Mon., 10/4/10 - International Peace Garden
Today our Fantasy RV Polar Bear Express tour actually began.
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This morning we took a guided tour of the Peace Garden. I love the concept of this peace park straddling the border and celebrating our friendship in peace with Canada. We were here 2 or 3 years ago (the pictures are from June 2008) and there have been some additions to the Park including a pretty new building with a café, library, meeting room, gift shop, and enclosed cactus garden from a donor’s unique collection.
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Floral Clock |
Gardens and Peace Tower
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Peace Tower |
International Border
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This afternoon we both joined the group for orientation. As we introduced ourselves we learned that there are four retired nurses, four retired teachers, one Iowa farmer, 12 couples married many years with many grand and great grand children and one woman in her 70’s traveling in a large motor home by herself.
Dinner was a tasty buffet of BBQ beef, stewed veggies and potatoes, salad, dessert, and Pahrump wine.
Tues., 10/5/10 – International Peace Garden to Dauphin, Manitoba
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Going through customs was a piece of cake. We drove to Dauphin, Manitoba, an easy 168 miles, through the Turtle Mountains and saw Freddy the Turtle in Boissevain and the “Big Elk” in Onanole, but no moose, beaver, or turtles. Rte 10 took us through the hilly Riding Mountain National Park. We use the driving directions given to each RV and do not have to caravan in one long group. The directions are very explicit and name the little towns and scenic attractions. Mentions were made of banks, food stores, and gas stations along the route indicated by the odometer reading for the day. We have to remember to zero the trip odometer as we leave for a day of driving.
We parked for the night at the Vermillion Park Campground, another pretty grass and tree RV park. We have electric hook up only.
At 3 PM Gale took the tour of the Ft. Dauphin museum. It was never a military fort but rather a trading post where trappers and French and English merchants were safe to do their trading. Today the volunteers in period dress gave us the royal treatment. We started in the museum and were served tea and crumpets with homemade jelly and fresh fruit. It was like a high tea. We browsed the museum looking at First Nations displays, trapping, farming, and local history exhibits. (The Canadians refer to their Native people as First Nations people, a designation that is particularly appropriate.) Outside, one man dressed as a French voyageur with a beaver high hat, was making stew and bannock in a tripod over a fire pit. We got to taste the food and take home potatoes and large carrots from his wife’s garden. The one-room schoolhouse was manned by a retired teacher who began teaching in a similar school at age 16 and had all 8 grades in the one room. The trading post was manned by a woman who still traps beaver and raccoon and sells them to a buyer for clothing trim. There was a wooden beaver pelt press there that compressed 100 pelts into an 18 square inch cube for transport in the old days. The farmhouse looked like many other pioneer houses and the trappers hut was small but had the bare essentials. There was a gristmill we could use to try to stone-grind the wheat. Another woman used the grain to make bread in a brick and clay oven. We sampled the delicious bread with or without butter and jelly.
Another volunteer at the church explained about how the town of Dauphin began with five farm families. The Canadian homestead act had people build, plant, and live on a quarter section for only 6 months and for $10 they owned the land and could then move to an adjacent quarter and add to their holding.
It was a fun afternoon. I really enjoy pioneer history.
Dinner tonight was a home-cooked meal at the new Dauphin Recreation Center. Not surprisingly there was a curling arena and an ice hockey arena as well as a pool and meeting rooms.
Wed., 10/6/10 – Dauphin to The Pas, Manitoba
We had a pleasant 248-mile drive to The Pas. We passed some farms and then woods and many lakes. We keep looking for moose and beaver but only saw lots of habitats for them.
At The Pas we parked at a Cree First Nation casino on their reservation. It is dry camping but the casino is handy. They gave us $10 to use in the casino and I won $23.05 and Marge won $12 on a penny slot machine playing all 9 lines at 5 times the penny (= $.45 a spin). We ate dinner at their buffet and had nice roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, mixed veggies, and three kinds of salads including a raw mushroom, onion, and mayonnaise with herbs that was different and tasty. Dessert was apple pie or chocolate cake with cherry filling and lots of icing. Tomorrow I have to cook! The casino also ran a drawing just for our group. Four people out of our 31 won bags of goodies. We didn’t win.
Thurs., 10/7/10 – The Pas to Thompson, Manitoba
We drove north and east today to park at a campground in Thompson, MB.
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Fifty miles south of town we stopped at Pisew Falls Provincial Park. (Pisew is the Cree word for lynx.) After eating a picnic lunch we walked out the boardwalk to view the falls. There was a lot of water flowing over the short falls and the water made an “S” curve to continue on its way. It was very picturesque.
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We also walked down through fir, spruce, and beech trees to a suspension bridge over the river. On the other side there were hiking trails and another falls that we did not walk to.
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After we arrived at McCreedy Campground we got in line to dump our tanks and take on fresh water. We are all parked side-by-side two deep with electric hook up only. We took a load of laundry into town and did the laundry at a very nice, clean, and comfortable Laundromat. We got back late, had dinner in the camper, and then got organized for tomorrow’s overnight train ride and three days in Churchill.
Fri., 10/8/10 - Thompson and on the Hudson Bay Train heading North
After breakfast we filled one propane bottle in Thompson and then visited the Heritage North Museum. Thompson is a very young town. It was established as a result of the nickel lode that is mined here. There is a branch of Manitoba University in town and a definite Cree flavor. In the museum they had pioneer/first white inhabitant memorabilia, trapper exhibits, some First Nation artifacts, and explanations, lots of stuffed animals and birds (examples of what lives in the area), and another building with displays about the mining of nickel.
The town has a walkway called the Spirit Way that starts at the museum and wanders north to the Burntwood River Bridge. Along the way are fiberglass statues of wolves painted with historically significant pictures. At the museum was a wolf dedicated to the nickel mining process and one of the garden of memories with flowers painted on it. At the bridge end were four wolves and a seaplane. One wolf depicted the Pisew falls that we saw on our way into Thompson, another to the honor of a spirit Indian, etc. It would have been nice to have walked the whole spirit way and read about all of the wolves.
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Pontoon plane - Our campground is in the trees in the background on the right
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Spirit Wolf
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Spirit Wolves |
At 12:30 we loaded our checked bags to go to the train station and then the group shuttled over. We boarded, found our “cabins” and then the train turned around to face north and sat at the station for another hour. We left Thompson at 3:45.
VIA Canada Rail |
VIA Canada Rail
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At 5 PM we had to go eat dinner in the dining room - Canadian pot roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, veggies, roll, salad, and pie. It was pretty good. We sat and read for a while; Marge saw a bald eagle and I saw a beaver. At 8 PM we opted for bed. Our compartments (singles across the hall from each other) have a nice seat and private commode and sink. The problem was that when the bed pulls down out of the wall, the seat disappears and the commode is under the bed.
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Gale in her single compartment
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