Year 3 Week 12

September 3 to 9, 2006

Steinbach to Lac du Bonnet, Manitoba

Year 3 week 12

 

Sunday ; Today was sunny and very warm.

This afternoon we drove to Lorette, stopping at Lorette Marketplace to buy milk and ice cream. We drove to the Danelak's and made date shakes for Sharon and Bud. We have been intending to make them date shakes all summer, and today was the last chance. Last winter while we were in Yuma, Arizona we drove a few miles over to Bard, California to buy fresh Medjool Dates at Imperial Date Gardens. While there, we had milk shakes made with fresh Medjool dates. They were wonderful ! We wanted to share the experience, so we bought some date butter to make date shakes with. Today's date shakes made with date butter weren't quite as good as the ones made with fresh dates, but still pretty good. We visited with Sharon and Bud in their gazebo for the afternoon.

We drove into Winnipeg to have dinner with Lorri, Doug, Madeleine, and Amelia. While Doug and Lorri prepared dinner, Joanne played a computer game with the nieces, and I got online to send and retrieve e-mail, update my blog, and retrieve my bank statements. We had dinner, then visited briefly.

I glanced at yesterday's newspaper's headlines while at the Carlson's. YIKES ! The front page main story was about the many cases of severe illness caused by E-Coli tainted ground beef in the first 2 weeks of August at 3 St. Boniface fast food outlets who all procured their ground beef from the same meat market on Marion Street. The 3 fast food outlets included Dari-Wip ( a.k.a The Greek's ), where I had a Double Fat Boy Burger almost a month ago, during the time frame that they had tainted hamburgers. WHEW ... dodged a bullet there !

 

Monday ; Today was sunny and very warm.

We left our campground this morning and drove into Steinbach, filled up with diesel, then drove over to Ste. Anne Co-op to weigh the truck and trailer. Wow ... Lanoire weighs 1300 pounds more than Dee-Dee did. And the trailer has gained 400 pounds in the last 2 years. New flooring, a new bed, computer desk, sofa table, 2 additional dinette chairs, and ... who knows ?

We drove north on Hwy. 12, then east on Hwy. 44. We stopped for lunch at a rest area just past Beausejour. North on Hwy. 11, to Lac du Bonnet, and Champagne's RV Resort, which will be home for the next week. We got set up in our site, then sat around outside, reading, enjoying the great weather. I took a short nap before supper.

We had Sharon's fresh perogies for supper. I ate only 11 of them. HMPH ! In my younger days I could scarf down a dozen perogies without batting an eye. HA HA HA !

 

Tuesday ; Today was sunny and hot, with a bit of a breeze in the afternoon to cool it off a bit. What great weather for September !

I spent the early part of the day making a bunch of phone calls, including back and forth to my investment broker in Ottawa regarding the $3000 that seems to be lost in cyberspace between my investment account and my bank account. I read and napped. I prepared a bunch of e-mails to send. I printed and reconciled the August bank statement.

We can't receive any radio stations here in Lac du Bonnet, so we're listening to CD's played through the computer and the trailer's stereo system speakers. We don't often listen to CD's in the trailer. The only TV station we can receive here is CBC. I had forgotten about this CBC quirk of broadcasting the National News at 10:00 P.M., and then, immediately upon its conclusion, repeating the broadcast at 11:00 P.M.. What a goofy thing to do !

This afternoon Joanne gave Teddy his thyroid medication, hidden, as always, in a Pounce Hairball Treat. He dropped it. ZOOM ! BODY CHECK ! CHOMP ! SWALLOW ! ! ! Bad dog, Bo ! Guess Bo's thyroid function is assured for the next 24 hours ! ! !

I repaired Teddy's brand new tent that we bought on Saturday. While showing it to Sharon and Bud on Sunday, Bud noticed a tiny hole in the fine mesh screening. DARN ! I patched it with clear tent repair tape that I bought when Teddy was attacked by a stupid dog while he was in his tent in Livingston, Texas in January, 2005.

As I type this, I'm listening to Led Zeppelin I ( circa early 70's ), which I haven't listened to in many years. Joanne thinks it's terrible music. She says you can tell it was written in an era when people didn't get out on the dance floor, they just sat in the corner and smoked dope. HA HA HA ... glad she remembers our courting days ! I personally have difficulty remembering 1973. HA HA HA < SNORT > HA HA ! Where’s the Cheezies ?

Uh-oh ! The Canada Geese are headed south ! Our cue that's it time for us to leave Manitoba. See you in Arizona, guys !

 

Wednesday ; Today was sunny and warm, with a light breeze.

Today we went into the town of Lac du Bonnet. I wanted to go the library, to get online. While I was in the library Joanne did a bit of grocery shopping, and walked around with Bo. She liked what she saw, so tomorrow or the next day we'll probably return just to walk around the waterfront area of the town. The library had a book sale going on, to get rid of their old, excess books. $1.00 per shopping bag full of books. I managed to squeeze a dozen Reader's Digest Condensed Books into the shopping bag. Each Reader's Digest Condensed Book is a condensed version of 4 books. Pretty good bargain ... like 4 dozen books for a buck.

My investment broker in Ottawa finally managed to rectify the problem of the missing $3000, and I got the MasterCard bill paid. His office usually functions quite well, but when his assistant Rhonda goes on vacation, things seem to go awry. Must be a moral in there somewhere.

I read for awhile, and we went for a long leisurely walk with Bo. At the back of the campground is the Champagne Forest. The Champagne family owns the campground. The Champagne Forest has a series of trails winding through it. All along the trails are life sized nursery rhyme scenarios, tucked into alcoves in the trees. The Three Little Pigs, Jack & Jill, etc.. Makes me think that some people have way too much time on their hands. When we walked back to the campground area, we had a long chat with Dennis Champagne, the owner of the campground. Nice old fellow. In addition to running a large campground, and constructing story book fantasies in the forest, and running a gravel hauling business, and restoring old cars, he and his wife travel all winter in their fifth wheel rig. Says he's working on retiring. Work harder at it, Mr. Champagne, you're failing !

 

Thursday ; Today started out sunny and mild, but turned cloudy, windy, and cold by late afternoon.

We went exploring the area today. First we headed east on Hwy. 515 towards the Lee River area. We stopped at the Lac du Bonnet Airport to look around. It's both a land base and water base, for planes on either wheels or floats. We stopped at the Pinawa Channel picnic area to allow Bo to goof around a bit. We drove around the Lee River subdivisions to look at cottages and lots. We drove back to the town of Lac du Bonnet. We walked along the waterfront, and out onto the wharf. It turned out to be another "Bo No Go" dock. HA HA HA ... Bo has been afraid of docks ever since we took him out on the floating dock at Ford's Cove on Hornby Island in B.C. in April, 2005.

We drove around the town of Lac du Bonnet exploring. Before we left town, I washed the truck. Back at the campground, some of the Explorer RV Club members had started to arrive for this weekend's Rally. We chatted with our new "next door neighbours" for awhile.

I spent the evening updating my investment files. A teensy bit of improvement, but still not back to April’s peak.

 

Friday ; Today was sunny, cool in the morning, and warming throughout the day.

We spent most of the day socializing with this Explorer RV Club group, which grew throughout the day to be a total of 11 people. Small group, for an RV Club Rally. But they're sociable, and welcoming to us as newcomers to their group. We went to the town of Lac du Bonnet in the afternoon to buy a few groceries. Joanne made friends with one of the women in the group, who has had breast cancer 3 times over the last 15 years. Sheesh ! Two lumpectomies, first one 15 years ago, and finally, a mastectomy recently. She and Joanne compared notes, so to speak.

 

Saturday; Today was sunny and mild.

This morning we invited our Explorer friends to join us at the Farmer's Market in Lac du Bonnet. Most of the group joined us and we drove to town. Joanne and the group went to the Farmer's Market, and I went to the library to get online. The local library is closed Sunday and Monday, so it was the last chance I had to get online before we depart Monday, heading west for Alberta. After the Farmer's Market, we were invited by the Explorer group's unofficial rally hostess / planner / organizer, Anne Green, to join her on an outing to the nearby town of Pinawa. Most of the group that had gone to the Farmer's Market went along to Pinawa.

Pinawa is a small town on the Winnipeg River, maybe a 15 or 20 minute drive from Lac du Bonnet. I thought Pinawa was pretty much a ghost town ever since AECL ( Atomic Energy Canada Ltd., I think ) closed their nuclear research facility many years. I thought the entire town existed only because of the nuclear research facility. But Pinawa seems to be surviving and thriving quite well without AECL. We had lunch at the Pinawa Motor Inn. It was a bit of a disaster because of some serious customer service problems, and a broken deep fryer. After lunch, we were joined by a local amateur historian who had been invited to give our group an on-site presentation at, and about, the large sundial created as a Millennium project for the town a few years ago.

After the Pinawa Heritage Sundial presentation we walked down to the waterfront park and looked around. From there we were invited, once again by Anne, to drive over to the Pinawa Suspension Bridge. We drove over to the swinging bridge, and walked across the Pinawa Channel on the Winnipeg River, admiring the scenery, and taking photos. Anne showed us the memorial "bridge plank" she had bought in memory of her husband, who died a few years ago. Anne and her husband lived in Pinawa for many years, where she was an elementary school teacher.

We returned to the campground, for an afternoon of socializing before having a communal potluck dinner. After dinner, we had a group campfire. I performed a magic show for the group around the campfire, at dusk. It seemed to be well received, and appreciated. After dark, we all sat around the campfire, socializing more. I brought Teddy over to sit on my lap by the fire. Teddy likes sitting by a fire.

It was a very pleasant day.

DSK