Sleeping at a truck stop next to a busy highway and intersection was probably not the best idea we’ve ever had, but we made it through the night albeit with less deep sleep than we probably needed.
We start by having an egg breakfast with coffee at the Denny’s on-site. This is a healthy (hmm?) dose of protein that will ensure we don’t feel hungry in an hour or so.
Barb drives us out of the Flying-J shortly before 8:00am and we take the bypass around Winnipeg, MB heading towards Ontario. Soon the trees return and we’re no longer on the prairie. We stop at Falcon Lake, MB for fuel which we get at 20 cents / liter cheaper than we pay later in the day in Ontario. I take over driving duty for the next hour or so.
After passing Kenora, ON we turn South onto Hwy-71 towards Fort Frances, ON where we stop to have a picnic lunch by the river looking across toward Minnesota, USA.
Continuing East from Fort Frances on Hwy-11/17 Barb drives for a couple of hours toward Thunder Bay, ON. I take over driving again and pass back into the Eastern time zone.
We stop for the night at Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park just North of Thunder Bay. We shower and have Buttered Chicken for dinner. A little TV and it’s time for bed.
Well, no aurora viewing last night, oh well. We slept really well and got off to a great start for the day before 8:00am.
The drive starts with what we thought was an early morning haze. Later in the day we’d discover that it is actually smoke from a wild fire in Northern BC.
Early morning viewLonely roadHazy(?) dayGoogle wildfire smoke map
Barb started driving the day until we got to Moosejaw where we changed drivers and had a bite to eat & fueled up.
Modern grain elevatorCP train heading West‘Mac the moose, Moosejaw, SKSnowbird, Moosejaw, SK
Later in the afternoon we crossed into Manitoba and made our way to Brandon, MB where we again fueled up before driving our last leg into Winnipeg, MB.
Tonight we are parked at a Flying-J. Tomorrow we head into Ontario.
After a great nights sleep at the Walmart, we headed to Tim Horton’s for breakfast. Disappointment awaited. Barb’s breakfast sandwich had eggshells in it and my Bagel BELT arrived without L or T. 😒
We made a quick stop at the White Horse monument just West of Winnipeg as we had stopped there on our last trip West in 2003 with the kids.
We also stopped in Winnipeg for fuel and to look for a specific alcoholic beverage sold at the Manitoba Liquor Marts but not back home at the LCBO.
Accessing the liquor mart required us to handover photo ID. The staff then checked the image on the card against each of us (I had to remove my glasses which were slightly tinted because of the sun). They then scanned the cards and returned them before unlocking the door to allow us to enter. Tighter security than any airport it would seem is required before you can buy your bottle here. Wow.
The drive out of Manitoba saw us leave the prairie and enter the boreal forest. We then crossed back into Ontario 32 days after we left. We stopped to enjoy lunch at the ‘Welcome to Ontario’ information center and then continued toward our destination just past Dryden, ON.
Our stop for the night would be Aaron Provincial Park. We have no reservation but they had some sites and ours was close to the brand new shower block. Shower first, then dinner.
White Horse monumentWhite Horse monumentStory of White Horse…& into OntarioTypical Ontario view through the windshield ‘Max’ the moose, Dryden, ON
Early start to the day as we head East out of Lloydminster and immediately into Saskatchewan. The border actually splits the town into two and as we depart we both commented on our observation that most of the recent commercial development had occurred on the Alberta side of town leaving the Saskatchewan side feeling less loved.
Saskatchewan is what you expect, arable farm land as far as you can see. On our journey we are accompanied by a railway line and a never ending string of electricity poles. The yellow brick road Yellowhead highway is occasionally crossed by secondary roads that if you turn to look along as you pass, appear to go over the horizon. Maybe Oz is out there somewhere.
Contrary to rumor, not all of the old grain elevators have been torn down and replaced with new shiny silver bins. Below you will see a few that we passed.
We stopped in Saskatoon primarily to visit the PleasureWay Industries plant where our van was made. Unfortunately it being a Saturday there was no one there. We still took the obligatory photo in front of the factory.
The afternoon was supposed to go like this; drive into Manitoba, find the town of Russell, and end the day by parking up for the night in their “Peace park” where they have free camping and electrical hookups. I say ‘supposed’ because that’s not quite what happened.
We started the afternoon well and finished driving across Saskatchewan and into Manitoba. We even found the town of Russell and the ‘Peace park’. It was barricaded and a sign indicated that the site was soon to be the home of a new Co-Op. Hmmm. Now what? Where do we stop & park up for the night?
After filling up with fuel, we travel a short distance and look at a couple of campgrounds neither of which we felt comfortable stopping in (one was particularly sketchy although the online reviews made it sound fairly nice but basic). Looking at the map we realize that we were only 2 hours from Portage la Prairie and a Walmart. Decision made! Onwards we drove, we can re-provision in the morning.
The Walmart parking lot was freshly paved and there was lots of room. It was 10:02pm CDT and we had just driven for about 12 hours and covered just over 1000km. Sleep will come easily tonight.
Alberta / Saskatchewan border in LloydminsterGrain elevator 1Cargill potash terminalPleaseWay plant, SaskatoonGrain elevator 2Old Borden Bridge across North Saskatchewan Riverstill… Our view from the roadCrossing into ManitobaRainbowCargill grain elevator
