Remember to click on the pictures to make them larger.
10/2 Left Rugby at 7am (46). Stopped at the International Peace Gardens on the border of North Dakota & Manitoba & in Boissevain (Boys a vane), we had lunch, enjoyed a young violinist & toured the Wildlife Museum. Arrived in Brandon about 5:30 pm in time to watch the news and the weather report. You have no idea of the shock value of hearing the temperature is going to be 18 during the day & 5 at night. But then you remember – CONVERT because in Canada, the temperature is celsius. We learned an easy way to change to what we know . . . . C times 2 + 30 = F. Manitoba is on Central time. We have 16 rigs and it was decided that odd numbered rigs would do snacks for meeting on odd days and even rigs on even days.
10/3 (40 @ 7am) We took the opportunity to carpool to the Brandon Discovery Center where a Ducks UnLimited biologist took us on a tour of the ponds along the Assinboine (A sin a boyn) River. This is where we learned about the different native grasses that were brought in to keep the pond banks in place, the cattails that provide habitat for waterfowl, saw beaver trails and where the beavers had used their teeth to chop (?) down big trees and watched Canada geese landin the deep pond. There are 2 ponds, a deep one for diving waterbirds and a shallow one for dabbling ducks. Those are the ones who have their tails in the air. We also saw a muskrat lodge. It was a beautiful sunny day andafter the tour we had the rest of it for ourselves. Went downtown, located a postal annex for stamps, found the ATM for Canadian money, a jewelry store to get a new battery for Gaylon’s watch and had lunch. Then back to go to Wal*Mart for a new digital card for the camera andgrocery shopping at a Safeway. Prices are a little higher than in the US of A. Fuel is sold by the liter. Flowers are still blooming here & local people are running around in short sleeve shirts & flip flops. We are dressing in layers in the mornings and shedding in the afternoons. Back home, we unloaded our stuff. I had time to pre-cook some stuff for future even days and our pot-luck night, then it was time to go to dinner.
10/4 (42 @ 6:30am) A tour bus picked us up at 8:30am. Our first stop was the Commonwealth Air Training Museum from the World War II era. A lot of volunteer air crews were trained in Canada before the United States got involved. We got a great history lesson about Canada’s place in the war. There were lots of ancient training planes; some looked like they were made out of wood & covered in some type of fabric. As the USA was neutral until the Pearl Harbor bombing, we made airplanes for Canada but could not fly them across the border so they were flown to the border, dragged across by horses and then flown by Canadians to the training bases. Then we walked over to the cantina where we were treated to coffee or tea and muffins. Back on the bus to Eleanor Kidd Park which was beautiful andhosts 100 plus weddings a year. Then it was lunch time – soup & sandwich buffet with cookies for dessert. Back on the bus for a brief bit of city tour, then to the Daly House Museum. More city tour andjust our luck, we got to see a recycle pick-up. Went by a beautiful set of buildings that were at one time a juvenile detention hall with 1 detainee. It then became a Mental Institution and it is now a part of the University of Brandon and houses the International Culinary Institute. Known as the Wheat City, Brandon is a lovely town of about 44,000. It is the 2ndlargest city in Manitoba with very friendly citizens. Back and I fixed some bruschetta for our meeting at 5pm. We got our directions for tomorrow. We will be headed north to the town of Dauphin (Daw fin). The polar bears are getting closer. And maybe we will see the Northern Lights.
10/5 (47 outside at 6am) We leave for Dauphin between 8 & 9 am. The fields are lovely & golden with huge round hay bales surrounded by yellow cottonwoods and aspen trees. After a short drive (2.5 hours) we arrived at the VermillionCampgrounds. Dauphin is a small city of 8,000 or so. After parking our rigs, at 1:30 we walked over to Fort Dauphin where we were met by costumed guides who had stories to tell about the various buildings located within the fort. After inspecting the museum, we were ushered downstairs for a tea with biscuits (or you could have coffee). Biscuits turned out to be cheese biscuits, cinnamon rolls, apple cake, carrot cake, cheese slices, homemade dill pickles, butter & 4 different kinds of jam. Since it was 3:30 by that time, we opted to walk to our next destination – an Ukranian Catholic Church.
Ceiling of Ukrainian Catholic Church
We were to take a tour at 4:30 and have dinner at 5:30. Jan, our guide, was dressed in Ukranianclothing of a flowered blouse, dark skirt with1 corner of it turned up so the embroidery on the edge could be seen. The skirt had a long wide woven belt woundaround the waist. She is also a bi-lingual (English & Ukranian) 3rd grade teacher. She explained how the church we toured was built in the Eastern Byzantine style with a major copper covered onion dome and4 smaller copper onion domes. The inside is shaped like a cross withthe altar in the leg facing east and beautifully painted withiconography. The Ukrainian do not have statues in their church but have icons painted directly on the walls. There was marble-ling around the base of the walls & the door way lintels representing the earth. Above that is painted a chain linking humanity and painted directional arrows depict eternity. Icons of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John are on the 4 main pillars supporting the central dome. Angels with 6 wings are painted on the dome interior. This building is no longer used as a church and was scheduled to be destroyed so the new church could be built on the same spot. Fortunately, a preservation committee was quickly formed to save this beautiful church. It is one of 4 Prairie Cathedrals still remaining and it is the smallest. Ukranian Catholic priests can be married if they are married before they are ordained. Across the street we went to the new church and an Ukranian dinner. While we waited for the final touches for the dinner, we went upstairs to see the interior of the new church; there is no comparison between the 2. The new church is very plain, although it still has a central copper onion dome & several smaller copper onion domes. Back downstairs we were entertained by 4 musicians in full Ukranian dress playing a violin, a guitar, an acordian anda hammered dulcimer. Dinner started with (borscht) beet soup followed by turkey, with freshly harvested mashed potatoes, turkey gravy, slic)d sage stuffing, potato/cheese pierogi, cabbage rolls in tomato sauce, pieces of risen dough wrapped in a beet leaf & cooked, sliced carrots, mixed vegetables, sliced tomatoes, coleslaw, thick fresh cream and cranberry sauce for the pierogi & bread dough. Truly a feast. This was followed by either apple pie or pumpkin cheesecake & tea or coffee. While we enjoyed our dessert, we were entertained by Ukranian dancers. We walked back to the campground in a very brisk wind; we had eaten so much we needed the walk.
10/6 (52 @ 6:30) up this morning to the sound of rain. And it’s a travel day. We go to Wapa’skwayaw also known as The Pas (pronounced The Paw). It will be a 6 hour drive to the city known for 6 months of summer & 6 months of winter and the largest breeding & staging areas of migratory waterfowl in the world. On the way, we will cross the 53rd Parallel. We are seeing what appears to be a conifir that has gone golden. At our informational meeting this evening, we learned that the tree is a tamarack. It turns yellow in the fall & loses it needles in the spring. Our wagonmaster Lyle told us that the Beluga whales have been spotted in Hudson Bay so we may be lucky enough to see them also.
10/7 Cloudy when we went to bed last night but is a cool 54 degrees under sunny skies this morning a the Pas. An orange school bus picked us up at 9:30 and took us for a tour of the town. We learned the Opaskwayak Cree Nation (OCN) is the most fiscally responsible tribe in Canada, owning the casino, hotel, gas station and shopping center. The population of The Pas is about 6,000. There is a lot of history here as Canada became populated from the Northdown, starting with the Hudson Bay Company and the French fur traders. This was an important camping area as fur trappers & traders used the Saskatchewan River to travel to Hudson Bay. In the morning, we leave for Snow Lake where we will spend the next 2 nights before heading for Thompson.
10/8 – 54 and raining outside on our travel day to Snow Lake; we arrive before noon & park in front of the Propane Service area. A short walk to the Senior Center for hot soup, sandwiches, salad & dessert. Snow lake is such a small town that the main drive is about 1/2 mile long in a circle and it’s one-way! We went for a mine museum tour and a boat ride on Snow Lake with the mayor driving us around the lake in his boat pointing out various parts of the lake. There is a Purple Sand Beach for swimming; the water temp is about 40 degrees. Had a potluck supper this evening at the Senior Center. What good cooks we have in our group. Written from the Snow Lake Senior Center as we are out of Verizon coverage.
10/9 – 35 outside this morning & we have had snow showers already. Got our laundry done, the laundromat opened at 7:30 this morning. 2 of the members of our tour made blueberry pancakes for all of us this morning. We had a video of the mining operations in the area and some scenes of Churchill. Tonight is L.E.O. (let’s eat out) at the Snow Lake Motel & Restaurant where we will be eating either steak or chicken dinner. Tomorrow, we travel to Thompson. We are to arrive before noon because we have to get parked, get our luggage out for pickup, and be ready to get on the train to Churchill. It is scheduled to leave at 6pm but may not leave until midnight. We will be sleeping on the train or not. . . depending. We have been told to expect a minimum trip of 13 hours but it could take longer as freight trains have preference over passenger trains. Written from the Snow Lake Senior Center as we are out of Verizon coverage area.
10/10 stayed 1C (33F) all night. Had to back up to re-hook the jeep. On the road to Thompson at 8:30am with our traveling companion, Jodie. We go first & she follows. She’s single; no navigator, so it’s easier to follow us. Leaving Snow Lake, we crossed the 55th parallel & entered snow flurries. By the time we reached My’s Place for cinnamon buns, the only snow on the ground was slipping off her roof. Reached Thompson & Rick & Colleen’s campground where we leave our rigs for 4 nights. It’s raining and the ground is muddy where we will be parking. The campground crew put big mats in front of all our doors so we could at least get rid of our muddy shoes before going inside. The 6:30pm train will be delayed until 9:30pm. Our wagon masters had let us know that dinner would be on our own tonight & to allow plenty of time so we won’t be late for the already late train. But, Colleen passes the message that we need to carpool into town for dinner & the train is paying. Sounds better than leftovers. At 5, we are all headed back across the Burntwood River to eat. This is where we learn the already late train is now leaving at 10:30pm but Colleen will let us know when we will be picked up, just in case the train is later. The call comes at 9:50. Our bags are picked up (we are each allowed 2 & a carry-on) & taxis, vans & other cars pick up all 33 of us & take us to the train station. There is some confusion when we board & all the people with cabins are shuffled to another car. It’s late but our cabin has the bunk beds made up; we have a small sink across from the bottom bunk, a toilet room at the bottom of the steps to the upper bunk & barely enough room to turn around in, but there are mints on the pillows & the beds are comfortable. After checking out the dome car, the lounge & the dining car, at 11pm we went to bed. We were still in Thompson. Our 6:30pm train finally left about 11:20pm.
10/11 It was 3:47am when we rolled through some small town. The passenger train stops at small towns where there are no roads & pulls onto sidings when the grain trains pass. We move in fits & starts through the night. There is snow on the ground in Gillam when we wake up about 6:30am. The dome car is open & a good place to wait until the dining car opens at 7am. The porter, Adam, changes our bedroom into a living room with 2 comfy chairs facing backwards. Surprise! The train is paying for our breakfast which was very good. Back to the dome car to watch the scenery go by, it’s cloudy & dark out; there are lots of puddles out and it is drizzly; the trees are mostly short, skinny black spruce. Wow, time goes by fast & the train is paying for our hot lunch. Next thing we know, the porters are laying out a sandwich spread with drinks for us. It’s 5pm & yes, we are still on the train! So, if you count from when we got on the train in Thompson at 10pm Friday night to when we got off the train in Churchill Saturday night at 7:45pm – that’s how long we were on the train. The North Star Tour bus picked us up & drove us & our luggage to the Polar Inn. We got our room numbers, picked up our bags & went to find our room. Back for a meeting on tomorrow’s plans, check around outside in the dusk, then we watched the local TV before getting a shower & going to bed.
10/12 (0C = 32F) 5:45am & we are up getting ready to go, dressed in layers. Bill picks us up in the bus & takes out to The Tundra Buggy. Up wooden stairs to the deck where the buggy is parked, We load from the rear & past the observation deck into the buggy, passing the small bathroom on 1 side & the heater on the other. The bathroom – a port-o-potty; the buggy stops when someone needs to use it. We are the 3rd buggy & right away, we see a bear standing up & looking in the 1st buggy. When he ambles off, we wander around the reserve looking for more bears. We’ve been told; we will see mostly male bears. Female bears with cubs keep away from the male bears. Pregnant bears are looking for a place to den up until March when they & their cubs will emerge & head out on the ice. We see several bears at a distance; they are colored like old ivory.
Our lunchtime bear
They have black skin & their hairs are hollow. Our buggy stops while we observe an arctic fox. Wandering by a tundra buggy bear camp, we spot a bear under the kitchen fan & then we see one where we can get closer. Lunch is served while we are stopped oohing & aahing over our bear. He’s sleeping as we have hot soup, sandwiches & drinks. “Head’s up” & we get our cameras aimed & just as we’re ready to take the perfect shot, he rolls over & puts his paw over his nose. After a few hours, we move on, seeing ptarmigan in semi winter feathers, a couple of arctic hares & sleeping bears in the distance. The buggy has to be back by 4:30 so we slowly move back to the station all the while looking for bears. We did see some tundra swans in open water. Total of 9 bears, 1 arctic fox, 2 arctic hares, 2 tundra swans, 9 ptarmigans. Back to the hotel, we find something to eat & then go to the Anglican Church to hear Bill talk about the history of Churchill. As we walked back to the inn, we saw a green Aurora Borealis.
10/13 (-2C = about 29F) Up at 6am; breakfast is coffee, tea, rolls, muffins, bagels & cereal is served from 6:30 to 8 but we will be gone by 7:30. It’s the 2nd Monday of October & Canadian Thanksgiving. Out to the bus & our new guide, Rhonda takes us on a tour of Churchill. There is a huge complex that houses both an elementary & high school, an indoor playground for those cold winter days, a basketball court that doubles as a hockey rink, a curling rink, a senior center & a 36 bed hospital. Rhonda took us to see a polar bear trap & explained about bears. Bears come off the ice when it melts & won’t support hunting, usually in June or July. They do not eat until they go back out on the ice in November, living off their fat stores. It’s called walking hibernation. The amount of energy to pursue something & eat it will mess up their metabolism & burn their stored fat faster & that makes for a dangerous bear. Bear traps are put out for problem bears; they are baited with smelly seal oil. Smart bears learn to avoid traps; they are not rewarded with food. Once the bears are trapped, they go to polar bear jail. We got to see the jail but as she pointed out, it is not a zoo so we couldn’t go inside. The bears are isolated from each other & not fed. No rewards keep the bears out of trouble. There is no landfill for easy eats. All waste is sorted, packaged & stored in a warehouse. Next we went to see the puppies. This is an area where Eskimo Husky dogs are kept. The puppies have little dog houses but the older dogs do not as they don’t use them. We got to play with the puppies; they’re adorable. Usually there is 1 or more ‘boss’ dogs around; these dogs are not chained like the others. Yup, even the puppies are chained to a ground wire. No dog is close enough to touch another dog except the boss dogs. Went to the Battery across the inlet from Fort Prince of Wales & to a beach to collect rocks to make an Inuk Shuk. Back to the room & then at 7pm, we went to hear Mrytle de Muelles talk about being a trapper’s daughter. She has just received the Order of Manitoba Award & her stories were quite funny. She also revived an old Indian/Metis art form of tufting caribou hair. We bought one of a polar bear. Total animals today – 2 bears, a red fox, more ptarmigans & 2 arctic hares.
Took this the day we left!
10/14 (2C = 34F, wind chill factor is -4C & cloudy) Today is Canada’s Election Day. We are up early to have our cereal & coffee or tea. Our bags go out in front of our rooms to be picked up for the trip back to Thompson. We put our carry-ons in another room where we will pick them up before we leave for the airport. Bill took us for another trip around Churchill, taking us to the Dog Pond which is an area where more Eskimo Husky dogs are chained to ground wires along a river or pond area. We saw our last bear here. The man who owns the dogs has permission from the Canadian government to feed the bears. Before he got
Sign at the Dog pond
permission, he would feed the dogs & then the bears would eat the dogs. We go to the airport to present passports & check. We will be flying Calm Air & we are supposed to be back at the airport at 5pm to check in our bags. Into town, we get a chance to shop, visit the Eskimo Museum, get our passports stamped with the Churchill Polar Bear stamp & mail a few postcards, look through the Community Center & at 3pm see a local photographers’ wildlife shots. We get word that our flight is delayed; the train station is also a museum & they are showing a 50 minute film about the Arctic people at 7pm. We leave Churchill at 9:15pm & arrive in Thompson at 10:15pm. By the time we get our bags, get loaded into taxis & get back to our rigs, it’s midnight before we fall into bed.
10/15 (36F at 9:30 in Thompson) By the time we have breakfast & get going it’s noon. We set out to walk the Spirit Way, a trail of howling wolves painted by local groups to represent different messages. Starting in the middle, we walk the forest way first to the edge of town & the museum which is closed; back to the middle, we move our car to the Safeway parking lot & walk the town part crossing a Bailey Bridge. Back to our starting point, we pick up a few things at Safeway – what, you thought they didn’t have grocery stores in Thompson? We haven’t seen any igloos. Tonight is a buffet dinner and a travel meeting. Back to the rig where Sharon reads & Gaylon studies for his short wave radio test.
10/16 (35F in Thompson at 7:30) leaving Thompson at 9am. First stop is Pisew Falls (P shoe or P sue). Very pretty & we got lucky; a bald eagle just flew passed us. Trees are coming back into view & they are getting more numerous & taller. Next stop is My’s Place but those who had the cinnamon rolls said they were pretty old. Next stop is Grand Rapids where we will dry camp overnight. Buffet dinner across the street after our social hour. After dinner, we have our travel meeting.
10/17 (34F at 6:30am in Grand Rapids) Fallow fields on both sides of the road. Farms are scattered but not very numerous. Twin Lakes was where we stopped for lunch. Drove through Winnipeg to Ile de Chenes (ill da shain means Island of Oaks) & our campground. We are having a finger food potluck. After dinner, Sharon did 2 loads of laundry while Gaylon studied for his short wave radio test.
10/18 (45F at 6am in Ile de Chenes) A tour bus picked us all up at 9am. Our guide Marian told us that 1.2 million people live in Manitoba, 680,000 live in Winnipeg, the capital. We saw the grave of Louie Riel, a Metis revolutionary, toured the St Boniface Cathedral and went to the Saint Boniface Museum. This building was once a Grey Nuns Convent & is the largest wood log structure in North America. Next stop is lunch at a revolving restaurant at the top of Fort Garry Hotel. It takes 1 hour to revolve completely & have lunch. Perfect timing. Now we are off to see Dalnavert, the home of Hugh John MacDonald who was the son of the 1st Prime Minister of Canada. Back to the rigs as we are going to a dinner theater tonight. What an experience! Dinner was excellent & served by waiters in outlandish costumes. The play flowed around the meal and was an audience participation affair. Very funny.
10/19 (45F at 8:30am) Today is a free day; it starts out with Gaylon taking & passing his short wave radio test. Next, we go to church with 2 other couples. While having cake & coffee after church, we meet a man who gives us info on the sport of curling & where we can find a curling rink. Our friends go back to the rigs, we go to find the curling rink where we spend about 3 hours watching & trying to figure out the rules. We are helped by various people. From there we went into a Canadian Super Store. Butter is expensive & is sold by 1 pound blocks. You can even by 1 lb blocks of garlic butter. The fish counter is huge & has fish for sale we have never heard about. Anyone know how a milkfish tastes? There are fruits & vegetables we have never seen & coming from California, we have seen a lot of different things. Back to the rig where we had dinner & got ready for tomorrow.
10/20 (34F at 7:30) our rig is wearing balloons & a banner that reads ‘Happy Anniversary’ and as we board the bus at 9am, we get a card & crowns to wear. The group serenaded us to the tune of Happy Birthday to you. Marian, our guide, takes us to see the flood control that is in place. The Red River flows north from North Dakota towards Hudson Bay & is quite devastating at times depending on what the weather is like in the US. Canadians refer to us as Americans and claim that if America catches a cold, Canada gets pneumonia. Next stop is Assiniboine (Ah sin a boyne) Gardens & the Mol Sculpture Garden, then the zoo where we are allowed in to see the statue of Winnie the bear who was the inspiration for ‘Winnie the Pooh’. They have a white bison at this zoo. Taken to The Forks, we got lunch & had a chance to look at the shops before going to the Winnipeg Museum. What a wonderful museum; we needed more time to look. Back at the rigs, we had a very late social hour & voted for the best Inuk Shuks (e nook shook).
10/21 (31F at 6:30am) time for a relaxing breakfast and then we are car-pooling to the Canada Mint where they mint circulating coins. We learned the process and also found out they make coins for other nations – India, Ethiopia & Japan. And they make the Canadian penny for about 3 cents. If they can make it that cheap why can’t the US? Back to the rigs where we were treated to a pizza lunch. Then, we went back to our home & tried to stay warm while we read & rested. Our farewell dinner is tonight. It’s supposed to rain tonight so we pulled in our big slide.
10/22 (39F at 6:30) up early for coffee, tea or chocolate & muffins, cheese biscuits & rolls. Today is the end of our tour. Many are heading back to the US. We are going to stay in Winnipeg one more day. Lots of hugs given to our new friends as we said goodbye. Everyone is gone, we strip the bed & gather up all of our laundry. Into town where we found the Assiniboine Zoo & took pictures of the white bison. Then we returned to the laundromat & got our clothes all clean. Sharon wrote out postcards while Gaylon got a haircut. Mailed everything & went across the parking lot to a Tim Horton’s (a chain restaurant) for soup & sandwiches & then found the Super Store again where we bought mostly fruits & veggies. It has been drizzly off & on all day. The high today was 48F.
10/23 (40F at 6am in Ile de Chenes) Looked again at 7:30 & it was 39F. We got some things done & left the park at noon. The trip around Winnipeg was the longest part of the trip. 2 ½ hours later we are parked at the Wal*Mart in Portage la Prairie & it is okay for us to stay. Of course we shop after getting permission. It was cloudy in Winnipeg but the sun is shining at the Wal*Mart. After eating some warmed up leftovers, we watch some TV & it’s so cold we are in bed at 9:45pm to keep warm.
10/24 (38F at 6:45 in Portage la Prairie) Slept in. The propane heater ran all night. We had breakfast & then drove to Brandon to Lyle & Nadean Ramsey’s home. They were our wagon master’s on the tour. We got to their lovely home & backed into their driveway. Nadean fixed a wonderful dinner. After clean up we took them to their own Stampede, a mostly junior rodeo. Back home, we said our goodnights.
10/25 (39F at 8am in Brandon) visited with Lyle & Nadean in their lovely home until lunch. Then we went off to play some 5 pin. There are only 5 pins set up, you get 3 small balls to knock them down. There is no sliding in to deliver the ball. The head pin is worth 5 points, the next 2 are worth 3 and the last 1 are worth 2 points. There are still strikes, spares & splits. It took some getting used to but after they turned on the glow lights & we got them to put the gutter bumpers up, it was a lot of fun! Lyle took us out to see where they lived on the farm; Nadean admitted she is definitely a city girl. After another wonderful dinner we played cards.
10/26 (39F, sunny but very windy) Went to Church with the Ramsey’s & then when we got back to their home, we hooked up the jeep & headed west for Saskatchewan. It was too windy for a vehicle our size to be on the road; we only got as far as Virden, Manitoba (MB). After fueling we parked at a Petro Canada truck stop next to a big trailer to protect us from the wind. We played cards after we ate. It is really cold outside. The propane furnace is running, all the blankets we have are on the bed & we are both sleeping in our winter underwear.
10/27 (18F at 8am in Virden) It is going to be sunny soon; the sun is almost up. Right after some hot breakfast, we headed for Regina. We were told in Winnipeg that Saskatchewan was flat but it seems to have the same rolling golden hills that Manitoba does; trees are sparse & mostly around farms & in towns. At 11:30, it has warmed up to 29F. In the navigator seat, Sharon is wearing a turtle neck shirt under a long sleeve T with a fleece vest over them both, long john bottoms under corduroy pants, wool socks in wool slippers & she is seriously considering putting her new warm boots on. Gaylon is wearing long john top & bottoms, jeans, shirt, fleece jacket, wool socks & hiking boots. Once in Regina, we find the Wal*Mart & buy a new battery for the jeep. Then it’s on to Moose Jaw where we pull into Prairie Oasis Campground. They are turning the water back on because warm weather is expected. After a hot shower using their facilities we had dinner. Saskatchewan is on Central time but they don’t do Daylight Savings Time so we set the clocks back to Mountain time.
10/28 (34F at 7:30am in Moose Jaw) Moose Jaw came from a Cree word Moosegaw meaning ‘gentle breezes’ and it was the red light district for Regina. Went over to the Western Development Museum which was about transportation. They had some interesting exhibits of inventions by Da Vinci & the Chinese that they built and tested. There was Chinese fire shooter, a chariot with a whirling blade, a rapid firing gun that looked like a rake among them. After lunch, we toured the ‘Tunnels of Moose Jaw’ & found out that Al Capone was a frequent visitor here. There were quite a few tunnels & some were used by the Chinese. During that tour, we learned about the hardships & emotional cost of being Chinese in Canada. After the tours, we walked over to the Ukranian Borscht Factory, tasted their soup & bought some. Back to the rig; we have a great signal so Sharon worked on the website only to lose it all.
10/29 (44F at 7:15am in Moose Jaw) You can tell it’s warming up. Left Moose Jaw around 9am. There was a great place to pull off for lunch at the turn off for Piapot & Canada 1. Back on the road we passed a salt processing plant near Chaplin. There are lots of cattle in the golden rolling hills around us. Crossed in Alberta (AB) about 3pm. The visitor centers we pass have all been closed for the season. Alberta was made a province in 1917. Canada is a really young country compared to the US. We stopped at a Wal*Mart in Medicine Hat for the night; they were having a moving sale & the new store opening on 11/5 right across the street is a Supercentre. We unhooked, went to see where our turn would be in the morning, located a gas station, went to a Super Store & then went to Wendy’s for a burger. The Super Store is Canadian & is like a super Wal*Mart only with some really exotic foods.
10/30 (44F at 7:45am in Medicine Hat) gorgeous sunrise with gold, orange, red & bronze under dark clouds. After breakfast, we went to see the World’s Tallest Tee Pee, bought 1 In-Canada stamp & 3 postcards to use up the last of the Canadian stamps for mailing to the US, picked up some information about Lethbridge & a Montana map. A lot of Canadian hotels have waterslide parks inside. When it gets cold here & the snow is deep, Canadians like to swim, play 5 pin, bowl, curl & play hockey. As we left Medicine Hat, we pulled in & fueled up with diesel for $1.179 a liter which equals $4.469 a gallon. Regular unleaded gas was going for .94 a liter or $3.569 a gallon. We had been paying $1.299 a liter in Manitoba. Drove through Lethbridge to the Bridgeview RV Park (Passport America or Coast to Coast). Walked over to look at the High Level Bridge, it is 341 feet high & almost a mile long & the largest bridge of its type in Canada. We are spending our Canadian money.
10/31 (44F at 7:45am in Lethbridge) went to town & had lunch at a reclaimed water tower in the heart of town. Great views! Drove to the other end of town to explore Fort Whoop-Up. It was called that because the bull whackers who drove the bull trains used a lot of loud profanity & whooped up the oxen teams to get them moving. After all, it was a 3 month trip 1-way to Fort Benton in Montana. Back to the rig & to check out the paper we bought. At 7pm, there is an ice hockey game at the University of Lethbridge so we drive over to watch. Fortunately we sat next to a couple who know all about hockey; they were very friendly & helpful in teaching us about the game. The local team won by 5 goals.
11/1 (54F at 8:45am in Lethbridge) left after late breakfast heading south west to Cardston. It is so nice out, we are in T-shirts. The Remington Carriage Museum is on the south side of Cardston & has a huge parking lot. We are the only visitors & our 45 minute guided tour lasts an hour & 15 minutes. This is an amazing museum with over 214 carriages. During the summer, you can take carriage rides. We are 15 minutes from the Canada/USA border; it will be good to be back in the US. We thought we would stay in St. Mary but the town is all boarded up except for the grocery store & horses were wandering all around town. Browning, a town within the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana on the east side of Glacier National Park has a casino. It is where we are spending the night.
You know you are across the Canadian border when: Kids put horse manure in the freezer to use for hockey pucks when the ponds & lakes freeze solid. The first snowfall of the year occurs on October 9th while you are walking to the post office but nothing sticks until Halloween. You ask what something tastes like & the answer is “It tastes like beaver.” The passenger train from Thompson to Churchill can lose 2 hours of time in a 1 hour period of time. (that may have something to do with the space/time thing).
