Going South to see more friends

After a wet night in the parking lots headed south to the border. Stopped at the duty free to find the Crown Royal that we couldn't find in Gimli.

Road got much flatter and straighter near and after the border. as we progressed south, got into the land of"a thousand Lakes" (Minnesota) As we neared our destination, rolling landscapes and more corners. More trees too.

We arrived at Tim and Jane's house shortly after 6pm with them and Jack and Bunny waiting (AKA Joel and Kathy). Big hugs ensued. Been quite a while since we saw them last, but it felt like just yesterday. Big Dinner developed, drank lots of wine.... 

Royal Canadian Mint and "The Forks"

On the road from Lake Winnipeg to The Royal Canadian Mint in Winnipeg. Nice City. One thing that we noticed in Manitoba is that they appear t be very bilingual. French is first on signage and displays.  I never knew that there was a large french population here.

Arrived early at the Mint (had 1pm reservation) Wasn't busy so got an earlier tour. No pics of the machinery allowed because of trade secrets we are told. They showed and explained how our coins are made and that they have or have had many countries as customers over the years. An average coin  stays in circulation for about 30 years, Who Knew? Then they come back to the mint to be crushed before the mutilated coins can be recycled. 2 mints in Canada, the other in Ottawa.

Flags of all of the Mints customers (almost 1/2 the countries of the world)

Julie holding $750,000 gold bar

Me Too!  Yes it is chained down..

Went into the centre of the city to "The Forks" where the Red River and the Assiniboine Rivers meet. Major meeting place over the centuries for people to trade. Before the European Settlers, the natives also met here to trade with one another, as the rivers in this part of the country flow slowly and are still used for moving freight and travel. The city has done a wonderful job of developing parks and trials and markets around this area. Much like Granville Island or Westminster Key...

Selfie of us on an old train bridge at "The Forks"

Walked to St. Boniface Mission Museum as Julie wanted to go there because through historical records that she has been searching, her grandfather may have been adopted from here. Part of the museum went into detail about Louis Riel as his family homesteaded nearby and was quite a supporter of the human rights movement of the day. Was hung for treason by the government. This information expanded our knowledge of the Batoche uprising and why he went to Saskaatchewan. Was quite interesting about Louis Riel. 

St Boniface Cathedral

St Boniface Mission

Cathedral in The mission for the nuns

St Julie

The St Boniface Mission (Canada's first Hospital) housed the Catholic Church Nuns who cared for the ill and for orphans.  Albert Gladu Senior may have been adopted from here.

Man on the left is William Gladu, potential relative of people who adopted Albert Sr.

After leaving the museum, walked back to the Forks for early dinner, when it started to rain. Drove out of town to Steinebach and bunked down in a Walmart parking lot.

Winnipeg Beach and Gimli

Nice area! Who knew? Winnipeg Beach was a summer playground for the city folk back in the early1900s. CNR built a hotel and resort here and a railway. 40,000 people would arrive on weekends until about 1960 when the tourists dwindled, the railway sold the property and suspended service, due to the automobile. Since that time, people have made this their cottage country.

Water tower serviced the community and train

Built in 1902

Checked out the Icelandic Museum today in Gimli. Little historic for Julie as her family has Icelandic roots. Drove back out to the Distillery for a pic.

Crown Royal Distillery & a few of the more than 50 storage buildings

1970s Bombardier commercial fishing snowmobile,

Note the high tech heating system (bucket over the wood stove chimney)

Ice auger and net winch for pulling nets under the ice

Onto Gimli, location of the Crown Royal Distillery

Waited for the mall and Walmart to open this morning. In the mall was a dog store that has a u-bath doggy shower. Only $10. Kyle was not too impressed, but it was well worth the money. We wanted to wait around for the local museum to open but couldn't wait another week so we headed east to Lake Manitoba and to Ginli as the Crown Royal Distillery is here, but they stopped doing tours, even though was reported on the net that tours were available.

on the shore of Lake Winnipeg, near the Distillery

Into Manitoba

Packed up and headed East. Roads pretty good and went from rolling farmland with lots of sloughs to  dryer fields and much flatter, straighter roads. Near the border turned hilly and forested, with lots of frost heaves and rougher roads. Expected and hope the roads would get better, but as soon as we crossed into Manitoba, the roads worsened and had to slow down as we were being bounced all over the road. Once we got to the corner of the road to The Pas, going south they were better.  Arrived in Dauphin at the local Walmart.

Batoche

Took a walk about and met a few locals who remembered our family. Then went into town to find the family farm house. Just rubble remains now.

Then we headed west to view more of the landscape, rode to Rostherm and got gas. On the way back, Julie suggested we check out "Batoche" as we had kept on seeing signs for it. Got there but it was closed. Walked around the site and got a real sense for it. Turns out this is the location of Louis Riels's last battle and where he was taken prisoner. He ended up getting tried in a Regina court and being executed for treason.

Water levels in the area were quite high with all the spring rains.

Laundry DAY

This campground is supposed to have laundry facilities, but when we went to find out where it was, the door was locked, further inquiry revealed that it was closed for renovations.  Further inquiry revealed that Wakaw's only laundromat was also closed for renovations. Further inquiry at the gatehouse suggested Cudworth, a little town 16kms south of Wakaw, had a laundromat.  Loaded up our laundry into the saddle bags and off we go in search or laundry services. Beautiful drive down the road over the rolling hills, across sloughs to Cudworth. At the address of the washing facility, renovations were underway making it into a residence.

Back up the road, north to Prince Albert. After an hours drive, over hills, across sloughs, over broken heaved payment around gravel spots in desperate need of repairs, we arrived in PA. Stopped at the Info centre and while being helped by one of the employees, a nice young gentleman says he knows of a laundromat nearby and to follow him. Got to our destination and it was a dry cleaner. Onto the cellphone and found out that his help diverted us from a nearby laundromat, so he left us and we backtracked. Laundry done while conversing wth a colourful local. Then 2 hours later, back down our bumpy humpy gravel speckled road to Wakaw.

Museum was supposed to be open according to the sign. It Wasn't, but there were names and phone #s so we call Darleen. She came down and gave us a personal tour. Very nice lady, we really appreciated the time spent with her. Learnt a little more of the town my family grew up in.

Got to the campsite gate and the "female dog" wouldn't let us through. She informed us that each vehicle needs to have a park pass. Apparently, our truck is one and motorcycle is another. Made us pay $9 to get the bike back into the park, then she informs us that  we should switch our 1 day pass (just purchased) with our $45 Annual pass that we purchased on the first day. Would not let us go get the truck pass though...

Went back into town to the chinese restaurant for dinner with Garrick and April. April and her family live 30 minutes north of here near the little town of Hoey, down a 5 mile gravel road, on acreage. Nice visit.

Back to the camp with park pass in hand to have the bitch lift the gate for us. Then I try to set up WIFI. You have to pay for WIFI at the camp also. Paid $6.95 +tax and the WIFI has a worse connection than any connection we had in Bolivia, 5 years ago. This province is nickel and dining us. Not impressed.

Michael Anthony Redl (Grandfather)

After signing in,  cost $202.50 for 4 nights, including a $45 Saskatchewan Regional Parks Pass, they made us move camp 3 spots this morning (and no one showed up to use the original camp spot we were in.

Washed the truck and trailer as I used them to kill a huge pile of bugs over the past 3 weeks. Still too many around, every evening, those blood suckers come out.

After lunch hopped onto the bike and went searching for Grampa's grave. I saw the grave 34 years ago,  but the memory was very faint.  Drove all 8 streets in Wakaw to get a feel for it. Quaint little town, but in dire need of some repaving. Checked 3 cemeteries and saw a lot of ethnic names on tombstones but no Redls.  Came back into town for groceries and water and on the way out back to the campsite on the north side of the lake, we saw tombstones on the hill, Up another gravel road. Bike is already dusty, we drove up to this 4th cemetery. Feelings started tingling. Something felt right. Memories of trees near by were confirmed. Walked around the gate and saw a tombstone of Frank Redl, apparently 2 Redl families unrelated settled in the same town back at the beginning of the 1900s, don't know if Frank is one of ours because we didn't bring our family tree book with us.

2 rows back and shaded from the nearby trees, M A Redl grave marker tombstone stood.  Julie went for a walk around the cemetery while I stood and had a little chat with Gramps.

Got back to camp had dinner. Garrick and his girlfriend April came down for a short visit. We arranged to have dinner together tomorrow night.

On the Road to Wakaw

Travel was good today. Came out of the Red Deer River Valley and up onto the plains. Roads were pretty good, Scenery was rolling hay fields and moved into flatter grain fields. All grain fields are killed off as farmers use a strong fertilizer to kill the weeds in preparation for seeding. Saw some fields being worked, but the area between Drumheller and Saskatoon they were very dry with many sloughs looking like their water levels near mid summer heights. (My feelings)

Arrived in Saskatoon to the nearest Walmart and was talking to some people in a trailer. Then saw signs on the light posts that this parking lot had a 4 hour limit or $65 fine, so we decided to carry on and get a camping spot early as the long weekend would probably be very busy. Arrived at Wakaw Lake Provincial Park after the gatehouse was closed but were able to set up camp for the night.

Atlas Coal Mine

Went to the Drumheller Hoo Doos. Fairly unimpressive.. but free..

Then down the road to the Atlas Coal Mine. It was the last operating coal mine in the Red Deer River Valley around Drumheller. Closed its doors in 1979. At one time in the 30-40s there were 139 mines. Last "tipple" standing in western Canada. Took the tours, learnt alot.

Then a ride around the Dinosaur Trail Loop and over the Bleriot cable ferry and back to a suspension bridge.

Drumheller

Went to the Royal Tyrell Museum (Dinosaurs). Pretty cool, all the old bones and how they figure out where, when and who they cam from.

After dinner, we met our camping neighbours, Peter and Clara from Comox, BC. They are also heading across Canada and taking 4 month to do it. Nice people who like wine..... 

They invited us for Lobster in Nova Scotia, because they brought a large pot. Mmmmm we are in!