July, 15 to Winnipeg, MB

Before we can talk about today's journey to Winnipeg, I have to quickly mention yesterday's change of route back to the US for drugs. Well, actually it was a trip to North Dakota to find a CVS to get a prescription filled (this time for me). I jokingly said that we would get there and it would be closed for remodeling. As it turned out, the one we found was under construction but there was another one at a mall that we did go to. Getting to Minot, ND, late, proved to make finding a campground nearly impossible. The KOA we were heading for seemed not to exist (the GPS couldn't find it either). We ended up in a, seemingly, closed little scrap of a campground behind a convenience store that was also centrally located between an airport, railroad tracks, and a truck route. We did tap into their electricity for the electric blanket but had no other "facilities" open to us. On top of that, we got the first rain while in the camper just before we got up but it stopped and the pack-up was dry.

After the morning trip to CVS, we had breakfast at a most unique little period diner with framed pictures and magazine covers from about the times we were born and into some of our earliest memories. In fact, the jukebox that was silent for the first 20 minutes we were there suddenly began playing, "I Want To Hold Your Hand", from a Beatles 45. The picture, above somewhat captures my glee at this magical happening. Of all songs, that was the first big one for me back in the 6th grade. There were other touches that made this place such a ND gem, like the 6 retirees chatting away in the next booth with their "Fargo-esque" accents. They were classic.

Upon leaving, the sky started to look threatening again but not in the direction we were headed - back to Canada (this time to Manitoba), so we outran the storm and found sunshine and heat across the border. By the way, if you ever want to smuggle anything across the border, go on a motorcycle with a trailer (which of course would increase your payload) as the border people are so interested in the rig and our travels that they never seem interested in taking any time checking anything. Once in Manitoba, the scenery got greener for a while but the theme of the day became the sighting of weird things like Tommy the (giant) Turtle, another large turtle made entirely of auto wheels, a huge camel - yes CAMEL, and we stumbled upon the geographical center of North America (really!). (The past couple of days have provided looks at the world's largest tee-pee in Medicine Hat, SK and a huge, fake moose) From there, getting to Winnipeg was mostly boring except for the beauty and contrast of the bright yellow canola and liquid blue flax fields. Of course the pictures will not do them justice. You have to see them ,and the huge expanses of them, to really appreciate it.

Winnipeg is a pretty large and confusing town to negotiate as a first time visitor. Doing it on a bike w/trailer made it even more of a "thrill". The roads are crappy, to put it politely. After checking into our downtown hotel, we hoofed it to "The Forks", which is a tourist destination at the confluence of two rivers. There is a marketplace there similar to Seattle's and we ate at Muddy Waters' BBQ. We thought we'd take a cab back to avoid repeating the 10 or so block walk back but the first cabs we saw were about a block from our hotel. Tomorrow, we hope to take in a bit more of the capital city and then head out toward Ontario on our way to Thunder Bay for some gem hunting. We hope to make it halfway there tomorrow.

As always, thanks to all who have made comments - keep them coming!

J