Curt was a college boy who happened to meet up with a girl who we think he worked with. So last night after work, they all headed out to a party and the boy boasted about how he was still drunk, and got only 3 hours sleep—oh the power of youth!! One of the fun things about riding the train is the people watching or in this case the people listening. We heard all about his party and the antics of him and his friends—but it did make the trip go faster. So remember all of the strollers, they all departed the train at the same stop—Canadian Expo. The Canadian Expo is the Canadian Fair according to our other next door neighbor. The theme of the Expo was Science so in addition to the normal animal exhibits, they had various science exhibits and of course the midway rides and fried everything food trucks. We don’t particularly like crowds (funny as we were heading into the city where 2.6 million people call home) so we steered clear of the Expo.
In two stops we arrived at Union Station—I think there is a Union Station in every big city, eh! Union Station was huge as expected, but we finally found our way to the street level and were on the lookout for the off and on tour bus. Using the knowledge we gained from watching 16 years of Amazing Race, the best place to get information in a big city is head to the Concierge desk at a large hotel. As long as they didn’t ask us what our room number was, we were good…and she didn’t! She even called the company and got us a reservation and sent us to the nearest stop, which happened to be right in front of a ….wait for it…Starbucks!! Finally got our Starbucks, the bus arrives and we are on our way. We have taken a double decker bus tour in several cities (DC and NY (on the coldest day of the year) come to mind) so we knew this would give us a good overview of the city without ever getting off the bus, which is exactly what we did—rode it all around. Also included in our ticket price was a harbor ride…it was a beautiful day for a boat ride—70 and sunny.

Some of our sites:

CN Tower – The tallest tower in the Western Hemisphere (used to be the world until the Dubai tower beat them out). It has a rotating restaurant and an observation deck that has a glass floor (we’ve been on one of them in Shanghai). You can also walk outside of the observation deck called “EdgeWalk” tooted as Toronto’s most extreme attraction. If you want to propose up there on the EdgeWalk, they will give you a plastic ring, so you don’t accidentally drop it and it gets embedded in someone’s head on the ground.

Hockey Hall of Fame – This is the home of the Stanley Cup. The tour guide said there is a superstition that if you touch the cup, your team won’t win that year, so she said if you root for the Toronto Maple Leafs—DO NOT TOUCH THE CUP, they haven’t won the cup since 1960 something. I really wanted to visit this, but we arrived about ½ hour before closing, so we only had time to visit the gift shop and take some photos, but no Stanley Cup sightings—sad face!

The King Edward hotel is where the Queen and any of the Royal family stay when they are in town. They have their own suite, which you can stay in for $2000 a night, but you had to sign a contract that says you will promptly move out if they happen to make a surprise visit to the city. This place also has seen celebrities over the years: Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton stayed in the same room BEFORE they were married; the Beatles stayed here for a week and they had to shut down the street because fans found out where they were staying and camped out.

Toronto has 2 city halls an old one, which I took a picture of that has the clock tower and the gargoyles. The newer one is a futuristic looking building, but I didn’t get a good picture of it.

It was difficult to take pictures as you weren’t able to stand up because we were driving just below all of these cables for the streetcars (see photo below). This is a picture of a news van that was in an accident and instead of trashing the car; they made it into a “work of art”. The wheels of the van never stop to illustrate that news never stops.

Check out the Miami Dolphin taxi cabs!!

After the 2 hour tour, we hopped off when they said they were going to be at that stop for 20 mins or so. We set off toward the marina and went in search for a waterfront restaurant.

Had a nice cocktail and lunch before we headed to our Marina Tour. The boat we took on the tour was an open air boat, it actually looked like it could go very fast, but the Captain never took it out of NO WAKE ZONE speed. The Marina tour guide was not as informative as our Bus Tour Guide, but the tour did allow us to get a nice picture of the Harbor front and the Skyline (you could stand up on the boat with the only worry was a stray dropping from the seagulls above!

 

After the Marina tour we headed back toward the Hockey Hall of Fame, but like I said we were a little late, so we decided to head back to Union Station to find our way home. We had to ask 3 people and finally the third person I asked, a patient lady, gave me a tutorial on how to read the signs and find our track. It was weird because we knew what station we needed, but the train line was not written on the ticket. Once she told me what to look for we were ready, of course, another weird thing was the track does not get announced (or put on the board) until about 8-10 minutes before the train arrives—a bit nerve racking as everyone is standing around with their eyes glued to the screens and then when the board gets updated, everyone makes a mad dash for the stairs to get to the track. Be careful not to get distracted on your FaceBook, or you may miss your train.
Our trip home was a fun one. We sat across from 2 people who were headed to Milton (our stop) and the one beyond. We got to talking about Toronto, they have both lived here their entire lives and of course, we had to fill them in on our Canadian adventures. Come to find out as we were getting close to the station, the man turns to the women and asks her name, “I’m sure I know you from somewhere”. How about this for small world, they went to the same high school and she works with his sister.

Got home about six, had some dinner and enjoyed a nice campfire and conversation with our neighbors.

 

 

The drive from Sault Ste Marie to Sudbury we had rainy weather. When we checked into Carol’s Campground the rain had let up, but when we got to our site, there were mud puddles everywhere—so bad that Daisy refused to lay down or sit outside.

Selfie with Daisy at the lakeBut I will say, the next morning, Daisy and I took a nice long walk and found a beautiful lake, some bunny rabbits to try to chase, and a snake. Check out these pictures:

The next day we headed to Toronto, this was a 4 ½ hour drive and we knew we were going to hit some traffic, so I volunteered to drive the first 2 hours. Good thing too, even though the GPS took us on the outer loop to get to Milton which is Southwest of Toronto, the traffic was heavy and the construction was crazy. Curt did a great job driving on the highway with the crazy weaving in and out people and the big trucks. It was a white knuckle drive for sure. But while we were headed out of the city, we noticed the inbound Toronto traffic was heavy the whole way. Did you know that 6 million people live in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area)—that is more than the population of the providence of Manitoba? (Fun Jeopardy fact).

The campground is beautiful, lots of green space.

The one thing that would make it a perfect place (besides an internet that actually works) is if they put a fence around one of the big fields for a dog park. When we started out our trip, on the west coast, there were a lot of campgrounds that had dog parks, or dog parks close by—poor Daisy has been tethered for many weeks now. I can’t trust her to run free, if she sees a squirrel or rabbit, she would be gone into the woods and not sure she would come back.  There was plenty of green space to walk her, but also lots of bunnies and squirrels.

After our long drive, while Curt set up the water and electric and sewer and after I unpacked the inside, I made us some fresh fruit margaritas.  We had bought the lemons, limes, and oranges a few days ago, but with the rainy weather and cold, there hasn’t been a good time to enjoy…until now.

We weren’t here 30 minutes and our neighbors arrived. At first we were upset about it, but these people were wonderful. They had 2 kids who were in love with Daisy!! Even though they had their own dog…Charlie, a big one year old black lab who wanted to play with Daisy too. Their friends came and stayed next to them so it was a big family gathering with 2 more kids and Charlie’s brother. We have found Canadians to be very friendly folks. We would talk across the campfires in the evening, and on their last day, they invited us over for a beer (they stayed Wednesday til Sunday, we were staying until Tuesday).  And when they left on Sunday, it got quiet for a few minutes (no kids), but then it got loud…we could now hear the traffic from the highway.  All weekend they had been our sound barrier and we didn’t even know it.  No one filled those spots for the rest of the time we were there.
When we arrived here, we were commenting to the camp host about the traffic and wanted to visit Toronto while we were here. She told us even though the GPS would say a 45 minute drive, it would probably take us 2 hours to drive their and to find parking was very expensive. She gave us directions to the GO train station and told us it would take about 35 minutes to ride in—we were up for the adventure!!

 

In Saulte Ste Marie, we stayed at the Glenview Cottages and RV park. We pulled into the park right behind 2 other RVs. We all got spots right next to each other, the first two happened to be traveling together we would learn later. Because it had been raining for several days now, the lady checking us in told us we could take up two spots so that we could straddle the puddles at the ends of the two spots. So there we all were 3 RVs taking up 6 spots, but you didn’t hear us complaining. Drizzle continued as we disconnected our truck and connected our water, electric and sewer. The camp host was another great tour guide once we asked SSM had for us to explore, she whipped out her map and went on to tell us the things to see and places to eat. We were craving some good seafood after driving along the lake and seeing sign after sign advertising Fish and Chips and fresh Walleye and other seafood choices. She sent us down to a local steak restaurant that as advertising Shrimp and Lobster fest. We would try this out for dinner. First we had business to tend to.

On the way to SSM, the truck told us it was time to get an oil change, so Curt wanted to get this taken care of soonest. We headed to Canadian Tire, which reminds me of a Tire Store crossed with a Walmart (that doesn’t sell food), carrying every household item as well as tons of Auto supplies. By now it was after 4 pm, in addition to getting the oil change, the passenger side window was not working right, not going up and down well, sounding like the motor was dying. Since it was so late, there was no getting all this done this late. So we made an appt for tomorrow morning and headed back to the Steakhouse for dinner. Curt ordered the Prime Rib and I got the Lobster and Shrimp. The cost of the lobster and shrimp was a bit high, but I was already tasting the lobster dipped in melted butter! But NO…I was very disappointed. First they brought out bread that you could tell was micro was waved as it cooled it got hot and chewy. I complained about this, the waitress apologized and returned later with some fresh bread, it was very good and made me mad we didn’t get the fresh the first time. The lobster was overcooked and chewy! The loaded baked potato had scimpy amounts of butter, cheese and bacon bits. For the price we paid, I expected a much better meal. When the waitress came by to ask us how our meal was, I told her that I was disappointed with the overcooked lobster. After that, she never came back, we had to get another waitress to fill our water. Well lesson learned, from now on we will be checking Yelp before accepting recommendations. When Curt went to put a review on Yelp, he learned that the restaurant only had a 2 star review. We would have never gone here had we checked this first.
Back to the camper and Curt was happy that we had 6 TV channels!

The next morning, we woke early and headed to Canadian Tire to get the Oil Change and have them fix the window. After we dropped off the car, we walked down the road to a restaurant to get breakfast. Not much choice on breakfast, this restaurant was attached to a hotel, but it was a nice place and the service was excellent. We got a good amount of food, coffee and tea, all for under $20. We took our time talking about our next stops of our trips. After about an hour or so, we headed back pick up the truck. Unfortunately, since it was Saturday and the Ford Service Center was closed, they were unable to fix the window issue, but the oil change was a success and they checked all the fluids, the truck got a clean bill of health!

So a few days ago, I came out in the morning to see that the paper towel roll was disturbed and pulled out. I looked at Daisy and asked her why she jumped up on the counter and what she was doing messing with the paper towels. She just looked at me and wagged her tail. But as I looked closer, I realized this was not Daisy…we had picked up a hitchhiker at one of our stops—a rodent!!! As I looked I around the camper looking for other signs, I looked in the oven and there was some of the papertowel and also some of the insulation. Oh NO…Curtis get up!!!!! I yelled for him to get up. He came out and agreed with my conclusion and so he headed down to get a mouse trap, but the only thing they had was a glue trap and the mouse was messing with the trap—we saw footprints, but they weren’t stong enough to capture it. So while we were here at Canadian Tire, we got some extra-duty mouse traps. More to come on this saga.

After picking up the truck, we stopped at a Farmers Market and got some fresh Romano beans (never had them before, but they came highly recommended), fresh cherry and roma tomatoes, and lime sugar cookies. .
After that we headed down town to go to the SSM Canal National Historic Site. The Canal contains a lock to join Lake Nicolet and the Saint Mary’s River to Lake Superior. The weather was finally sunny and the temperature was supposed to get to mid 70’s, a good day to get out and do some trailing and walking. There is a canal on the Michigan side as well and that is the one that gets most of the commercial traffic, so the Canadian canal gets mostly recreational traffic.

The boats enter the locks and then the conductor closes the gate. The water then falls 21 feet to allow the boat to get through. After the 20 million gallons of water exits the lock, the gates open and the boats proceed through. The boats need to give the Canadian side only about 20 minutes notice in order to get through. After watching a tour boat go through, we wandered down to the end of the pier and were able to get a panoramic picture of the Canadian side around to the USA side. We also walked a couple of trails. We were trying to walk to the other side of the island so we could see the American locks, but the trail was washed out due to too much rain. I was not adventurous and didn’t want to get our shoes wet so we headed back. We also saw a few sea planes take off, didn’t get any great pics or see any land, but they were around.

 

Below Curt is pointing at the US flag and the Canada flag!!

Of course as we were visiting the locks, we eyed a cute little wine bar and stopped in there for a glass of wine and a charcuterie plate, our favorite!! We sat at the bar and had some great conversation with Lindsey our barmaid and the manager of the place. Today was their one year anniversary, so we kept trying to get free wine from them, it almost worked, but not quite!!

 

We headed back to the camper and I sent Curt out to get us some wood so we could have a campfire. They were out at the campground, so he doubled back to the gas station and picked up some local wood.
The next day we had to get up early to go on a train ride. We took a train ride up to northern Ontario to the Agawa Canyon. It was a long train ride, 3.5 hours out and 4 hours back and about 90 minutes to explore the Canyon.

The train car and seats were comfortable and the windows were large so you could see all of the sites. They told us there were moose to be seen, but still we have seen NO MOOSE!!

 

Check out the fish in the water…the Lochness Monster!!

We got some nice pictures of the scenery and once we reached the canyon, we took all of the trails to see the 3 waterfalls that were scattered there. The one trail we passed on took you to a look out, but it was 300 steps up and there would not be enough time to see the waterfalls if you took the overlook trail so we passed on that one. It was a nice day to walk the trails,, so we were happy. The trip back, however, was a long one.

 

 

By the end I had had enough was starting to get some motion sickness. Finally we pulled into the station and we had to hurry back to rescue Daisy who had spent a long day in the camper and a quite dinner of left overs was in order. After dinner we enjoyed a campfire using the second half of the wood—you are not supposed to move wood, so we had to finish it up tonight, as there was rain in the forecast tomorrow.
The next day it was supposed to rain all day. What better way to spend a rainy day, than to do laundry. Of course, as I have said our internet was crazy. Because we were so close to the border, the phones kept picking up Verizon, but would only give us one bar. It was impossible to search the internet for additional laundry facilities when the first place we went to was closed, even though the hours posted said they should be open. We actually had to go and sit in the parking lot of a Tim Horton’s Doughnut shop so we could pick up there WiFi to search another facility. We were on the way to a place when I spied a coin laundry—one in the hand. We turned around and tried it out. It was a small place, but the lady who worked there was so helpful and pleasant, glad we turned around. The only part I didn’t like was when I was sitting at the table loading up a blog post (since the WiFi was tolerable), a man tapped me on the shoulder and told me to get up because these were the folding tables. So not wanting to cause a scene, I stood up and finished my post while standing up with the computer on one of the washing machines. The machines were good, as we were in and out in less than 2 hours. I think that is a record for us and not only that, we paid the bill with all of our left over coinery and didn’t have to get change of any bills. Clean laundry and when we returned, the rain stopped and I was able to sweep and mop the floors of the camper. They really needed it with all the mud and dirt we had been tracking in with the rain the past few days. During the housecleaning, I discovered that our house guest had made it into one of the kitchen drawers as evidenced by his droppings. Well of course this freaked me out and we ended up taking out all of the drawers to find out how he got in. Again sent Curt out to get some steel wool so that I could block that entrance and keep him out of my drawers. We hadn’t seen him in a day or so, but he was chowing down on the peanut butter Curt was putting in the trap…UGH!!!
After my cleaning frenzy, we had a nice dinner at home. Curt cooked up those romano beans we got a the farmer’s market using a ham hock we had in the freezer that we bought in South Dakota and I baked some chicken in the over since it wasn’t really hot—high today was 70 after the rain cleared out. We had a long drive in the morning, so we watched Ninja Warrior and went to bed early.
On the road again in the morning.

As we have made it to the Lake areas, the weather has changed; we are getting more rain, more humidity and cooler temperatures in the evening. Leaving Thunder Bay, the forecast was for rain all day the following day. It is really a pain to pack up your camper to move when it is raining. Everything gets wet, the inside of the camper, the dog, the car and YOU! So we tried to be proactive the night before and put everything away, emptied the tanks and hooked up the truck to the camper.

In the morning it was that misty rain, so not too bad, but not much to get us on the road.
We split the driving. Curt took first leg, I took the second and Curt finished up for the end. The drive was supposed to be a pretty one as it was along the water—Lake Superior, but the rain did roll in and there was not much to see. Also we hit lots of construction along this route.

They were blasting the rocks so at times it was dead stop and flag man and one lane throughways. The drive was supposed to be 5.5 hour drive, but with the construction, rain and our stop in White River it was closer to 7 hours.

So did you know that the Winnie the Pooh story starts in White River, Ontario? As the story goes, Captain Harry Colebourn, a Canadian Army Veterinarian, was on his way back home and had a stopover on the train in White River, Ontario. He got off the train and was walking around and folks would come to the train stop to sell their wares and he noticed that someone was selling a bear for $20. He bought the bear, got back on the train and took the bear home to his hometown. He named him “Winnie” after his hometown of Winnipeg; we missed visiting his home there while we were in that town. When the Captain returned to the war, Winnie traveled with him to the United Kingdom and he left him at the London Zoo for safe keeping while the troops went to France for active duty. After his service, Capt. Colebourn returned to London to pick up Winnie, but when he saw how happy Winnie and the children that visited to zoo were, he decided to leave him there. It was Winnie at the London Zoo that gave A.A.Milne the inspiration for Winnie the Pooh stories. When we arrived at White River, Ontario it was raining quite hard, but we battled the rain to visit the visitor’s center. The Visitor’s Center staff was all outside under a huge white tent readying for tomorrow’s start of the Winnie the Pooh festival that would start the next day—darn we just missed it.

An hour or so down the road and we arrived at Wawa. As we arrived, the rain was trailing off and we were able to set up quickly. Curt went to check in and found that the lady didn’t have our reservation (we called ahead and gave them the wrong dates), but no worries, she was nice enough to find us a site for overnight. We left early this morning (for us), on the road by 0930, so despite the long drive we still arrived at the site relatively early and received a site that was not flooded. The family that came in a few hours after us got the site right next to ours and it was flooded with several inches of puddles. We kept everything hooked up and attached our electric and water and settled in for another night of zero TV reception and terrible internet reception, despite the claims of free Wi-Fi. We truly are roughing it!! I can hear all of the tiny violins playing out there.
The drive from Wawa was another miserable drive. We started out with fog, more construction and rain. This also was supposed to be a pretty drive as well since it hugged the coastline of Upper Lake Superior. On the way we followed the signs that announced the upcoming Agawa Indian Crafts Center. For those who have driven the I95 corridor through the Carolinas, it would remind you of the signs announcing the South of the Border tourist trap. This was a very similar attraction. They sold gas, which we needed!! So we decided to park and check it out.

The store had craft times and art that were made by local artists. Unfortunately, there was no art that would go with “beach theme”, so we got out of there relatively cheaply, just picking up an Ontario Christmas Ornament.

With only another hour down the road, we arrived at our next stop—Saulte Ste Marie (pronounced Soo Saint Marie)—I probably should have known that as I have taken several years of French in high school and college.

I made it, I drove from Ignace to Thunder Bay and it was a nice drive. As we drove toward Thunder Bay, our campground was about 15 km outside of Thunder Bay. We stayed at Happyland RV campground. It was a nice campground and we had a great spot with lots of trees and secluded. It was probably the first campground that we didn’t get direct sunlight. If we put out the awning, we had shade from morning til night. As we pulled into the site, we noticed that the next door neighbors had a North Carolina license plate and they also had a FSU license plate. Needless to say, they eyed the Gator on the back of Curt’s truck right away. We struck up a good conversation right away. But it would have to wait until we came back from getting some food.
We headed back to Kakabeka Fall (the city where the campground is located) for lunch. We were famished and I knew what I wanted to order at the little pizzeria we found–French Fries!! This was the 2nd time I have gotten the French Fries in Canada and these were the best ever!!!  The waitress brought us vinegar to put on our fries???  But Curt being the adventurous type, tried the vinegar on his fries.  Not bad he says, so I had to try it.  It was not bad, but I’ll stick with the plain old fries.  They remind me of the boardwalk fries. I ordered a personal pizza too, but wanted to make sure that I finished the fries so I brought the pizza home for later. Curt got a panzerotti, a calzone type thing that was made with fried bread instead of pizza dough and loaded with cheese, meat and sauce. They don’t have good iced tea here in Canada, they use Nestea instant tea or Brisk canned tea.
Headed back to take Daisy for a walk and settle in for the night. Unfortunately, no WiFi and no TV channels. Curt has been a good sport, he really is a TV junkie and it has absolutely been difficult with no TV. I think if we ever do this full time, we will have to invest in a satellite TV that gives us TV as well as internet. We splurged and bought the unlimited data before we left Washington, but since we have been in Canada, we don’t have “unlimited”—once you use 1.5 gigs, it slows incredibly. Not only can I not keep up with friends and family on Facebook, I cannot post my blog. I know that disappoints everyone.
So anyway back to Thunder Bay, on Monday, we were up and ready to explore downtown. It wasn’t the best of weather, a little cool and overcast, but we made the best of it. We started out exploring Prince Arthur Landing, Marina. Below are some pics from the excursion:

We headed off to lunch at Wacky Wings, that is a franchise here and the place has good wings and food, Curt had the wings and I had a Chicken Caesar Wrap, but the fries were not the “real” French fries we have come to enjoy. Wacky Wings is a cross between Buffalo Wild Wings and Dave & Busters. We passed on the games part and headed home to the camper.
We have been having some Camper difficulties. As you know if you have been following us, we had to take it into the shop back in Minot to get a piece installed to fix our kitchen slide. Or at least that is what we thought. It didn’t fix our slide or any of the other issues we have been having. But one of the biggest issues we have been concerned about is our trailer brakes. Back when we were at Ellsworth in South Dakota, another Grand Design owner came to say hello and took a look at our tire rims and told me that we had a brake seal leak issue. He introduced me to the Grand Design Facebook page where I heard others sharing their concerns about brake issues. We have not had any braking issues, but wanted to make sure there was nothing to worry about. After the Minot shop refused to check the brakes, I decided to email Grand Design Customer Service line and ask if there were any concerns. After a few days we received a call back and they told us to take our trailer into the shop to get them checked as soon as we could. This was concerning to us, so on Monday while in Thunder Bay we called an RV Service Person (I looked up on the internet and found the place with the best reviews). We called Al Repair shop on Monday afternoon and told him our concerns and he said can you bring it in TOMORROW?? Yes he said TOMORROW? Not 3 weeks from now. Not only that, he knew we were living in the trailer, he said, and “what is the best time for YOU”??? Best time for US??? Who was this Al…our hero!! We took our trailer in the next day and had it to his shop by 1000. He asked us to wait until he took the brakes apart and he could give us a quote. It was about 45 minutes later when he came to get us and show us the issues. The brake seals were in fact leaking and that was the reason for the black grit on our tire rims. We authorized the repairs and he told us to call back about 1400 and he would give us an update. Wow!! I finally had piece of mind knowing our brakes were up to snuff. All thanks to Al!!!
While we were waiting for Al to make the repairs on Tuesday, we had Daisy with us and decided to go and explore the Sleeping Giant Provincial Park.

 

 

On the way to Sleeping Giant that was about 45 minutes East of Thunder Bay, we passed a monument for Terry Fox. Terry Fox is a young man, who while a teenager was diagnosed and lost his leg to cancer. He was considered “cured”. And in honor of the many children and other people that he met in his cancer journey, he decided he wanted to run his “Marathon of Hope”, across Canada run to raise money for cancer research. He started his journey in St John’s, Newfoundland on April 12, 1980; he ran the equivalent of a marathon a day (26 miles a day) across 5 provinces when at mile 3,339, and his cancer recurred and forced him to give up his run. He inspired an outpouring of immense national pride and raised $24M for cancer research. He passed on June 28, 1991. This monument is dedicated to his memory on behalf of the Ontario citizens.

We had purchased a National Park Pass for Canada, but the only time we have been able to use it has been in Alberta. Most of the Parks we have been seeing are Provincial Parks (like State Parks) and they do not take the pass. The Sleeping Giant Provincial Park charged $15 to spend the day and wanted to charge us $11 for a map.

But we decided to bypass the purchase of the pass and just drive through staying a few miles ahead of the vehicle pass monitor lady. We were just looking for a picnic area with a view as we packed a picnic lunch, but didn’t want to pay the money, so we just drove down to the end and back. Down at the south end there was a campground and General Store.  Oh and we also passed Rita Lake–of Aunt Rita fame.

View from the South end of the Park.

We stopped at the Terry Fox Monument on the way back and ate our lunch for free!!

We arrived back at Al’s repair to pick up our trailer and were on our way with piece of mind and recharged brakes. We were supposed to leave the next day, but we decided to stay another day since we had not even looked at where we would be staying the next day and it was supposed to be nice weather on Wednesday. Thankfully they gave us permission to stay in our spot for an extra day…Yeah!!

On Wednesday we took Daisy out for the day again and headed down to Kakabeka Falls. There were a few trails here and we got our exercise in. See the pictures below. Daisy was enjoying herself trying to chase the squirrels and pull my arm out of the socket in the meantime. Usually she doesn’t pull too hard, but not today. But she deserves some leeway once in a while, she has been such a good girl this trip.

So we headed back to the camper to plan our next few stops. This is where we ran into difficulty. We knew our next big stop was going to be Sault Ste Marie (pronounced Soo Saint Marie, as we know now), but it was a good 8 hour drive and usually we would like to make that into a 2 stop trip, but unfortunately, our first choice for stopping was booked up so we went to the next place a few miles further up the road—Wawa!!

Shortly after we left Winnipeg, with me driving–yes we decided to let Curt’s shoulder relax a few more days.  We came upon a marker on the side of the road–Center of Canada, in Landmark Canada, just southeast of Winnipeg. Curt was a little slow with the camera (he’s not used to sitting in the passenger seat), so we didn’t get a picture. This one is off of the internet. Landmark is actually the longitudinal center of Canada, or at least that is their claim to fame. If Curt were driving we may have made a U-turn and gone back to get a picture of the sign, but I was having no part of u-turning or even going around the block, which was really not a block but a farm or two. So you get what we got!

This was one of our longer drives in a while, 4.5 hours. We had reservations for Sunday at Thunder Bay and were planning a two stop before getting there, but had trouble with reservations so this leg was further with a two day stay. It was a little town named Ignace. When I say little town, I mean no stop sign and one restaurant, but the campground was pretty nice: Davy Lake Campground located right on Davy Lake. We had a nice tree by the site and an obstructed view of the lake. Again there was a nice trail for walking Daisy. We unhooked the camper and relaxed with a glass of wine. It was supposed to get down to 50 degrees tonight, so we agreed that it would be a good night for a campfire…unfortunately the camp store was all out of s’more kits…frowny face!

One of the things we like about camping is the friendly people you meet along the way. While we were enjoying our glass of wine, a lady came by walking her dog and of course her dog and Daisy had to say hello. We got to talking and she told us about a few good places to eat and visit in Montreal. I took some good notes so as to not forget.
Our next door neighbor came in rather late on Friday night in a travel trailer and walked over to say hello. He was from New Brunswick and was on his way to Manitoba to visit his son who at the age of 22 was a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and stationed over there. He had not seen him in over 6 months. He was very proud of his son and you could tell that he was looking forward to seeing him. He had a very strong accent and did not speak good English; I think French was his native tongue. He left early in the morning before I even got up to take Daisy for our morning walk.
The next day we decided we would go out for breakfast, since we ate all the eggs, so we ventured out to find the only “restaurant” which was in a hotel. It had a good breakfast and we did some exploring on the menu and had some “pea meal”. The waitress said it was a cross between bacon and ham with some corn meal around it. And she was right, that is exactly what it tasted like–Not bad at all.

There really wasn’t anything to do in this town so back to the campground for some more relaxation and catching up on the blog. Unfortunately, our cell service was terrible at the campground and they did not offer internet. We were truly off the grid. The hardest part about keeping up with the blog is the posting. The writing is one thing then you have to get the pictures from the 4 cameras and organize them into the right stop and then pick the best pictures to align with the story. But don’t get me wrong, I am glad to keep this account as we go all, of these places are running together, this will help us remember the trip.
The camp host was very friendly here and told us about a place we could pick wild blueberries. So later that afternoon we ventured out to go find us some blueberries!! This feat was a bit more difficult that we were led to believe. She directed us to a dirt road and said to follow it in. We did that and found ourselves looking up at a steep hill that I was afraid to drive the truck up. So we parked at the bottom and hoofed it up the hill all the while keeping a lookout for the blueberries. We actually had to google what a blueberry plant looked like, wondering if wild blueberries looked any different than the ones you buy at the grocery store. At the top of the hill we come upon this sign. It seems that Ignace is the beginning of a 48 km canoe trail that ends up at a “castle”.

But it is not a straight shot as you have to have several portages (that’s where you have to carry your canoe on land to get to the next lake or river)—so much for that canoe trip. We had found one blueberry plant on this trek that had 3 blueberries on it, big disappointment. So back to the truck we went and on the way out, Curt was driving now because I was freaking about the dirt road, I told Curt to go slow so I could look out and see if I could see any. Well, I’ll be darned about 100 feet in from the initial turn onto the dirt road, I saw a bush and then another.

There were quite a few blueberries, but most were still not ripe. See below the picture of the blueberries. No worries, I was going to mix them into my pancake mix tomorrow and enhance my blueberry pancake mix.

After the blueberry adventure, we headed back to the camper and ordered up another delivery of wood (you have to use local wood, due to some diseases they fear to be transported in the wood). We had dinner in and Curt started the fire while I walked Daisy—his shoulder still giving him some trouble. I guess I would be driving once again tomorrow, but only a 3 hour drive time this time—on to Thunder Bay!!

We had big plans on Day 2, but I think our busy couple of weeks finally caught up with us. Curt woke up in the morning ready to go (so he said), but he did not look ready to go. I gave him a couple Tylenol and sent him back to bed. While he was snoozing, I was very productive. Not only did this time give me a chance to catch up on the blog, it also gave me a chance to get some of the small jobs that needed to get done. (This is the day I posted the Brandon post, paying for the WiFi).  We had bought the “stuff” for the jobs along the way, but we haven’t had the time to do the tasks. So I installed a handle on my door, glued the trim on the bathroom doors, rearranged a couple of cabinets, and completely reorganized the underneath compartment so I didn’t have to put an empty cooler in and out of the camper at every site. I spent the rest of the day reading my book and catching up on the blog.
He got up after a few hours (I did check on him to make sure he was still breathing—neurotic nurse that I am—it is his left shoulder!) But I think being the only driver is taking a toll on his shoulder, tight muscles and grumpy attitude. He won’t tell me it hurts, he just tells me he will do whatever I want. Driving me crazy!!! But a relaxing day of no driving and early to bed as we only get limited TV channels, a French channel, a religious channel, and 3 public television stations.

Day 3 –Tuesday
Curt says he is feeling better, so we get up early and head out to the Assiniboine Zoo. It was the host’s recommendation to go see the polar bears and she told us to get there early to see them at their most active. We were there by 10 and headed right to the back to the Polar Bear exhibit. As you can imagine, there were ton of kids there, but we beat them in and beat them to the Bears. And the Bears did not disappoint. The exhibit is similar to the shark exhibit at Sea World where you walk through a tunnel in the water and the sharks swim all around you. Same thing the polar bears and sea lions were swimming all around. It was fantastic and worth the price of admission! I think I got some good pictures. The sea lions were so cute, a young kid had his red hat and he put it up to the glass and the lion would follow it and then he moved it in a circle and the lion pirouetted!! He had the crowd in awe—at least me.

The dancing polar bear!!

We made our way around the zoo and stumbled on to the dinosaur display (not really we knew it was there). Got some cool selfies with the dinosaurs.

It was a good thing we got there early, when we were ready to leave, the rain showers started. So we headed out to lunch to Montana’s BBQ. Just a quick lunch special, because tonight was our big night out!! First date in months. We got VIP tickets to Folklorama. Folklorama is a two week festival to celebrate all the diverse cultures they have in Winnipeg. Each culture has a venue where they present a show, share local cuisine (food and drink), and have local art and other things for viewing or purchase. So our number one choice was sold out, so we chose number two. We would be visiting Hungary and Ukraine. We drove out to a Canad Inns Casino to join the group and catch our bus.

Of course they asked where everyone was from and we were the hit of the bus when we shouted Florida! At each of the venues they introduced the group and when they mentioned they had a couple from Florida, we were instant celebrities!
At Hungary we were treated to our main course of dinner which tasted a lot like chicken cacciatore with some noodle dumplings called nokedli (NO key). I liked it and ate it all up! Next up was the show which was very entertaining although every dance seemed to be the same with lots of slapping of hands to feet by the men and lots of spinning and twirling by the women and lots of yelling by both. The band that was accompanying them came in all the way from Transylvania and they were very good. It was weird as there was one man in the dance company, who had the lead in many of the dances, but he danced facing the band that was situated to the side of the stage and not facing the audience; I think he had a crush on one of the band members. It was a long show. After it was over, we headed over to the Ukrainian venue.

Here we were getting dessert, but Curt who was not full from the last meal went up and got a small sampler plate: sausage, cabbage roll and savory pierogis. This was yummy too. The desert was blueberry and strawberry cheesecake pierogis, the filling was good, but the crust a bit soggy, but that didn’t stop me, I ate most of them, till I got full (or satisfied as we say in weight watchers!).
The Hungarian Show was fantastic!! They had a very funny (wannabe comic, but really a math teacher on break) Master of Ceremonies, who explained each dance and what area it had originated in. This is something the last place could have used. The dances were all very original and they had the crowd involved with clapping and frequent applauds—the men dancers were like acrobats with some of their moves. To break up the dancing, they also had the 2004 runner up of Canadian Idol, Theresa Sokyrka, perform. She was very good, although she sang the songs in Hungarian, her voice and performance were outstanding. At each of the venues we met some local Winnipegians who told us stories about the snow and winters – one more reason not to live here (well that isn’t true, it is always the same reason—SNOW!! AND COLD!!) Everyone was still very proud of their city, but intrigued by our story. All in all a very nice date night!!

Day 4 – Wednesday
The forecast today is 100% rain and temperatures in the 60’s. What should we do—Laundry of course. Finding the right laundromat is a chore each time and one that falls into Curt’s wheelhouse. He spends hours looking at different laundromats and reading reviews, because you have to be careful what area you go to. This one advertised drop off service. We took the laundry in and they were going to charge $1.15 per pound (I thought it was weird that it was not in kilograms). Last time we spent 2.5 hours and $35 (Canadian), so we were considering this drop off service. We did this one time when we were on vacation in San Francisco with the kids and it was so worth it and the stuff was so neatly folded, you hated to disturb it. But since they couldn’t have it ready until the next day and it was raining, we did our own laundry. It wasn’t as pricy this time as we got a dryer that actually worked and we were done in under 2 hours! The place advertised internet, but wasn’t strong enough for me to load my blog—this is becoming an issue. Our campground charges $3 per day/per device for internet. That is how I loaded the last two blogs. But we didn’t buy it the rest of the time, we truly are roughing it!!!
We headed to Walmart, yes again, to buy a new ice machine. Our ice machine bit the dust. It has been around since Guam days, so it served us very well, but we NEED an ice machine. Our freezer is not big enough to store ice and food, so we use our ice machine to keep us in Iced Tea! We also loaded up on Over the Counter meds for Curt’s shoulder. Bought muscle relaxer (didn’t realize you could get that OTC, but I guess you can in Canada), Icy Hot and Salanpas, needless to say it was an expensive Walmart visit. But, we did save 5 cents by bringing in our own bag—they charge 5 cents for plastic bags, we are on a budget!
Back at the camper and the host comes up to the door and asks us if we are staying another day, we say no we’ll be leaving tomorrow. She said, you were supposed to leave today! I turned to Curt who checked us in and he says, no we paid til the 9th. She said today is the 9th…OOOOOOPSY…#retiredlife. I told her I would be down to pay for our extra day and then asked if we could stay one more day since this rainy day and Curt’s sore shoulder has limited our exploring of the city. She said yes she has the space. We had a good laugh with that one!! We have no idea what day it is or what date it is. I haven’t worn my watch since we left, why bother right!
You meet some interesting people when you’re camping. And camping people are usually pretty friendly. Today a Class C came in 2 doors down and they were from Georgia and had Georgia Bulldogs on their license plate…I had to go over and say hello. They lived in Georgia (only people in the military have license plates from different places that the no longer call home, right!). They had 2 daughters one how lived in Atlanta and one who lived right outside of Winnipeg. The traveled up here with their grandchildren to visit her daughter. They had stopped at Hershey Park and Gettysburg and Bemidji (If you are a regular and keeping up with the Blog you all know what Bemidji is known for???? Remember it is where the Mississippi River starts. Did you remember??). They were headed to South Dakota next, so I downloaded all our SD recommendations and gave her a few books we picked up. Get ready K, D, A, R, and T Lockhead, you are going to get a whole bag of old books and brochures when we get to your house and there will be a test!!
Day 5 – Thursday
Curt’s shoulder icy-hot’d up and we are off to town again with me driving. Maybe that wasn’t fun. There is a reason Curt doesn’t let me drive his truck, he is a terrible front seat driver—yes worse than me!! And he is not a very good navigator relying solely on the GPS without consulting the map is just not good navigating etiquette and it makes for driving through downtown and construction. He tells me that the GPS should know when the road is closed for construction—but somehow it does not!
Anyway, we headed downtown to the windiest corner in the city the corner of Main and Portage, and yes it was windy and cool at 75 degrees, couldn’t imagine it at 20 degrees and snowing.

But what is cool is that you can walk around town both under and above the city. They have bridges between the buildings and through the buildings so you can basically get to all the main buildings without walking outside. I’m sure they are more crowded in January than they were today. Curt was done with the walking and we decided to head back to the Casino that we visited the other night. They had a cute pub in the casino (which was all NON-smoking by the way) and just had a snack and a drink. We signed up to get a card since the waitress told us we could get a discount if we had a card. We weren’t planning to gamble (well at least I was not, because I ALWAYS lose), but with the 15% discount on meals also came a $10 gift for gambling. So off to find an interesting machine we went. I sat down at Betty White. I have no idea how to play but since I was playing with the casino $$ plus another $20 I put in to get it started, I hit max play. On the first play, nothing; on the second play, I WON $20 and I was ready to walk away, but then I said, well just one more play; Betty White came up everywhere (there were at least 20 of her smiling at me) I WON $98 on the third play—now I was done! Curt lost his $10 + $20 (which are unusual), so we walked out on the positive side. But it all only took about 5 minutes, I thought we could play a little longer on the penny machines. I don’t do casinos very often, but as I searched for the right machine, I was looking for something where the maximum bet wasn’t very much–why do they call it a penny machine when the minimum bet is 50 cents? Betty was only $3 maximum bet, so that is why I picked her.
Back to the campground and a relaxing evening with more icy hot. The next day we were leaving and I would be driving on one of our longest legs yet—4.5 hours. It felt like we were in Winnipeg forever. I needed to get to bed early we would be headed to the next province—Ontario here we come!!

 

Hello family and friends, sorry for the delay in posting, but the internet is making posting blog episodes very difficult.  The campgrounds have limited wifi or it cost extra.  Please let us know you are enjoying the blog by posting comments or dropping us a line on FB.  Thanks!!

The trip from Brandon to Winnipeg was farmlands with a few small towns sprinkled through, but no crazy attractions worth stopping for. The directions took us around the city, which was good and we made it to the campground by about 2 pm. Time to relax and settle in for a home cooked meal. I took out a steak this morning and we would be grilling for the first time in a while.
Those of you that know us, know that Curt is the cook/chef of the family. Not that I can’t cook, but he enjoys it more, he was home more often to prepare the meals and he also thinks my cooking is bland. No worries, I enjoyed his Pinterest recipes! Well now with him doing all the driving (he hasn’t let me drive even though I ask every day, he says, he’d be bored sitting there with nothing to do), and not liking the limited space in the camper for cooking extravagant meals, the roles are reversed. I am now the cook/chef. I’d call me more the food preparer. I am not one to look up recipes on line or spend a lot of prep time—I grew up in an Irish family where every meal consisted of meat, potatoes (my parents would buy them by the 50 pound bag, no lie), vegetable and bread with a spaghetti dinner thrown in there once a week or so, usually on Tuesdays! So in other words, my meals are simple but filling and tasty. So whenever I am cooking the meal Curt will provide guidance from the recliner: Did you salt the water? Are you going to put some pepper in that? You are going to boil them? Are you sure you want to do that? Did you set the timer? And on and on and on….It’s all good, because most of the time I haven’t done or didn’t think to do the things he suggests. Anyway, the steak dinner (courtesy of the Fritz’s—we helped clean out their fridge before they packed out in Spokane) was perfectly cooked pink in the middle with just the right seasoning (even though I didn’t marinate it 30 minutes like he suggested–I was too hungry) baked potatoes and frozen veggies…but I forgot to make the mushrooms—you have to have mushrooms with steak—another Meg Fail!!
Knowing we had a lot of options tomorrow, we decided to stay in for the night and get our rest. Our campground host at Arrowhead RV Park gave us as much information as if we went to the Visitor’s Center. She spent a good 15-20 minutes telling us all the things to do in town. Curt and I looked at each other—maybe we need another day!! She loaded us down with maps with routes highlighted and coupons for CityPass’s. We had some work to do tonight to figure out where to start our Winnipeg adventure.

Right out back of the campground is a beautiful green space for long walks with Daisy. Check out these pics.

As everyone knows, Canada is cold and snowy in the winter, so when the summer rolls around, they try to fit as much as they can into their summers. There are so many festivals and events planned and Winnipeg did not disappoint. We already knew the Summer Games were going on; this is like Summer Olympics for Canada. We looked it up on line, however the only place we could find tickets for the days we were in Winnipeg was for soccer and Curt was not in for sitting in the sun watching soccer—he’s not a fan. Beach volleyball, basketball and diving were all sold out—darn! But that didn’t stop us, there was a Summer Games festival going on downtown so off to The Forks we go.
We were headed down to The Forks for the Summer Games festival, unfortunately the festival did not start until 530 pm and it was only 1 pm. But there was still a lot going on down there. The Forks is an outdoor mall area that has history, food court (reminded me of 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, only this building used to be an old horses barn, according to Capt. Dan). There is also a Marina here, where the Assiniboine River and the Red River meet.

We walked around and found a boat tour called Splash Dash River Boat tour. It cost $11 (which is $8.67) per person. That is what we keep saying, oh it’s cheap because it’s Canadian money, like its Monopoly money or something…NOT!! The exchange rate has been helpful for our budget, but the taxes are a killer…Provincial sales tax is 8% and the Goods and Services tax is 5% that equals 13% total…UGH!! So I digress, back to the Splash Dash River Boat tour. Our Captain was Captain Dan, of Forrest Gump fame (oops, not really, that was Lt Dan). Anyway he was a fantastic tour guide. The boat was a small pontoon boat and the tour had only 10 people on it, plenty of elbow room and Curt and I had our own seat – highly recommend it!! Capt. Dan loved history and told us so much about the city of Winnipeg and its rich history—reminiscent of the San Antonio River Cruise with less people and faster speeds. He was very proud of his city.

Our first stop on the cruise was the flood wall. Because Winnipeg is at the meeting of the two rivers: the Assiniboine and the Red and their proximity of the mountains and the amount of snow and freeze they get, they are prepared for flood every year. On the wall he showed us the blue line was a normal thaw and what happened most years, the yellow line is the one that happens every 10 years or so and requires some planning such as sandbagging, but the town can survive. But the red line shows that “once in a century flood”.

Winnipeg was hit by the Great Winnipeg Flood of 1950; a natural disaster was declared when the river remained over flood stage for 51 days. Many lost their homes and livelihoods—see red line on the wall. So after this flood, one of Winnipeg’s leaders, Dufflin Roblin, worked with local and federal officials and was able to secure both provincial and federal the funding to develop a flood control system including digging a 26 mile long ditch circling the city, building a 25 mile long dike across the river to act as a retaining lake, adding gates and control systems and raising most roads to above the flood levels. Many thought he was crazy and this project due to the cost and effort that it would take to complete was nicknamed Duff’s Ditch or Duffs’ Folly. However, the system was fully tested in 1997, dubbed when the “flood of the century” where the water flows was forecasted to be 50% greater than the 1950 flood. This Flood of the Century is the one that devastated and destroyed Grand Forks downtown with flood and fire and it was headed right for Winnipeg (the Red River runs North) and would be the first true test of the flood control system. According to Capt. Dan the city was an island for about 3 days as they waited for the flood waters to recede. So the city survived, but I am sure some of the farm lands were wiped out, but the infrastructure and most of the population endured.

Our next stop was the legislature building, this is a very pretty building. By the way, today was August 7, a civic holiday and in Manitoba, it was Louis Riel Day. According to Capt. Dan, Riel was a lawyer and political leader of the Metis (one of three recognized aboriginal people) and he was responsible for negotiating the Manitoba Act with the Canadian government which established Manitoba as a province and protected rights of its people. Despite being a hero to the Metis people, others across Canada considered him a villain for his role in several rebellions. He was sentenced to death and hanged, but he is still known as the “Founder of Manitoba”.
The legislature building has a Golden stature of Hermes atop of it, see picture
Capt. Dan took us further down up the river and brought us to a stop in front of a big house and went on to tell us about a man who made his fortune back in the beginning of the 1900’s and decided to take his family on a family vacation to Europe and Egypt for a month and they booked a return trip to the US on the Titanic. He never made it off the boat—his family (wife and children) did survive. The last they saw him he was standing on the deck of the boat with his favorite Winnipeg Buffalo Coat and in one hand he held a large cigar and in the other a glass of whiskey and he was telling his family how much he loved them. Sad story, the rich man’s name was Mark Fortune…no lie, google him.

Next stop on our tour was to position us to take a picture of the famous Winnipeg tourist attractions. It is the view you see on many of the postcards: the Esplanade Riel (named after Louis) which is a pedestrian bridge that has a restaurant in the middle and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

Next photo op was the St Boniface Cathedral Façade, which is located in Winnipeg’s French Quarter. The Cathedral was built in 1894, but was destroyed by fire in 1968. Most of the Cathedral was made of wood and burned completely to the ground in ashes, but the stone façade survived the fire. According to Capt. Dan the round stained glass window exploded and stained glass was found clear across the river. The new cathedral was build next to the façade. Check out these pictures. After the boat ride we walked over to the French Quarter and stopped in the cathedral and said a prayer thanking God for the blessings he has given us and also for the opportunity to enjoy this fantastic trip of a lifetime!

The Capt. Dan’s tour was enjoyable, entertaining and educational. It was also a great escape from the heat of 85 degrees. After the tour we decided to walk over the Esplanade Riel and stop in for a drink at Mon Ami Louis restaurant for a Sangria and a great view of the river. Had some munchies and waved to the boats as they rode underneath us.
We walked over to the Cathedral like I said above and during that walk we received a FaceTime call from my family who was visiting with Mom and Dad in Philadelphia. It was great to talk to everyone especially my nieces and nephews. I think about them when I’m writing this hoping to not only show them pictures of the places we traveled, but to also to give them some fun facts about these places so they can win big on Jeopardy.
Our parking was about to expire so we headed back over the Esplanade and through the Forks. We were leaving just as the festivities were about to begin, but we had to go home and rescue Daisy. Our dinner consisted of a romantic dinner of left overs and sandwiches at Meg’s Diner!

On the road again and finally headed to Canada. Because we got out of Minot so late, we only got about an hour down the road before we found a nice campground at a city park with full hookups in Bottineau, ND —home to Tommy Turtle. It was a pretty campsite with lots of grass for Daisy to lie out in the sun. A quick dinner at home and a relaxing evening.
The next day we planned a busy one with several stops with our camper on our way to our next stop in Canada.

About an hour down the road, we entered the International Peace Garden located at the 49th parallel north of Bottineau. It was built and designated as a symbol of friendship with water fountains, formal gardens, statues and a 911 memorial. You can roam back and forth across the international border freely. It was dog friendly, so we were able to take Daisy on our walk around the grounds.

 

Promise of Peace Sculpture

After leaving the Peace Gardens, we headed across the Canadian border. The Border Agent was very friendly and asked how are trip was going. A far cry from the treatment we received entering the US last time. We even claimed our wine and he told us that we should pay a duty but he was going to let us through since we declared. We then told him about being in transit on military orders and he said great, no duty needed! We were through in 5 minutes.
The next stop was a small town called Boissevain, Manitoba located in the heart of the Turtle Mountains, hence all the turtles we’ve been seeing.

Boissevain’s claim to fame is the town’s “Outdoor Art Gallery”. As we drove into town we were greeted by another Tommy the Turtle. Tommy is 28 feet tall and weighs 4.5 tons; he is the town’s mascot. The town used to be the home of the historic Canadian Turtle Derby that started in 1972, but the community “ended” it in 2001—I’m pretty sure there is more to that story, but I did not pursue the “why”. If you find out, please drop us a line.

After a quick visit to the Visitor’s Center, who handed me a Tommy Turtle pin and several Canadian Flag pins, we all (Daisy included) set off with our map to find the Outdoor murals around the town. Here is a picture of the Heritage Tree; the story is this tree was planted from a walking stick used by an 1800’s business man, William Venables.

Below are some of the more interesting and better preserved murals that we located:

Next stop Brandon, our stop for the night at Turtle Crossing Campground. After setting up the camper, we ventured to downtown Brandon and had dinner at a nice little pub called The Dock on Princess (Princess was the name of the street). We don’t usually eat out very much, but I think we were still celebrating Blue ID Card Day! After dinner we stopped in at the Visitor’s Center and got the low down on the city from a young college girl who worked there. She was really excited to tell us about her small town. After telling her we only had a few hours, where does she suggest we go, she sent us to “Crow’s General Store”…we were off!

She did not disappoint, Crow’s General Store was a mix of Ice Cream Store and antique shop. Fun times, check out the pics where the owner took our pics, posed us in all these different ways and even supplied the hats. He was so excited we came by to visit, even though we didn’t stay for ice cream—I was still full from dinner.
Another busy day in the books!