2015-08-20 Winnipeg West KOA, in St. Francois Xavier, Manitoba

When I last wrote on 8/9, we were packing up to leave Cochrane, AB on Friday, 8/10. We have continued to move east, and are now just west of Winnipeg, MB. Here is a Google Map that shows our drive from Florida to here.

. I found it interesting that Google only allows you to use points A through J to show your route on a map. I will have to figure out how to display the rest of the circle back to Florida. It may require more than one map.

 

After leaving Cochrane, AB, we moved to Drumheller, AB , north and east of Calgary in order to see dinosaur bones and Canadian Badlands. There are statues of dinosaurs all over town, including these at the visitor center. .  We visited a great museum, The Royal Tyrell Museum, which is full of dinosaur bone and skeletons. . Driving around, we saw the Atlas Coal Mine , and hoodoos in the badlands. .

 

We left Drumheller on the 12th, spent one night in Maple Creek, SK, and arrived in White City, SK on the 13th, just outside of Regina, SK. In Regina, on the 14th, we toured the Capitol of Saskatchewan. . Note that the dome is being reconstructed. We also went to the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, which is their natural history museum. .  We had Marilyn’s birthday lunch at The Willows, across the lake from the Capitol. . One of the best museums in Regina is The Depot, where all Royal Canadian Mounted Police receive their 6 months basic training. . In addition to seeing the normal artifacts in a museum, we were all given a golf cart tour of the grounds, and a re-enactment of the meeting between the RCMP and Sitting Bull. .

 

We left Regina behind us on the 16th, and with one night on the road move to St. Francois Xavier, MB. On our way east toward Winnipeg we saw a field that, from a distance, looked like they were growing thousands of marshmallows. As we drew near, they turned out to be round bales of hay covered in white plastic. We have ended up staying at the Winnipeg West KOA. Besides being a nice park, the price was very close to that of nearby parks. On Tuesday the 18th, we toured the Manitoba Provincial Capitol with its Bison mascot. We also toured the Royal Canadian Mint at Winnipeg. The loon ended up on the Canadian Dollar Coin because the original die disappeared on its way to Winnipeg.  Wednesday, the 19th was our 48th wedding anniversary, so we opted to not do any sightseeing. We did go to Safeway for steak, shrimp and sparkling wine to celebrate with. Today, the 20th we drove to Steinbach, MB to see the Mennonite Heritage Village. Those settling in Manitoba came from Russia in the early 1900s. The museum has gathered buildings and farm equipment dating to their early days in Manitoba. . We were surprised to find that they even have a section of the Berlin Wall. .