July 26

July 26, 2004

DAY 39

 

 

Toby woke me up early this morning, because he was feeling ill. The cat vomit all over the rocker / recliner made that obvious. Prepared everything for departure, then visited with Sharon, Bud, and Andrea, in the gazebo for awhile. Left about noon.

Drove west on the Perimeter Highway around the south side of Winnipeg, then west on Hwy. 1 to Portage La Prairie. Turned northwest on Hwy. 16 through Neepawa to Minnedosa. Stopped in Minnedosa for some groceries, and discovered a problem with the street side rear wheel of the trailer, the one that just had extensive brake work done. The plastic hub cap was missing, the wheel bearing dust cap was missing, and the hub was too hot to touch ! I assume the plastic hub cap melted off. I'll take off the wheel tomorrow and inspect to determine if that's what happened to it. The wheel bearing dust cap either wasn't replaced after the brake repair, or was replaced improperly, and fell off. Perhaps it was blown off by excess heat build up ? This is frustrating and discouraging. What do I have to do / how much do I have to spend to get the trailer properly repaired ? ! I tried to buy a wheel bearing hub cap in Minnedosa, but couldn't get one the right size.

From Minnedosa, turned north on Hwy 10 to Riding Mountain National Park. Discovered at the park gate that I have to pay $10 per day park user fee in addition to the $30 per night camping fee. That's 40 bucks a day for camping. That's outrageous ! We will not be camping in a Canadian National Park again !

Dumped the holding tanks on the way into the campground, then set up camp. Short rest, then fed the cats, and it was time to make supper. After supper, we walked through the campground, to the cottage area, to the Clear Lake / Wasagaming village commercial and beach area. Walk was much further from our campsite than it appeared on the campground map. Returned to our campsite at dusk, sat outside with Toby and Teddy for a short time, then put them back into the trailer when 2 little bear cubs came romping down the road in front of our campsite. Watched the bear cubs romp on the road for awhile. Wonder where their mother is ? Joanne doesn't think we should stay outside to find out.

DSK