For the better part of the day we cruised east on Hwy 13, passing through the towns of Lafleche, Assiniboa, Pangman, Weyburn, Stoughton, Carlye, Reston and Souris. Weyburn was a happening place. Very active. We spent 45 minutes at one of the local parks sitting under the shade of a big tree on our camp stools having our lunch while we watched a Little League game between a local team and one from Estevan, Sk. Other towns were not so vibrant, clearly on the decline for reasons not entirely clear. Likely economic and having to do with demographics.
Our plan was to find a hotel in Wawanesa, Manitoba which is just east of Souris. About 45 minutes out of Wawanesa we searched the web and Garmin for a place to stay in Wawanesa. Oops! Seems Wawanesa is one of those towns in decline. No hotel. No motel. Souris had 2 hotels listed but both are no longer in operation. Double oops.... We headed north to Brandon and there we found a nice hotel for the night. Ever been to Brandon? This seems to be a very prosperous community. One does however have to search to find the actual community. Our hotel was on the Trans Canada where trucks and tractors rule. Below is a photo of one of the nicer businesses that dotted the highway near our hotel. To be fair, when we left our hotel this morning we did find the real Brandon and one of the fine parks along the Assiniboia River. After a short walk we got back in the 4Runner and headed east on the Trans Canada, destination: Kenora - in the province just east of Manitoba.
The trip to Kenora was mostly uneventful, unlike yesterday's drive through Saskatchewan. I know I have mentioned the fact that I travel with weather events and yesterday was almost a record day. And I don't mean a good record. Travelling on the Red Coat Trail, somewhere near Stoughton, Sk., we observed in the distance a storm approaching from the north. There was quite the wind coming from the south. At one point we hit a good old fashioned cloud burst. We had to slow down to about 60 kph and have the wipers on high speed. Even then we could barely see the road. Then we noticed that the wind had completely reversed and was now coming from the north, the direction the storm was coming from. The sky was a weird colour. Off in the distance I swore I saw a girl riding a bicycle with a little dog in a basket on the handlebars. Nah... I think I even mentioned the "T" word to Dana. We made it through the storm and didn't give things a second thought. You should have seem the look on our faces this morning when the weather reporter on TV was talking about the Tornados in Southern Saskatchewan around the Stoughton area. Geeze Louise.... Apparently no one was injured and the rain brought by the storm was welcome.
So here we are in Kenora. Tomorrow we backtrack about 30k to Clearwater Bay where our friend will meet us at the dock and take us to his private island resort in Lake of the Woods. We can't wait for this next adventure. We will not have internet connection so no blogging for a couple of days. Promise to post when I can.
Finally, it came as quite the shock to find a micro brewery and pub right here in Kenora. This evening I sampled a few of their beers and we enjoyed a very delicious meal. The brewery is in an old fire station that has been beautifully restored.
That's it for now. Enjoy the pics!
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| Dana in Brandon, Manitoba |
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| Lake of the Woods Brewing Company |
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| Flight of samplers. My fav was the Blueberry Ale. |
mmmmm! Envious.
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