Sunday ; Winnipeg, Manitoba
Sunny and warm. We're very tired tonight. I "overbooked" us socially today. And we squabbled this morning over that issue. < sigh >
After showering this morning I returned a phone call to our new friend Jackie who is travelling in Alaska with our friends David and Linda. It was 10 AM here, but only 7 AM in Alaska. Good thing Jackie is an early riser. I chatted with her about her transmission woes, giving her advice and moral support that I hope will be helpful.
At 11 AM we went to a local restaurant to meet with Joanne's ex-brother-in-law Doug and his new wife Lisa. I had not met Lisa before. We had brunch and chatted for a couple of hours. Then Joanne and I headed to Southdale ( a suburb of Winnipeg ) to meet with our friends Shirley and Darcy at another restaurant, this time over tea and pie. Shirley has been our faithful friend since high school. We chatted with Shirley and Darcy for an hour and a half, about our travels, and their young adult children, both very accomplished high achievers.
Then we rushed over to St. Boniface to meet Lorraine and her two daughters at 5 PM at the African Folklorama pavilion. Folklorama is Winnipeg's annual festival of
multi-culturalism, now in its forty-eighth year. Joanne and I attended many Folklorama festivals starting in 1972 and every year after that until we moved away from Winnipeg in 1988. Tonight was the first night of the two week long Folklorama festival. And the African pavilion was a good choice. We all enjoyed eating African food for supper as we watched demonstrations of African song and dance, as well as an African fashion show. I was very glad that Joanne's nieces joined us, and enjoyed the evening.
After we left the pavilion Joanne and I drove around the neighbourhood where the pavilion was located, to see our childhood and young adult homes. We returned to Lorraine's home, and while I worked online on the computer Joanne and Lorraine took the three dogs for a long walk. Afterwards Joanne and I, and Lorraine and her two daughters visited in their screened porch.
Monday ; Winnipeg to Lorette, Manitoba
Sunny and very warm. Today we moved from Joanne's sister's home in Winnipeg to my sister's home in Lorette, a small town very near Winnipeg.
This morning Joanne's sister baked muffins for us for brunch, and after visiting a bit too long we said our goodbyes and left to run some errands in Winnipeg before heading to Lorette. We drove to Superstore to buy some cat litter, then PET VALU in Southdale to buy some dog food. They did not have Bo's food in stock. < sigh > We drove out of the city onto the Perimeter Highway to dump our waste holding tanks at Winnipeg's sewage treatment plant on the Perimeter Highway between St. Anne's Road and St. Mary's Road. We drove back into the city on St. Mary's Road looking for a pet supply store to buy Bo's food. We went to three pet supply stores in St. Vital. None had Bo's dog food. < sigh > I was tired of running around from pet supply store to pet supply store looking for Bo's food. I decided that we would get it tomorrow at a PetsMart store.
We pulled into St. Vital Centre, a large shopping mall, and parked in their parking lot to have a late lunch in the camper. Then we drove east out of Winnipeg to Lorette, where my sister lives just outside of the small village. We spent the afternoon visiting outdoors with my sister Sharon and her husband Bud. Bo roamed happily around their very large back yard. Emma spent some time with us in the back yard, attached to a long tie out. At supper time we moved indoors where we continued to visit while Sharon prepared supper, we ate supper, and continued to visit and chat for the rest of the evening.
Tuesday ; Lorette and Winnipeg, Manitoba
Sunny and warm. After having lunch prepared by Sharon I spent the afternoon working on securing our very large framed tapestry to the ceiling of the camper over the bed. We are bringing it back to our summer home after leaving it in storage at Sharon's home for the last thirteen years ! ! ! < sigh > You know ... sometimes the best laid plans of mice and men ...
Bud helped me with the tapestry mounting project. Thank goodness ! He provided tools. He provided hardware. He drove me into town to buy some needed hardware that he did not have. But most importantly ... he provided most of the problem solving creativity ! The project did not go as well as it could have. And it took longer than
I had hoped. But ... the securely packaged ( I hope ) framed tapestry is now mounted to the ceiling of the camper for the long trip back home to BC. Wish us luck ! Thank you for all your help and time and problem solving and hard work, Bud.
Because the tapestry project took longer than planned we did not leave at 4 PM as
I had hoped, to go into Winnipeg to buy dog food and go to a Folklorama pavilion. But ... by 6:30 PM the project was finished, I was cleaned up, and we left Sharon's home in Lorette, in their car. Thank you for the loan of the car, Bud ! We drove to a PetsMart store on the northeast side of Winnipeg and bought two bags of Bo's dog food ... < breathing a sigh of relief > ... then drove to St. Boniface to attend a Folklorama pavilion.
Very near to the home we owned in Winnipeg from 1976 to 1988 we went to the Chile pavilion, arriving about 7:30 PM. We wandered around the cultural displays, then bought supper, comprised of two entrees, a dessert to share, and a drink to share, all traditional Chilean cuisine. It was great ! We quite like Chilean food and used to regularly eat at a Chilean restaurant when we lived in Winnipeg ( until 1988 ). Just as we were finishing dinner, the evening's entertainment began at 8:15 PM. It was a rousing forty-five minutes of very entertaining Chilean music and dance.
When we arrived back home at Sharon's near Lorette around 9:40 PM we visited with Sharon in her home for about an hour before we returned to Elsie the camper to go to sleep. Somewhat squeezed in underneath the large, boxed tapestry hanging just above our bed !
Wednesday ; Lorette
YUCK ! Raining and chilly ! The rain stopped late in the afternoon and it warmed a bit in the evening.
After starting the day with a large brunch prepared by Sharon, she and Bud and Joanne left to go buy fresh cheese curds in New Bothwell, and thrift store shopping in Steinbach. I stayed home to get caught up on some accounting and journal writing chores. They returned home around 2 PM and we had a late lunch. A large late lunch. All my sister's meals for us are large. Her food is irresistible, but ... there's too much of it !
In the afternoon we retrieved and packed in the camper the last article of our possessions that we have left in storage at Sharon's and Bud's ... for the last thirteen years ; Joanne's fox fur jacket. WOW ! It's still beautiful !
While walking Bo around Sharon's and Bud's yard I found an injured little bird flopping around on their lawn. I caught it, and we sheltered it under a laundry hamper on their lawn near their front door. It seems to have a slightly injured wing. I'm very hopeful that after a day of rest it may be able to fly away tomorrow. Using our bird book we identified it as a juvenile Tree Swallow.
Everybody napped briefly this afternoon. Then we visited. And ate. And visited. And ate. HA HA HA ! Daniel and his sister get together. Chat ! Eat ! Chat ! Eat ! Repeat as necessary ! HA HA HA !
FYI ; Lunch was Ukrainian Beet Borscht, served boiling hot, poured over fresh cheese curds, so that the boiling hot soup makes the cheese curds soften and melt !
< salivate > Supper was burgers and poutine, also made with today's fresh cheese curds. For my American friends, poutine is a French Canadian dish ; French Fries mixed with cheese curds, with very hot gravy poured over, making the cheese curds melt. < still salivating >
And you wonder why I have angina ? ? ? HA HA HA HA HA !
Thursday ; Lorette / Winnipeg, Manitoba to Regina, Saskatchewan
Sunny and very warm. WHEW ... drove 630 km . / almost 400 miles today. However ... that was all in a flat, straight line ! HA HA HA !
This morning we got ourselves cleaned up, dealt with the injured bird, which we realized was a fledgling that was not quite able to fly just yet, prepared for departure, and said our goodbyes to Sharon and Bud. We pulled out of their driveway at 10:30 AM, as planned. We drove into Winnipeg and went to Gimli Fish to buy five pounds of Lake Winnipeg Pickerel. AND ... one small, smoked Lake Winnipeg Goldeye. From there we drove to Winnipeg's sewage treatment plant on the Perimeter Highway where we dumped our waste holding tanks. We were finished there and "on the road" at noon.
West and south on Winnipeg's Perimeter Highway to Trans-Canada Highway 1, then west on TCH 1 all the way to Regina. We stopped at a rest area adjacent to a large dog park on Portage La Prairie's "bypass" section of TCH 1 around the small city. While Joanne prepared lunch I took Bo for a brief walk in the dog park, then after lunch we all went for a walk around the perimeter of the large dog park. For lunch I ate the wonderful smoked Goldeye. MMMMM ... it was good ! About an hour later we stopped in a rest area and I had a brief nap. We stopped in Virden and refilled with diesel.
Late in the afternoon we crossed from Manitoba into Saskatchewan. We considered stopping for the night at Broadview, where we have boondocked overnight in a very nice rest area on previous trips, but decided to continue on to Regina, another couple of hours down the road, knowing that supper preparation would be quick and simple. We arrived in Regina shortly after 8 PM, tired and hungry. Joanne heated a pot of Sharon's Ukrainian Beet Borscht for supper. Thank you, Sharon, for all the food you sent with us.
Friday ; Regina, Saskatchewan to Taber, Alberta
Sunny and warm in the morning, cloudy, cool, and raining intermittently in the afternoon, sunny and very warm in the evening. WHEW ... another day of driving in excess of six hundred kilometres.
This morning we drove across the street from the Wal-Mart parking lot where we spent overnight and refilled with diesel at Superstore Fuel Bar. We left Regina continuing west on Trans-Canada Highway 1. We stopped for lunch and a nap in the parking lot of a large shopping mall in Swift Current. We stopped again in Gull Lake to refill our freshwater tank. We knew from previous trips that just as soon as you enter Gull Lake from the highway there is a small park with a water spigot.
When we reached the Alberta border we stopped at the Alberta Visitor Information Centre. We used their sani-dump station to dump our waste holding tanks. We took Bo and Emma for a walk. We went for a longer walk without the animals. We had a snack, then continued westbound on TCH 1. At Medicine Hat we refilled with diesel again at Safeway Fuel Bar. Our initial plan for today was to boondock overnight at Medicine Hat, but after refuelling we decided to continue on for about another hour and a half to Taber. We headed west on Hwy. 3 which starts / ends in Medicine Hat.
We have stayed overnight in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Taber before. Taber is one of those small Alberta towns with way too many young men with way too much testosterone and way too much money to buy large, diesel pickup trucks and modify them to make way too much noise ! And the Wal-Mart is their nightly gathering spot to socialize and make a lot of noise with their trucks ! That has not changed since our last visit !
Saturday ; Taber, Alberta to Lost Creek Rest Area near Salmo, British Columbia
Sunny and hot. Hazy with wild fire smoke in BC.
This morning we refilled an empty propane tank at the Co-op Fuel Bar adjacent to the Wal-Mart parking lot where we spent the night. We left Taber continuing westbound on Hwy. 3. We went into the little town of Coalhurst to refill our freshwater tank at the
sani-dump station in their municipal park. AND ... HA HA HA ... got trapped in town by the annual Miner's Day parade. We had to find a "back way" out of town and back to the highway. We refilled with diesel at the Extra Foods Fuel Bar in Fort Macleod. We stopped in Pincher Creek to buy a loaf of bread at the Co-op Market Place.
We stopped at the Alberta Visitor Information Centre just before reaching the British Columbia border. While Joanne prepared lunch I chatted with an American returning from Alaska about his and my Lance truck campers. After lunch I went into the Visitor Information Centre to use Wi-Fi to check e-mail.
We crossed from Alberta into British Columbia through the Crowsnest Pass into the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Which explains why Hwy. 3 is called Crowsnest Highway, even as far west as where we live, and beyond to its end in Hope. Immediately upon crossing into British Columbia the "easy driving" of the Canadian prairies was over. The Crowsnest Highway 3 twists and turns its way up and down all the way across BC.
Our initial plan was to stop for the night in Cranbrook. But we continued far beyond that. We stopped to make and eat an early supper at Kidd Creek Rest Area near Creston. While Joanne prepared supper I fly fished for fifteen minutes in Kidd Creek.
I caught nothing, but a small fish leaped out of the water lunging at my fly. After Joanne washed dishes we continued driving. We stopped for the night at Lost Creek Rest Area shortly before reaching Salmo. It was already dark at 9 PM.
Should be home by supper time tomorrow !
DSK
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