CROSS CANADA MOTORHOME TRIP 2019 – MANITOBA

Three hours of driving to Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba. This is a very diverse campground with over 700 sites, most of which are private. The campground is on Clear Lake(Wasagaming) which is as the name suggests very clear and cold. The lake covers an area of 30 sq km. After setting up we went for a hike thru the bush and returned on a trail by the lake.

The beach at Clear lake

The feds control this lake very well. No phosphorus materials near the lake and no 2 stroke motors. The lake is pristine which cannot be said for many lakes these days.

Trip Advisor recommended SparrowsBakery in Clear lake, and although we had a hard time finding it as the name had changed, and the new owner had no clue of Sparrows Bakery, the cinnamon buns were great.

Off to Winnipeg, about three hours. Be appreciative of Alberta roads as Sask and Man do not measure up.

Checked into our campground at KOA and off to the Museum for Human Rights in downtown Winnipeg.

The building was started in 2008 and opened in 2014. THe feds operate it and contributed $100M. Other levels of government contributed as well but the Asper family of Winnipeg contributed or raised the largest percentage of the $351M price tag.,The building was designed by a New Mexico architect, Antoine Predock and features among other things, gradual alibaster walkways from level to level. The alibaster was imported from Spain. No good architects in Canada, I guess.There was controversy, in that, two permanent galleries were designated for the Jewish Oppression and the Canadian Aboriginal Plight where other indecencies for human rights objected to the favouring

The museum is well done with outstanding content and displays. Well worth the stop. Stayed too long however, as Winnipeg traffic to contend with. Before we left, we went to the 7th floor observation deck and noted to the security guard that it appeared very smoggy! He replied that it was Alberta smoke, to which we responded, that we just drove across Sask and that the smoke jumped that Province. Oh, he said!

Wednesday is an early day to the Assiniboine Zoo. Very high quality zoo, and remember it as a kid growing up.

Assiniboine Park is along the Assiniboine River and was first purchased in 1906. It contains 1100 acres with 400 acres of English landscaping, the zoo and the remainder natural. It is definitely one of the nicer parks that we have seen and from what we saw, very well used.

The zoo has many exhibits including North American, South American and Asian animals. It was a hot day so the polar bears were very active in the water

Also, within the Park is the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden and English Gardens. Theses are very well done. Leonid Molodozhanyn(Leo Mol), a Ukrainian artist emigrated to Canada in 1948 and settled in Winnipeg. He excelled in bronze sculpture as well as stained glass windows and landscape painting. His work in stained glass is displayed in 80 different churches and his Sculpture Garden contains over 300 pieces of work and in 1989 received the Order of Canada. His sculptures of 3 different popes are in the Vatican.

After Assiniboine Park, we are off to the Royal Canadian Mint and took their guided tour. Lots to see as you can see the machines in motion producing coins of special variety, circulation coins and coins for many other countries. We saw many of the specialty coins, including the million dollar coin of solid gold(replica only) and is the size of a large pizza. There were only five minted and are now worth $25M each. Also the quarter with a red poppy in the middle which were only distributed thru Tim Hortons to the tune of 30 million.There was an issue a few years ago where the loonie emblem got onto the quarter and was actually issued to the public through circulation. Keep your eyes open as they are worth $5000 each.

I asked the guide about security in the plant and she said that there are very high tech metal detectors that the people working there have to go thru coming and going. They are allowed metal on there glasses and steel toed boots which have to come off for the detector. She said that ladies working there were not allowed wire in there bras, so as a result the company replaced them for the workers. I asked, ” does that mean that our government buys the ladies their bras? To which she replied that the Mint is a crown corporation and not the government!

A very interesting place for sure and time well spent. We also “spent” there for keepsakes.

Tomorrow we are off to Selkirk, my home town. Have not been there since 1965. Looking forward to it for sure. A 45 minute drive. Selkirk is a town about 25 km north of Winnipeg and has 10,200 inhabitants. When I left in 1963 there were 8100 inhabitants, so not much growth. There is a major steel mill there as well as The Manitoba Mental Hospital and these two are the major employers. Tourism is growing as well due to the fishing in the Red River and thus the town is coined The CatfishCapital of North America.

A tee time at 10:30 at the Selkirk Golf and Country Club. The course is in the valley in Selkirk along the Red River. They have built berms along the River to mitigate flooding as the Red River is notorious for flooding. It has exceeded the berms a few times but not severely. Manitoba created a flood way in 2009, to protect Winnipeg but it empty’s near Lockport , which is south of Selkirk. Interestingly,the Red River flows south to north from Minnesota and empties into Lake Winnipeg which is north of Selkirk.

The course is old style, narrow tree lined fairways and small greens. I liked it, but you had to be straight off of the tee.

Camping at Selkirk park tonight, a campground along the River in the Selkirk Park.

Friday, May 31, and today is designated for a bit of site seeing around Selkirk, Lockport and Lower Fort Garry.

Skinners Restaurant in Lockport started in 1929 and according to them have world famous hotdogs. The son, Jimmy Skinner was the head coach of the Detroit Red Wings so they had tons of authentic memorabilia and the fries and hotdogs, as I remember were awesome. Today is so-so for the food and very little memorabilia left

Next we stopped at Lower Fort Garry which was in the nineteenth century a Hudson Bay trading post

Back into town and stopped at a few places along the way

Lake Winnipeg is the 5th largest lake in Canada with an area of 9500 sq miles and attracts fisherman for sport and commercial which is substantial. The Red River flows into it and Selkirk located on the river 25 miles from the lake was the hub for activity on the lake.

The Selkirk campground was nice and quite quiet, then Friday came and all those trailers parked for the summer became alive with kids and dogs. Off today(Saturday) to Narcisse about 1 1/2 hours northwest to see snakesThere is an interpretative walk, 3 1/2 km to 4 different dens. The temperature is only 14 so not good snake viewing weather. But

Lots of good reading there regarding the garter snakes. Following is a sampleSo, this place was totally interesting but time to go as Marg was on edge a bit.

We then travelled to Lake Winnipeg to camp for the nightA beautiful campground close to the lake with very private sites

We went for a walk along the lake but very blustery and cold.Beautiful clean beach with a concrete walkway all along the beach way. The place is very alive in the summer with vendors all along the walkway and campgrounds are full. Today they had a ball hockey tournament on the Main Street with a beer garden. Too cold to stop and enjoy.

Back in 1910, The CPR purchased 30 acres along the lake and developed it into a tourist attraction complete with one of the largest wooden roller coasters in Canada. More than a dozen trains carried passengers each Saturday from Winnipeg to Winnipeg Beach and was called the Midnight Special as they returned late at night. The fare was 50 cents. There was many hotels along the beach and The Pavillion had a 1300 sq m dance floor, the largest in Western Canada and was a rocking place.

Well, up Sunday morning and another cool day. The last three days have only been 14 for a high and getting down to 5 or 6 at night.

After a lazy few hours we took a bike ride around Winnipeg Beach. Although the population is only just over 1000 people, there are a lot of cottages, mostly old, and a nice marina. Lots of people out fishing in the morning on boats as well as from the breakwater. They catch walleye, carp, lake whitefish and goldeye. The goldeye are very popular for smoking and you see many places around selling smoked fish.

In the afternoon, we took a ride to nearby Gimli. It is an Icelandic settlement and was originally called New Iceland back in 1870. The Canadian government gave free land to Icelanders to come and farm and many thousands came over as living conditions were very bad in Iceland at the time

We visited the New Icelandic Heritage Museum and walked around downtown Gimli and took in the sights