Day 13 - Wednesday May 31/17

(Written and posted May 31/17)

Today we travelled from mountain-to-mountain (Riding Mountain National Park, MB - to - Moose Mountain Provincial Park, SK), while still staying on the prairies!

Some surprises for Nancy on this sunny warm day.  The day started with a trip into the village of Wasagaming located in the national park. Our purpose was to buy a post card. It is still early in the season here so most of the shops haven’t opened yet. In trying the door of a shop that looked like it might be open, Nancy pulled with some force on the door. Nothing happened so she tried again even harder. Having no success she walked away. When she was halfway down the walkway she thought she heard an alarm, but thought nothing of it. A few doors down we located a suitable shop and made our $.80 purchase. Just before leaving the store the clerk was overheard talking to an alarm company saying she had no idea what might have caused the alarm. Rather shamefacedly Nancy fessed up to being the culprit. Everyone had a laugh and the clerk was even nice enough to offer a tour of the log-built theatre attached to the store both of which are owned by her grandparents. (photo) 

What a lovely building with seating for 500 - the largest log cabin theatre in North America!It is in terrific repair and operates daily during the tourist season. The building was constructed as another part of the make-work projects of the 1930’s depression.  

We enjoyed spectacular views of farms, forests, rivers as we headed south down the escarpment. Over the course of the day we did notice lots of evidence of abandoned family farms. A gas station owner in Wasagaming told us he had had to abandon his 25 years as a small farmer and run a business in town because he couldn’t compete with agribusiness.

We arrived in Brandon just in time for lunch at McDonalds, gas at Husky and grocery shopping at Safeway. Back on the road we quickly exited the TransCanada Highway #1 and took a less travelled route to Souris. 

Intrigued by signs for a ‘swinging bridge’ we located the structure - a 184 metre pedestrian plank bridge. It is Canada’s longest suspension pedestrian bridge. We tried it out. (photo) 

As we were driving away we were amazed to see four peacocks walking noisily down the road. 

At this point we headed west through what appeared to be poorer farm land with some scrub areas, but overall quite flat. We encountered our first oil rigs pumping away in fields past Reston MB on Hwy #2. (photo) We expect to see many more.

Nancy was driving as we were about to leave Manitoba when she unexpectedly pulled the rig onto the shoulder and stopped saying “I’ve got to get a picture.” There was a road sign indicating the name of the nearest community. It said ‘TILSTON’. This is Nancy’s maiden/birth name. Here she is proudly posing. (photo) Her second surprise of the day!

We entered Saskatchewan around 4:30 but there was no sign indicating the change of province, hence no photo.

Given the strong winds we have experienced since leaving Ontario we are wondering why we haven’t seen any wind turbines. A quick Google search told us that there are less than 200 wind turbines in Saskatchewan as compared to over 2000 in Ontario. A commitment has been made to significantly increase this province’s commitment to wind power by 2030 however.

We arrived at Moose Mountain Provincial Park at 5:45. Well, we thought it was 5:45. It turns out Saskatchewan doesn’t observe daylight savings time. Our phones told us 4:45 and we thought they had misfunctioned. We should know better and learn to trust our devices! 

The wildlife report for today (over and above the peacocks in Souris) include: a magpie (photo), a hummingbird that visited our campsite tonight, many herds of cattle - Charolais and Black Angus. At the park there are tent caterpillars everywhere, all over the roadway, the picnic table and occasionally us.

Although our campsite is not on the lakeshore, we did watch the sun set while we enjoyed a campfire, and walked around to the lake when we went to check to the shower building (photo)

Day 12 - Tuesday May 30/17

(Posted May 30 at 9:50pm)

In Riding Mountain National Park - a beautiful sunny day, but cool, 11 degrees in the morning, up to about 15 in the afternoon.

Well, as suggested, there really is no blog post for yesterday. It truly was a relaxed day of not doing much but eating, reading, and napping. Oh, in the afternoon we drove over to the Park Visitor Centre and got some information about things to do and see in the park, and we did manage to wash the truck in the evening. Then we watched a couple of episodes of the Rowan Atkinson British comedy show Black Adder (DVD)!!

This morning we showered and had breakfast (granola and yoghurt with apple, banana (and raisins for Michael), and then prepared beef stew in the crock pot to cook during the day. Then we made egg salad sandwiches for a picnic lunch.

We left camp at about 11, and got gas in the village of Wasagaming - $1.04.9. Then drove to the Bison Range in the park - about a 45 minute drive, mostly on dirt roads. (photo)

Did you know that in 1989 there were fewer than 100 bison left in Canada. Today there are more than 40,000 - and they are no longer in danger of becoming extinct. However, the bigger issue is that there is very little prairie fescue grassland for them to graze on - less than 5% of the former 255,000 square km that used to be. (photo)

Saw a great signboard about the relationship between indigenous people and the bison, through the seasons (photo)

We were very pleased to find three large bulls grazing in the South Range, visible from a viewing platform. We thought we had really lucked out!(photos)

However, we were then extremely delighted when we went to the North Range to find a small herd of about 30 cows and bulls, including 4 calves (photos)

We pulled off to the side of the roadway and ate our picnic lunch in the truck, literally in the midst of the grazing bison. (photos)

After our ‘bison lunch’ (with, not of!!), we travelled north in the park to Moon Lake where moose are often seen. Walked on a trail around the lake for an hour; saw moose tracks and moose poop, but no moose!! (wrong time of day, we think)  (photos)

Pants tucked in socks for tick protection!

At Moon Lake

At Moon Lake, on a small bridge over a creek running from a marsh -
Note the beaver lodge in the background (between us)

Came back to camp about 4:30, had a nap, and then a fabulous beef stew supper - outside on the picnic table (one of the first times weather has permitted eating outdoors on this trip!). About 130km of touring in the park today.

Then we washed the trailer, and rinsed off the truck again!. 

Rocinante II is all clean again!!
Note the flowers in the window - still going strong from Mother's Day!

Now a quiet evening of blogging and emailing.

Tomorrow we head into Saskatchewan - destination Moose Mountain Provincial Park, about 300 kms.

Day 10 - Sunday May 28/17

(Written and Posted Monday May 29/17)

Birds Hill Provincial Park, MB (near, NE of, Winnipeg) to Riding Mountain National Park (near, just S of, Dauphin). 

Today we travelled 377 km. It seemed that we were travelling up a slight grade almost continuously as we headed west and north (a check online of a topographic map of the province suggested that this was true), and as well battled strong winds from the northwest. As a result of these two factors, the truck stayed in 5th gear (instead of 6th) most of the way just to maintain 80-85kph!! We travelled through solid overcast and intermittent rain all day.

Total distance travelled to date is 3,052 km (which includes about 200 km of sightseeing without the trailer).  So our daily average is about 285km/day travelling over 10 days.

Wildlife Report: We saw pelicans again, in large numbers, at our lunch stop at the Portage Spillway just outside Portage la Prairie (photos),

and as well prairie dogs at the same location (sorry, no photo - check the web!).

We saw a Great Blue Heron when we stopped at a heritage cemetery (see below)

On the way into Riding Mountain National Park a doe and fawn crossed the road in front of us and slipped into the bush, and a small black bear beside the road bounded off into the forest as we passed by.

We were again struck by the ‘flatness’ of this prairie landscape, and also by the rich-looking black earth on the huge farms (photos)

Three other stops along the way:

The Old Baie St. Paul Cemetery: A heritage cemetery at a crossroads amidst farm fields, preserved and dedicated in memory of an RC priest, Fr. Georges-Antoine Belcourt, a Canadian Jesuit from QC, who was a strong advocate for the rights of indigenous peoples and Métis. This stance brought him into conflict with both the Hudson Bay Company and the Church. He was relocated by the Church to North Dakota! Later he was relocated by the Church to Rustico, PEI, where he founded The Farmers’ Bank of Rustico, the first community-based bank in Canada! A true social activist! (in our humble opinion!). He was designated a National Historic Person by the Gov’t of Canada in 1959. (photos)

St. Paul’s Anglican Church, also in Baie St. Paul, a delightful little country church, established in 1910  (photo)

And a heritage hockey arena at Poplar Point: This village celebrated 100 years of hockey in 2013 (photos)

We chose to go into Riding Mountain National Park via the East Entrance off hwy 19, which has the last remaining historical entrance gate of the park, built as a relief work project 1934-35 during the Depression, in a traditional rustic design using local materials. (photos)

It was an interesting drive into the Wasagaming campground in the park - 35 km of dirt road that wound up the Manitoba escarpment, and was quite muddy and very rutted in places. The truck and trailer bore the evidence of that drive (photo)

The park is huge, and the campground well-designed. This is our first stay in a National Park on this trip, and our first experience of a full-service campsite (electric, water and sewage hookups).

We arrived at the campground about 6:30pm, and chose to just level the trailer side-to-side, but stay hooked up to the tuck (with a slight back-to-front slant!) because we were feeling tired out. After a long day of driving, we had supper - comfort food of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, and had an early night to bed!

Oh, and we were successful in our quest
for a new camp coffee perc - at Canadian
Tire in Winnipeg. It makes great coffee! (photo)

Today we are having a quiet day ‘in camp’ - so there may not be a blog post for today!

Day 9 - Saturday May 27/16

Another fine day! It was bright sunny when we got up and travelled into Winnipeg again today for more touring. 

We started off our adventures with a half-hour boat tour on the Assiniboine and Red Rivers at The Forks. Our Captain, Jay, convinced us that it isn’t really a ‘fork’, but a ‘confluence’ of the Assiniboine flowing south and east from Saskatchewan and the Red flowing north from North Dakota and Minnesota, jointly flowing into Lake Winnipeg. (photo)

About to board the Splash and Dash Tour Boat

We learned about the usual spring water level, and the flood levels of 1950 and 1997, and the Red River Spillway created under Premier Duff Roblin in the 1960’s.

We also saw the Legislative Building from the water, with a statue of Louis Riel on the riverbank (photos). Louis Riel, hung for treason, has been granted a pardon and is now considered to be a ‘Father of Confederation’ for his role in negotiating Manitoba’s entry into Canada.

We saw the area of an historical wooden wharf (the Exchange docks) on the Red River, formerly the busiest in Winnipeg for shipping goods on riverboats, (photo) but soon to be removed as the Eastern Exchange District continues to be redeveloped. Winnipeg seems to be experiencing an economic boom!

Also noticed many large trees washed up on the riverbanks from this spring's floods. (photo)

We lucked out in that it was Doors Open Winnipeg, and we got a free Doors Open ‘behind-the-scenes’ guided tour of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. (photos)

After a picnic lunch, we toured several of the museum galleries on our own, including Indigenous Peoples Gallery, the Canadian Story Gallery, and an exhibit about Izzeldin Abuelaish, a Palestinian doctor in Gaza whose three daughters and a niece were killed in an Israeli air attack and who has written the book “I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey”.  He is now a professor of medicine at U of T and an ambassador for peace. We finished our tour with a trip up into the Israel Asper Tower of Hope that crowns the museum building. (photo)

We picked up a new camping coffee perc at Canadian Tire and got good gas price ($0.95.4) (first time under $1.00/litre in a while!) at Costco on the way back to Birds Hill Park.

Had great burgers and salad for supper, and then did a load of laundry at the park store complex.

Another fabulous and full day!!

Day 8 - Friday May 26/17

Well, it was a wonderful day in Winnipeg today. Of course, our planned agenda was far more ambitious than we could actually accomplish in a day, so some adventures have been transferred to tomorrow - or to our day in Winnipeg scheduled for the trip home.

A 45-minute drive took us down to The Forks (photo)

We were going to do a boat tour, but there was a considerable wait as a large group had just boarded. So we decided to go to the Manitoba Legislative Building first instead. Winnipeg has a marvellous free downtown shuttle bus service, so we took a loop route through downtown, about a 20-minute ride to the Legislative Building. (photo)

The Legislative Building is a beautiful edifice built between 1913 and 1920. (photos)

On top of the the Legislative Building is the famous “Golden Boy” sculpture, symbolizing hope and prosperity for Manitobans. (photos)

The building is built from Tyndall Stone quarried at Garson, MB. This limestone is from the sediment of a huge semi-tropical inland sea (Lake Agassiz) that covered much of N.America some 4-500 million years ago. Embedded in the stone are many fossils, and we had fun time  using a Fossil Hunt guide to find many of them (photos).

After a self-guided tour for about an hour, we took the shuttle bus back to forks and had empanadas for lunch. 

After lunch we followed a walking trail, that first led us on a foot bridge across the Red River right at the forks (photo), and then across the Assiniboine on another foot bridge to St. Boniface, the 'French Quarter' of Winnipeg. A lovely walk along the south side of the river (the area had obviously been flooded this spring, as there was a lot of dried mud) past St. Boniface Hospital, operated for many years by the “Grey Nuns” of Ste Marguerite d’Youville fame (from Montreal).

In the cemetery at the old Cathedral was the tombstone of Louis Riel (photos).

York Street, which leads to the Museum of Human Rights, is also known as Mahatma Ghandi Way. Just adjacent to the museum is a bronze sculpture of Gandhi, a gift from India. Mahatma Gandhi is a personal icon of human rights, dignity and the struggle for justice for both of us. (photo)

After battling rush hour traffic, we got back to our campsite around 5:30. We used the barbecue for the first time on the trip and prepared a delicious steak dinner.