brandon manitoba

May

2022

Manitoba to Alberta

This is a big country!

We left Brandon a few days ago after a wonderful visit with our friends Tom and Aya.

Driving through Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta one really sees the expanse of this country. The narrow strip we travelled looked like there was enough land to feed the world. You can see so far. You really get the joke about your dog running away and being able to watch it for three days.

We stopped in to visit with our good friends Shelly, Dave and Linzee in Medicine Hat. Boy did they treat us well. Shelly’s sister and husband showed up and stayed the evening. Some gigantic steaks and we all ate for two.

Again the weather was great, Shelly, Yvonne and I had a great visit and I got to smoke a cigar. Took some selfies to prove we were all there together. 🙂

The photo of Yvonne with another man and woman is from before we arrived in Brandon. On the border of Ontario and Manitoba. We wanted to stop to get a photo and there was this vehicle stopped on the other side going east. We recognized them from some events we’d been to. Chatted for a bit and found out they lived in the same town where Yvonne and I grew up. The world is so full of crazy coincidences.

May

2022

Calgary and West Road Trip – First Four Days

Yvonne and Martin Road Trip Spring 2022

Ontario is a very large Province. Two long days got us as far as Kenora, Ontario. Another 4+ hours on the third day got us to Brandon, Manitoba where we are staying with some good friends for a few days. The photos of the young boy is their son. His dad, my friend Tom, and I, grew up together back when god was a boy back in the 1950s and 1960s.

As you can see Northern Ontario was still somewhat covered in snow. Those first two days of the trip were rainy and foggy. We are taking little video snippets which I’ll string together at the end of our road trip. You can see a few still photos of what it was like driving.

First night we stayed in Wawa, Ontario. What a nice place. The towns through the north look a bit tired but the people are great. We stayed at a place called The Outdoorsman. Lovely couple own it and they were so nice and friendly. Very service oriented. Much more so than bigger chain hotels that we have stayed. And the room we stayed in was spacious, clean and comfortable. (And quite reasonable.)

No breakfast there but the owner of the hotel suggested the Lakeside Restaurant up the street and around the bend. Not much to look at from the outside but there were three other sets of folks breaking their fast and by the time we left we were fast friends with all. And breakfast got me through most of the day.

We won’t stay in Kenora again if we can help it. Way over priced.

On our second day we stopped at Kakabeka Falls. A little west of Thunder Bay. A few seconds off the highway so not really out of the way. If you like water falls, they are worth seeing if you are going through there anyway. Quite a sight. And the colour was fascinating. Kind of a yellow colour. I haven’t researched this yet but expect that is due to the kind of minerals in the water. Like out west in British Columbia, the rivers are all a greenish colour. A different set of minerals in the water.

Here in Brandon the weather finally got wonderful. Sunny and 20 C.

Same for the next few days we hope.