Aylmer Express "MoHo" Extravaganza 2006

variegated \VAIR-ee-uh-gay-tid\, adjective:
1. Having marks or patches of different colors; as, "variegated leaves or flowers."
2. Varied; distinguished or characterized by variety; diversified.

I'm trying a little experiement today since the photo upload facility for this blog is horribly slow. I have included links to photos which are already uploaded to the web instead. This way you can see more images and I can spend less time uploading them. You will need to enter a username and passwword if you are not already a member but that is it and you get to see many more photos. Let me know what you think of this new method.

Surprise, surprise. It was another scorcher today registering 35C. I do love the warm weather but my family is less enthralled with the rather extreme temperatures we have been experiencing. So, how did we spend our one full day in the Toon? I’m glad you asked.
We started off with a visit to the Wanuskewin Heritage Park to find out more about the native people of this area. To our disappointment, there were no tour guides available but fortunately the exhibition inside, as well as the highlights along the hiking trails, where very well documented and it gave us a pretty good overview of the life of the native American Indians that inhabited this area. Probably the most exciting and memorable part of the lifestyle of these people was the way in which they hunted buffalo. In a nutshell, they would trick them into thinking that one of their young was in danger by having one of the Indians disguise themselves as a baby buffalo and another dress like a wolf. Then they would pretend that they wolf is chasing the young buffalo. The buffalo instinctively try to protect their young and would then run after these two trying to scare of the “wolf”. The whole time the two Indians would be running toward a cliff. Although we are out in the prairies, they do have rather sudden valleys crop up typically carved out by streams and rivers. Now, as you might have already guessd, it turns out that buffalo have very poor eye sight so they usually would not notice the cliff coming until it was too late. And even if they did, often there would be a pack of them running together so when the first ones stopped for the cliff, the ones behind would bump into them from behind and knock them over the cliff anyway! Then there would be other Indians waiting at the bottom of the cliff to kill the buffalo which might only be wounded. Very clever! However, I should mention that this was not always easy. In many cases it took days to find and sneak up on the buffalo and then lure them back to the cliff area.
When we were in Winnipeg, I heard a guide telling a group about another way that Indians would catch buffalo in the winter. The Indians would once again take advantage of one of the buffalo’s natural tendency. When they sense danger or a threat, the male buffalo, to forfend their young and the females, will form a circle facing outward with the females and young in the centre. So what the Indians would do is chase the buffalo out onto the ice of a frozen river or lake. I’m not sure how much you know about the concept of pressure but let’s just say that if you are out on a frozen lake in the winter, it is NOT a good idea to have everyone you are with group together in one spot. The ice might be strong enough to hold a buffalo on its own but when they gather in a circle, the inevitable would happen and they would all fall through the ice. Many would die from drowning or freezing. Instant frozen dinner! After hearing about these methods I get the feeling that either these Indians must ahve sat around doing a lot of strategic thinking … or … over the years these incidents happened coincidentally and suddenly a light bulb appeared over the heads of those Indians (anachronism?) watching and a tradition was born. Either way, for these native people to survive the hot, scorching summers and bleak, freezing winters of the prairies, they must have been plenty clever.
Another nice thing about this place is that it is a park. A heritage park. So they had a selection of hiking trails you could take to see the actual places where these people would live and hunt. We took one of the trails that went down through a valley along the river and back up again. Quite interesting and picturesque however I think we ended up sweating about three times our own body weight! For photos check the link below:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=j625qcn.6e63am1b&x=1&y=ht6ff6

Then it was off to downtown Saskatoon to go for a bike ride. We heard that there were some nice bike trails along the aptly named, Saskatchewan River and, sure enough, there was the Meewasin Valley Trail. It was a nice little ride along the water and we even managed to have a swim. Well, the kids did since they were in their bathing suits already (lucky dogs!). Along the way I learned a new term today, weir. I did not realize that Canada’s most famous golfer was named after a concrete dam used to control the flow of a river or stream. The Toon installed a weir back in 1939 in order to maintain the water level at the minimum required for their water treatment plant. I guess that sounds important enough to put in the time and effort required to build a weir. I would imagine it could get rather ugly otherwise. The water flowing over the weir has a rather mesmerizing beauty but it does make navigating the river by boat a little tricky. Anyway, the ride was fun but I think we all came close to learning the meaning of yet another new word: dehydration. We depleated the water in our bottles by the halfway mark but luckily we found a water fountain on the way back. Maybe we should be using camels instead of bikes until this weather cools down a bit. For photos check this link:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=j625qcn.boweqwb3&x=1&y=-2ruujj

Another interesting fact about the Toon is that the singer Joni Mitchell grew up here and considers it her hometown. For those of you old enough to remember, probably her biggest hit was “Big Yellow Taxi” which I read was written by her while sitting in a café right here in the Toon. I was surprised to find out that she also wrote the song “Both Sides Now” and has received 5 Grammy awards along with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Not too shabby. As usual, for more info, check Wikipedia! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joni_Mitchell )

That evening when we had returned to the campsite we ended up striking up a conversation with some fellow MoHo-ers, if I may use that term. We got talking with them because they were driving the exact same type of MoHo as us (a Glendale Royal Classic) except that it was 6 years newer (2003). I must admit that it looked very nice and had numerous little improvements to many of the things that I find rather irritating or what I might term “under-engineered”. It was fun comparing the differences. However, while we were talking, Marvin mentioned in interesting point. He said that he liked staying in a MoHo, rather than a hotel, when he travels because it is so easy to meet people. It is a fact that I had not considered when making our decision to embark on our MoHo tour but I must admit that it certainly has proven to not only be true and but also rewarding.

cerebration \ser-uh-BRAY-shuhn\, noun:The act or product of thinking; the use of the power of reason; mental activity; thought.

Below is a little something I put together to be sung to the tune of “Runnin’ back to Saskatoon”, so let’s hear your best Burton Cummings impression:


I’ve been hangin’ around RV campsites,
Been learnin’ ‘bout fires,
I’ve been talkin’ to travelin’ junkies,
Been workin’ on wires

Whitewood, Findlater, Moosomin too,
Heading up to Saskatoon,
Grenfeld, Davidson and Sintaluta,
Heading up to Saskatoon

Sorry about that uncharacteristic outburst of song. Actually, I guess it is really more of an outburst of poem. Although, now that I think about it, it is an outburst of song in the same sort of way that Al Yankovich is a singer. It seems that I got inspired by the Guess Who on my way to “the ‘Toon”. To be honest, I have no idea what the nickname for Saskatoon is but I’ll use that until I am told any different. Now, let’s get back to our regularly scheduled blog entry.

OK, what’s the deal? Gas has been getting progressively more expensive the further we go west … am I the only one who finds this weird? I am I on candid camera or something? Is anybody listening! If the price doesn’t drop the second I cross the Alberta border, I’m going to … I’m going to … I’m going to be really pissed off!
So let’s see now, today we drove from Regina to the Toon and, at this point, I’m going to bet you know the drill: It was mostly flat. The roads were mostly straight. It was sunny and over 30C. We saw a lot of spread out across big fields … blah, blah, blah. Although the scenery is not exactly what I would describe as variegated, it is punctuated with some subtle differences which seem even more interesting in contrast to the growingly familiar surroundings. We did enjoy another roadside MoHo lunch (you should know by now that I am a big fan of those) so that was nice. And did I mention that Chantal to the liberty of trying to recreate the decadent dessert recipe that Jane in Kansas City shared with her? Well, let me tell you it was a resounding success! This has got to be one of the most bad-ass desserts known to man. And Chantal did an awesome job. I know this because, just like when I tasted Jane’s original squares, I felt a guilty every time I took a bite! Deliciously evil!
The campground here in the Toon is actually one of the nicest yet. Well, it at least has the best wireless internet access. And as you can see from the photos, the sunsets can be absolutely fantastic too. Other than that, there is not really a whole lot more to report for today. Not surprisingly I still have not found the time to investigate the failed left brake light issue so maybe everyone reading can set up a pool as to what date that will finally get fixed. Feel free to use the comments section for that, or any other comment you’d like to share with everyone. Just click on the yellowish word “comments” at the bottom of the blog entry in question. I’ve gotta go so I’ll leave things on that pleasant note.

innocuous \ih-NOK-yoo-uhs\, adjective:
1. Harmless; producing no ill effect.
2. Not likely to offend or provoke; as, "an innocuous remark."


I must admit, we have been experiencing some phenomenally lovely weather on our trip so far. It may be considered a little warm by some but I love it and you won’t hear me complain about a hot, sunny day, which is exactly what we were looking at again this morning. It looked like a good day for some biking so first stop … Saskatchewan’s Legislative Building!?!?


It was kind of cool to walk up to the same building I saw Tommy Douglas walk up to in the Canadian made-for-TV movie about his life. This building was started in 1908 and was completed for the most part by 1910 but it took another two years for the woodwork to be finished in the legislative assembly so, in the meantime, they apparently held debates in the library until the other room was finished. From the looks of the incredibly detailed wood carvings throughout the room, it was definitely worth the wait. The total cost of the building was much lower than that of the Manitoba Legislative Building, coming in at a mere $1.75 million versus the $9 million of Manitoba. And in my opinion, it is an equally impressive structure if not quite on the same grand scale as what we saw in Winnipeg. One thing I was impressed by as we toured the facility was the high profile given to the contribution of the natives. The two most prominent murals both depicted images with natives. As a matter of fact, one of them was titled, "Before the white man". They also included a special hallway dedicated to housing the portraits of the leaders of the many tribes around the time that Saskatchewan came into being (1905). Another highlight of this, Regina’s most regal edifice, is its location on the banks of Wascana Lake. It is actually a man-made lake but it is very nicely done as you can see from the pictures. However, this was not always the case. By the late 1990s there had been years of sediment build-up in the lake and it had plants growing on the bottom. The people of Regina were worried that if nothing was done to fix this that it was in danger of turning into a large marsh. So, in the fall of 2003 the city embarked on what they called “The Big Dig” which was a plan to deepen the lake to over 5 metres (about 5.5 yards). This depth was chosen so that weeds would not be able to grow on the bottom. Everything went well and they also added many people-friendly features as well. Now they use the lake for rowing regattas, wake board competitions (as was happening the day we were there) and who knows what else. Another interesting thing to note is that the Regina area originally had no trees! Every tree you see in these photos was planted since the settlers arrived.
After taking a tour of the Legislative Building we decided to have a picnic on the grounds with the building as our backdrop. We then embarked on a bike tour around the lake to take full advantage of the absolutely gorgeous day. Next I have a pop quiz for you all.
Question: What do you get when you take two boys between 10 and 12, a cloudless, 32 degree day and a campground which happens to be situated next to a water park? Answer: A small hole in your wallet and lots of smiles and screaming fun! We spent the rest of the day and into the early evening tackling the best that the water park had to offer. A good time was had by all as you can see from the pics below.

When we returned to our campsite Chantal and I also got a chance to chat with the people camping beside us. They were an elderly couple from southern Manitoba who each had their spouse pass away about 15 years ago and they ended up getting married to each other a few years later and have been doing lots of traveling ever since. Coincidentally, just like us, they too celebrated their 13th wedding anniversary this year. They are both farmers and we had an interesting discussion about what farming life is like. One thing that they said that really caught my attention was that today it would pretty much be impossible for someone to become a farmer from scratch. They said that virtually every farmer today got started by having their farm passed on to them through their family. He went on to say that in order to purchase a farm big enough to survive, there is no way you would ever be able to pay back the cost of your initial investment required to buy the farm simply by working the farm. I certainly found that cause for cerebration. Anyway, it was quite an interesting and informative chat and he actually answered a farming question that had come up on our way to Regina. Perhaps one of you reading knows the answer. The question is, “What is the name of the mauve-coloured crop that is show in the first photo from yesterday’s (July 20) blog entry? Anyone … anyone … Bueller?

nescience \NESH-uhn(t)s; NESH-ee-uhn(t)s\, noun:
Lack of knowledge or awareness; ignorance.

Regina, Saskatchewan is the goal today. Fortunately for us, the winds have died down considerably making driving less arduous and fuel economy more pleasant, if I may use that term for a vehicle that averages 8 miles per gallon! The roads were, as you might expect, pretty straight and pretty flat. The weather was the usual nice although there were decidedly more clouds today but they appeared to be innocuous and mearly seemed to give the sky more character. Not long after we left we passed the exit for Gimli, Manitoba. Upon seeing this city name, I had no choice but to regale the kids and Chantal with the story of the now famous “Gimli Glider” incident from the early 80s. It is a fascinating story of an Air Canada plane which ran out of fuel at 40,000 feet and all the issues that the pilots had to deal with to manage to bring it down. Check out the story at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider . Then the kids took turns sitting up front with me while I was driving. That is always fun as you get to find out about all sorts of things that are on their minds and that are of interest to them. For instance, when Morgan was sitting with me, one of the subjects he brought up was what he would do if he had 10 million dollars. André-Paul, of course, likes to discuss completely different things and on this particular day I found out that A-P could lead a happy life if he was restricted to only eating the following items: pizza, grilled cheese sandwiches, Kraft Dinner mac & cheese, asian food, sea food, and, of course, hot dogs. Maybe I should touch on this subject with A-P again in 10 years to see if that is still the case.

As many of you may have expected, I have been keeping track of what we are spending everyday as we are going along to see how closely we are tracking to my original budget estimates. I thought that it might be interesting to share these stats we you as we progress just in case you might be thinking of doing something like this yourself someday. So, after our first 4 weeks, our daily average for the following categories is:


Accommodation: $19
Food: $48
Entertainment: $19
Misc: $25
MoHo/Auto Maint: $15
MoHo/Auto Gas: $48

And our current km/day works out to be:
MoHo: 168
Matrix: 39

If I can remember I’ll try to give an update on this every 4 weeks or so to see how it has been changing. Feel free to remind me about this.

And to close out, if you have ever wondered whether or not people in Manitoba have a sense of humour, all you need to do is check out the sign in front of the motel near our campsite which reads, “Free hotel room with every $59 breakfast!”

bon ton \bahn-TAHN\, noun:
1. Fashionable or elegant manner or style.
2. The proper or fashionable thing to do.
3. Fashionable society; a fashionable social set.

I’ve always wondered what it was like north of Winnipeg. I’ve never been up to that part of Manitoba and I have only known one person who has lived there which was only temporarily. He spent some time in Thompson, Manitoba, I believe, for a 4-month work-term as a student.(Please correct me if I am wrong, I.J.). He was there during the winter and I recall him telling me about his first day there. He said that when the radio announcer gave the temperatures, it didn’t make sense. The highs were lower than the lows. That is until he realized that, when it comes to temperature, they don’t bother saying the “negatives” in the winter … the negative is implied!
Luckily it is the summer and besides, my curiousity is not so strong that I need to head to Thompson. But I was able to entice my family to venture out to one of the beaches along Lake Winnipeg. We decided to check out a place called Grand Beach. We were told of the beautiful white sand beaches that stretch all along the shore there. What we were not told of is what I am now referring to as the “Prairie Wind”. Believe it or not, I am just referring to the strong winds that come across the prairies. Really. The good news today is that one of the advantages of this prairie wind was that it was generating some lovely waves as it made its way eastward across Lake Winnipeg. The kids and I had a great time jumping through the waves and seeing who could crash through the biggest one. It was a lot of fun. I haven’t played in big waves in a fresh water environment for some time so I kept expecting to have that salt water taste in my mouth but it didn’t materialize. Today was also the day we had scheduled to leave our campsite so we had to leave the beach earlier than we would have liked and then proceed to fight our way back through the prairie wind. Even though we were in the Matrix, we had our bikes on the roof so the wind effect was much more noticeable. What was also becoming more noticeable was the fact that the “low gas” light was on. Grand Beach turned out to be a provincial park rather than a “Grand Bend”-type place, for those of you who are familiar with that little town on Lake Huron, so there was a distinct lack of gas stations in the area. No problem, it was the GPS to the rescue. You request that it list the gas stations closest to you. The nice thing is that it also tells you in what direction they are so that you don’t select one that is behind you if you are trying to avoid back tracking. The closest station to us was about 3 km off the main road so we definitely would not have found it on our own. Very handy!
We got back, packed up, and headed off. We weren’t exactly sure where we were heading this day. We decided to drive until we didn’t want to go any further and then just pull in at the nearest campground. On our way I had a couple of old memories surface from the only other time I ever drove on this road back in the winter of 1980. As I drove past a small sign that announced the little village of Douglas, Manitoba, I instantly remembered this place as the place where I ran out of gas in my mighty little Ford Fiesta back in ’80 (remember that Ross?). It turns out that the winter version of “prairie wind” has a habit of blowing minute particles of snow ad ice into your air filter. Then, when you park for the night the heat from your engine melts the snow and ice, and once your engine has cooled down, this liquid freezes again into an a perfectly sized chunk of ice to block most of the air from entering your engine. NOT good for gas mileage if you were wondering. So I remembered my car coasting up to the Douglas sign, turning left and still having enough momentum to get across the highway and then coast down the hill into the village. I remember being so happy to have been able to coast into town where I could get some gas. However, my nescience of rural Manitoba got the best of me that day. There was no gas station there! So we had to pay for someone to go to the nearest gas station and bring us back some fuel.Switching gears back to today, we ended up selecting a campsite in Brandon. I remember Brandon very clearly as well. When I was driving back across the prairies on my way home in that winter of 1980, I had picked up a hitchhiker somewhere in Saskatchewan. While we were talking I asked him if there were any places known for speed traps. He said he wasn’t that familiar with the area but he had heard that Brandon was a place where you’ll get a ticket if you are speeding. We continued talking all the way to Manitoba and beyond as he was on his way to Winnipeg. When we got to Brandon I started slowing down but I was distracted by our conversation and before I knew it, a police car was behind me with its lights on. That was my first speeding ticket ever. I’m sure the hitchhiker was wondering why I would specifically ask for the location of speed traps and then speed through the one and only area he recommended I not do so. But to his credit, he did not ask. So, yes, lots of “fond” memories of this area of the country!

Yesterday’s word:

practicable \PRAK-tik-uh-buhl\, adjective:
1. Capable of being done, accomplished, or put into practice; feasible; as, "a practicable method; a practicable aim."
2. Capable of being used; usable.

Cold? What is that? I had almost forgotten that there are different states than being too hot or being not too hot. This morning I wore my pullover fleece for the first time as I was actually a little chilly. It didn’t last long, of course as the Winnipeg sun warmed things up to the usual 30-ish soon enough. The cool nights are almost like built-in air conditioning.
Today we decided to take advantage of our location as much as possible. The Bird’s Hill Provincial Park is big and beautiful. But before getting started A-P and I wanted to get our blogs updated. Unfortunately this entailed a trip into town to find some internet access. We called the library and found out that they have free internet access computers as well as jacks you can plug your own computer into. Perfect. We wound up the GPS and headed off to the nearest location. When we arrived, located the jacks, set up our laptops and plugged in our cables, we noticed a distinct lack of connectivity. Perhaps it was my old ethernet cables not working? So, I asked if I could borrow a cable from them and that is when I found out that although the jacks have been installed, they are not yet hooked up! Sneaky. After the librarian made a few calls we determined that none of the Winnipeg libraries are yet set up to allow for an external computer to connect. So it was time for plan B … Starbucks. But first, since we were close to our previous campsite which DID have a WiFi signal, I thought we should stop by there and see if we could pick it up. So we did and we could! So we just parked the car on the grass, we both jumped into the back seat to have more room to work, and started surfing. Strange but true. The lengths we go to bring you our action-packed stories from the road!
Meanwhile, back at the campsite, Chantal and Morgan were enjoying a decidedly more normal day. They went biking around the park on the many great bike trails that are offered. Then they swung by the beach to play a little volleyball. Then they were back on their bikes home for lunch and then right back to the beach again. When A-P and I arrived, we too jumped on our bikes and headed to the beach.. I attached the bike buggy in order to take all the beach stuff along as well. On my way over there I started thinking about what I was wearing. I thought, “Reef sandals from Hawaii … $15, Tommy Hilfiger swim shorts from North Carolina … $30, Ray Ban sunglasses from California … $45, fifteen-year-old cotton t-shirt from bargain bin in Kitchener, Ontario … Priceless.” Not exactly bon ton but I wouldn’t have it any other way. After playing with the kids in the water for a while, Chantal and I had a chance, for what seemed like the first time since we left, to just sit back and relax. We got comfortable on the beach and did some reading in the sun. I wasn’t long before hunger called us back to the MoHo for dinner.

Since we were staying at our campsite for 3 nights, we erected the screen room to enjoy eating outside … but without the bugs for a change. Actually, I must admit that there were hardly any bugs anyway. With all the hot weather, and lack of rain in the Winnipeg area for the last 2 months, it seems like the insects never got a chance to multiply like normal. So while we were savouring our spaghetti in relative bug-free bliss, the typical prairie winds were trying their best to bring down the screen room. Since we were planning to leave the next day anyway, we thought maybe we should pack up the screen room right away … rather than chase it around the campground.And then, as we sat out for a few minutes before hitting the sack, we got a taste of a very psychedelic post-sunset display. The somewhat billowy and somewhat wispy cloud formation covering the western sky was being lit from the bottom in a rosy, burnt orange mélange by the sun which had already dipped below the horizon from our standpoint while the few areas where you could see through to “cotton balls” on top it was luminated with a much brighter, almost white light resulting in an amazing contrast in the darkening blue-tinted sky. Then not long after that, as we looked to the north where we were treated to an impressive array of lightening. It seemed as though there were continual flashes of light at different intensities brightening up the dark clouds covering that part of the sky. It was very much like watching fireworks from a distance. But with all the dry weather in the part of the country, it made me wonder if any forest fires were being ignited. Let’s just say I was happy to be watching all of this from a safe distance away.

Yesterday’s word:

histrionic \his-tree-ON-ik\, adjective:1. Of or relating to actors, acting, or the theater; befitting a theater; theatrical.2. Overly dramatic; deliberately affected.

The kids have done a fabulous job of lobbying to go to the movies to see Pirates of the Caribbean. The started off by talking about it all the time for about two weeks before its opening and telling me how much they would like to see it. Once it opened, they would point out any advertising they saw about it and remind me that it is now playing. And Morgan seemed to continually be asking me, “Will we be going to the movies today?” I would usually answer, “We are definitely going to see it but we need to work it into all the other things we want to see and do, and since we can go to the movie anywhere we will work it in when a time slot opens up. Well, today I finally broke down and succumbed to the two very experienced negotiators.

But first, we made our way to the Royal Canadian Mint for a tour of the facility that generates all the coin currency for Canada. (Before I continue I should let you know that they did not allow people to take pictures on our tour so there is not as much to "show" you as normal. Thanks a lot mint people!) There is also a Royal Canadian Mint in Ottawa which was build in 1908 and it was the only mint until the mint in Winnipeg was build in 1975. When the second mint came online they decided to only use the Ottawa mint to do the designs for all coins made by the mint in addition to creating high quality specialty coins for collectors. But Winnipeg does all the “hard labour” and the facility pumps out 15,000,000 coins a day! They not only make all the standard currency coins for this country, but they also create coins for 60 other countries including Australia, Norway, Costa Rica, Israel, Fiji, India, Turks and Caicos, New Zealand and many more. I was surprised to hear that the Winnipeg mint typically achieves a 99% defect-free production. However, that means that approximately 1% of all coins created here contain a defect. It way not sound like much until you consider that it works out to about 150,000 defective coins every day! Believe it or not, that is world class quality as it is not easy hammering out perfect coins when you are smashing metal against metal and you only have one hit per coin. This reminds me of a story I heard when FedEx was one of my customers. A representative from FedEx did a presentation and one of the statistics they mentioned was that they aim for 100% of all packages to be delivered on time. He said they typically reach about 99.9% success. This sounded pretty dang good until he said that they deliver 20 million packages a day and that 0.1% translates into 20,000 unhappy customers every day! It’s tough to be in a business where 99.9% is just not good enough. I also heard a couple of other interesting facts on our mint tour. I did not realize that the Royal Canadian Mint only creates coins. All the paper money in Canada is created by Canadian Bank Note. It makes sense now that I think about it but I guess I had not really thought about it before. Also, about 5 years ago Canada changed the way they create some of the Canadian coins. One of the negative side effects is that some coins have trouble being accepted by certain vending machines. It turns out that there are apparently 3 main properties that are used by vending machines to detect the authenticity of a coin. One, is it’s size, two, is its weigh, and three is its electromagnetic signature. So when the mint makes any changes to the metals that are used in a coin, they spend a lot of time trying to ensure that the above 3 properties are retained as best they can. Now that has got to be a challenge. By the way, if anyone else out there can fill in some details on what vending machines really use to detect which coins have been inserted, do share with us by leaving a comment on the blog.

The kids had some fun in the main area where they had a bar of gold on display that was worth $330,000 (CDN) and you were welcome to pick it up to see what it felt like. Personally I thought it felt rather restrictive given the chain attached to the bottom and the armed security guard standing beside it. They also had a neat little contraption that would tell you what you would be worth if you were made of different types of coins. That seems like a whole lot better way of dealing with getting on a scale, eh?

After that is was off to see the previously mentioned Pirates of the Caribbean. The kids and I really enjoyed it but Chantal was not as enthusiastic about it. One thing that made the movie less enjoyable to watch was the fact that we were watching it in a meat locker! It was freezing! Morgan was actually sitting on top of me trying to stay warm! But the part that I liked best about the movie is that I will no longer have to listen to questions from the kids about when we will be going.

On our way home we stopped by an RV store to pick up a few maintenance items we require. So far so good on issues with the MoHo but yesterday I uncovered our first item that requires more than a trivial fix. I am hoping not much more. Originally I thought that a brake light bulb had burned out but after having tried two separate new brake light bulbs with still no brake light coming on, it looks like it might be a loose wire issue. I am not liking the sound of that but with any luck there will turn out to be a practicable solution. I’ll keep you posted on how things go as I try to deal with this.

Today also marked the first day since before Chicago that I can remember where I didn’t end up with a completely sweaty shirt by the end of the day. A pleasant change yet also an indicator of the great sunny weather we have been experiencing. Thank goodness it is only a brake light, and not the air conditioner, that is malfunctioning.

Yesterday’s words:

Ides \YDZ\, plural noun:
In the ancient Roman calendar the fifteenth day of March, May, July, and October, and the thirteenth day of the other months.

gastronome \GAS-truh-nohm\, noun:
A connoisseur of good food and drink.

Today was another hot, sunny affair with the temperature reaching 37 C (99 F) with the humidex. I started by getting up early and taking advantage of our unauthorized internet access and updating the blog. Once the rest of the family came to life we had breakfast and came to an agreement on where we should go for the day. The final selections were the Western Canada Aviation Museum and then on to Fort Gibraltar.

We put the GPS to work again this morning to get us over to the Aviation museum. It did such a good job we got there 15 minutes before it opened. If you have ever wondered what kids do when they have to wait for 15 minutes to do something, check out the video section to which there is a link on the left of this page (it should be available by July 20). Once inside we found an interesting display of aircraft and fascinating stories and highlights about aircraft much of which was focused primarily on Canada. The coolest things for me personally were:




1) The Bristol Freighter 31M, a post-WWII cargo plane with clamshell-type nose for loading cargo






2) Bensen Gyroglider, and ultralight-type aircraft with rotors that are powered by the air passing over them rather than an engine (bad photo, look for the red frame and "tail fin")






3) Canadair CL-84, a tilt-wing plane that could act as either a plane or a helicopter depending on whether the wings and props where facing forward or upward





4) Canadian designed Avrocar, literally a flying saucer-type aircraft that never got a chance to make to production … too bad! It would have made a great commuter vehicle.




And, of course, there were the fun things for the kids too. It was a fun visit but according to our two resident experts on fun, Morgan and André-Paul, the Ottawa Aviation museum is better. So I’ll have to be sure to go back to the Ottawa Aviation Museum again and, now that the kids are older, actually stop and read some of the information about the displays.

Next stop, Fort Gilbraltar! After pressing the GPS into service once again, we found ourselves outside the gate of an authentic re-creation of an early 1800’s fort used by Voyagers and Fur Traders passing through the area and engaging in fur trading with the natives. There were people “in character” who would interact with you in a somewhat histrionic fashion and explain how things work by answering the questions you had about what you were seeing. It was a very fun, interesting and educational visit. I found the blacksmith discussion most enthralling. For instance, did you know that each blacksmith had his own anvil? And that this anvil was typically the most valuable item in the entire fort? And that the first building built in a village was always the blacksmith’s forge because you cannot build anything else without the help of tools crafted by the blacksmith? And that Oxen will fall down if you lift one of their legs so they had to hoist them up from the rafters to put “shoes” on them? And that the blacksmith’s building was typically the hottest in the summer yet also the coldest in the winter? And that being a blacksmith often resulted in severely impaired hearing, eyesight and breathing? Kind of makes you appreciate your own job a little more, eh? There were other cool things throughout the fort as well. Did you know that natives created very precise wooden poles to make their teepees and held on to them forever? And that although they did not use glass or plastic, they did have sunglasses … made out of wood! And I added in an extra photo of the framing of the roof of the turret for the benefit of Grant in Ottawa and Peter & Isabelle in South Australia since one owns a timber frame house and the other two build them for a living. I couldn’t help but think of them when I saw this structure from inside. (like any of the photos on the blog, just click on them to get a better look) Anyway, I’ll stop there so I don’t ruin it all for you, just in case you might drop by yourself.

Then we had to rush back to our so-called campsite to leave. The people running it gave us a late check out and it was now pushing 5:00. We packed up quickly and headed off to Birds Hill Provincial Park which we were told was very nice. We weren’t disappointed. It is a lovely park from what we have seen with plenty of hiking trails and nature but perhaps most enticing to us were the bike trails and a swimming area! Then later in the evening we ended up spotting some very large birds pecking around the unused sites. I didn’t know what they were called but I rather liked the name Morgan gave to them … Chicken-Ostriches! Well, take a look … what would you call them?

Yesterday’s word:

paucity \PAW-suh-tee\, noun:1.
Fewness; smallness of number; scarcity.2. Smallness of quantity; insufficiency.

Today we introduced ourselves to Winnipeg. We decided to start by taking a tour of the Legislative Building and then zip over to the “Forks” area which is close by. The Legislative Building was most impressive. We ended up getting a personal tour which gave us a chance to take many photos and find out many details about the building. For instance, did you know that this is Manitoba’s third legislative building? They started building it in 1913 and it took 7 years to build (2 more than planned) and cost $9 million (6.7 million over budget). The timing of the First World War certainly did not help in their efforts when it came to labour and obtaining materials. But I must say, the resulting building is very nice. The sheer size of it is impressive. It is almost 5 times the size of the White House, without even counting the hallways. And it has over 800 rooms! It has more marble than you can shake a stick at, and you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a statue of a gargoyle (sure), a bison (Manitoba's official animal), a sphinx (?), or possibly a “Golden Boy” (??). Something else I found fascinating is the fact that when they were designing this building they needed to predict far into the future as to how many people where going to be living in Manitoba so that they could ensure that there were enough physical seats for the people who will represent each riding. Now here is the weird part. Apparently they forecasted that there would about 3 million people in Manitoba by the year 2000. However, there are only about half that many people living here now YET there are only 3 seats not in use out of the 63 that were included in the original design. You may now picture me scratching my head. Notwithstanding the aforementioned logic buster, it was a fun way to learn a little bit about the history of Manitoba’s politics.


Then it was off to “the Forks” which is a touristy place ... but in a good way. It is part park, part artisan boutiques, part skateboard and BMX nirvana. This area got its name from its physical location which is at the confluence (remember that word?) of the Red River and the Assiniboine River. It used to be a strategic location during the 1700's and 1800's for traders to do their thing. Now they have a number of lovely bike paths and walking paths along the river which also extend along each of the three arms flowing out from this point. The section of the Forks with the skateboard and BMX area is quite impressive. If you just gauged by the number of people standing around watching the action, this would appear to be the most entertaining part of the Forks. We biked around some of the paths but none of us took our cycles through the “pit”, although I’m sure Morgan was tempted to.

We then fired up the GPS unit to make our way out to see the Bakers. They are friends of Chantal’s who recently moved from Aylmer to Winnipeg. We enjoyed a lovely afternoon on their deck, in the shade of course, enjoying the weather and sharing stories over a few drinks. They have done a lot of camping throughout Canada in their time and they gave us some good advice on some places to go. They also advised us on a great restaurant to try, not too far from their place. We swung by Bellissimo after our visit where they offered a delicious array of Italian selections fit for a gastronome. Each of us enjoyed a fabulous meal yet none of us were able to get through it all in spite of the wonderful tastes involved. And I must comment on their Calamari which is the best I have tasted since being in Greece! One doesn’t always think squid when one thinks Manitoba, but I will now!