Today we were out the door by 0930. We left bones at the trailer for the first time during our trip. Left the radio and the fan on - after our return we asked to neibhboors if he barked or cried a lot and our good boy never made a sound (they didn't even know he was there).
First up was St-Boniface. I have to say that before arriving in Winnipeg, I thought St-Boniface was a town of its own somewhere south of the city. Turns out, it's just accross the bridge and it's simply a neighborhood. We found the cemetery where Louis Riel was burried and the cathedral but I was getting really upset as I couldn't find any tourist information at all. On my map, the tourist info booth was located directly beside the cathedral.
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| Pierre tombale de Louis Riel |
There was a play/tour going in the cemitary for a school group. One of the girls finally guided me towards the museum and we decided to watch the play as it was just about to start again. The play was cute and witty!
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| Play in the cemetery |
There was a monument honoring the french Canadian soldiers given by France and it was named 'le poilu'! Too funny! It reminded us of Paul...(Paul a pas de poils sa....)
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| 'Le Poilu' |
The cathedral was beautiful, they rebuild it including the remains that were left after a fire in the 1960s. Unfortunlatly, there wasn't much more information.
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| La cathédrale St-Boniface |
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| La cathédrale St-Boniface |
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| La cathédrale St-Boniface |
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| BB Girl! |
BB Girl was starting to be a little tired so we decided to hop in the truck and head on over to the Forks. We had a nice lunch and then headed back. There isn't all that much to visit and seeing as both Justin and I had already been in Winnipeg, we had pretty much seen everything we wanted. I have to say that the city was much prettier in the summer and at temperatures warmer than -40C!
We got the trailer ready and I went to pay our late departure fee. That is when I asked the young girl if she recommended visiting the mint. She said that she had gone on a tour in high school and that it was actually very interesting. So, on our way out, we stopped in on the chance that there would be some room left on the tour! Well, not only was there room left on the tour but we were the only ones! On top of that, when we got talking with our tour guide about where we came from, he told us he was a retired military member! Not any military member, but an ex MP. Crazy small world! The tour was extremely interesting/informative and Phil, our tour guide, was great! Our mint makes coins for over 70 different countries due to the fact that we have a special formula that allows us to make them for cheaper. We also learned that anyone can submit to have a coin made. If your coin is chosen, your initials are on the coin and you get the frist strike. Pretty cool stuff! Phil mentioned to us that the coins are no longer made of precious metals as it was too expensive. Copper pennies were phased out in 1996. I asked Phil, if copper pennies were worth more than one cent at the scrap yard and they actuallly are worth 2 cents. But don't you go and bring your pennies to the scrapyard because they won't pay you for them as it is illegal to deface money! (Dad - you can't say we didn't warn you!)
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We finally headed out of town towards Regina. We made a pit stop at the Jets practice facility to pick up a hat and tshirt. I was talking on the phone with mom and dad, telling them everything was fine as Justin pulled over and said something was wrong. We had a long moulding from the rain gutters flapping in the wind. Justin removed it and we will have to get the trailer looked at to make sure it will not allow rain to penetrate trailer. We then stopped at a picnic/rest area because bb girl had had enough. She barely slept all day. We can't blame her though. She takes after her mom and is too curious and will not nap when there is action going on. So, we had some supper and Justin played around with bones. Throwing his duck around playing fetch. Tragedy struck when we were leaving. We couldn't find the duck anywhere. Justin is convinced that it was right behind the trailer. Bones' chicken was stolen! Ah! Friendly Manitoba hey?? Not so much!
We went through Brandon at 2100. We again decided to drive through the town rather than bypass it. Again, another beautiful town with beautiful homes, nice city hall. The river on the other hand was not that nice. We were surprised to read that it is the 2nd largest city in Manitoba with a population of 46k.
We crossed into Saskatchewan at 2213. Of course we stopped at the sign to take some pictures. We moved some picnic tables over so that we could climb the sign. I realized I was getting old because I was scared to get in trouble! What happened to my rebel days!
We ended up stopping for the night at 2230 in Grenfell. We had no choice because we needed diesel and the gas station was closed! So we settled in at the Esso between two huge trucks for the night!
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| Justin's Big Rig in the middle! Mr W would be proud - he's about at 3000km under his belt! |
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