Manitoba

Thursday August 18, we left Regina at 9:30 with 92,788.9 miles on Acey and 105,157 on Thor (We had to disconnect to park but did not drive anywhere – thanks to Kim and Lee driving us around yesterday!) As we head East to Brandon, we are now on Route 1 of the Trans-Canada highway. Another clear day for driving.

About 12:30 we crossed into Manitoba and the central time zone – so it was 1:30! We stopped at a rest area and made lunch.

We arrived at Meadowlark Campground in Brandon, Manitoba at 3:30 and added Manitoba to our Canada map. We won’t be adding another province any time soon.

We coordinated with Kim and Lee for dinner – we had beer at their place while Kimberly cooked some haddock to make fish tacos. Then we came over to our place to eat. We need to use up our produce before we cross the border. (Kim & Lee will be crossing to the US on Saturday – and head back towards Nevada. We have a stop in Winnipeg and will cross the border on Monday.) Turns out what we ate was more like burritos – large tortillas stuffed with the cod, cheese, tomatoes, salsa, beans, avocado and green onion. Delicious – but no photos… after dinner we played a few rounds of Tri-ominos; each of us won a round. Then we played a “practice round” of Mexican Train – Kim and Lee had not played before – we may play again tomorrow – our last night together. As Lee and Kimberly headed back to their motorhome, we saw a beautiful sky as the sun was setting.

Friday morning, Kim and Lee did some laundry while Linda worked on photos and the blog – and Jim made some phone calls, dumped tanks and other fun stuff! After a light lunch, we headed out to Westman Reptile Gardens.

Two dragons guarded the gate.

There were 2 large turtles outside the facility.

We went inside to look at the reptiles. Good thing there is a piece of glass between us and this Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake!

And also thankful for the glass keeping this dangerous viper from us!

There were a few different types of pythons.

There are TWO Piebald Ball Pythons here – Piebald is a recessive trait that is partially un-pigmented with variable color and pattern mutations.

This red tailed boa was shedding its skin – we checked on it a few times and it finished before we left!

Forty minutes later…

Some Plains Garter Snakes – a local species that is harmless.

There was a HUGE American Alligator.

This gator wanted to show its teeth!

There were a lot of different types of turtles, most of them were swimming.

There ws some interesting information about the Musk Turtle – its Latin name in kind of funny!

Southern Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta dorsalis) Males have longer front claws for courtship. Females have longer back claws for digging.

Wood turtles.

This Australian Snake Neck turtle is very appropriately named!

Soft-Shell Turtle – its shell feels like leather and is somewhat flexible.

African Bull Frog

Amazon Milk Frogs

Bearded Dragon

These odd creatures are Albino Axolotl – also known as “walking fish”; they have lungs and gills!

There were more snakes, lizards, several tarantulas, scorpions and other creatures we did not take pictures of. We went outside and saw some big tortoises and more turtles!

There were lots of turtles in the pool, mostly red ear sliders.

This one we named “Sassy”

As a fellow was working on cleaning the pool, Sassy kept coming up to him as if to give him a message from his turtle brethren; it was quite comical, and we watched the antics for a while! It’s too bad we didn’t get a video…

There were only a couple of Mississippi Map turtles in the “bale” – they have markings that resemble the lines on a map, and curved lines behind and under each eye. They live all along the Mississippi River.

After seeing all these creatures, we headed into Brandon to go to Black Wheat Brewing Co. for some tasty craft beer. They did not serve food, so we went to the Guinness Tavern by Double Decker and had a nice dinner.

We went back to the campground and watched the movie Live, Die, Repeat with Tom Cruise. Lee and Kim had the DVD and we had not seen the movie – kind of reminded us of Groundhog Day which we like to watch on Groundhog Day!

Saturday morning, we said goodbye to Kim and Lee – they are heading to Minot ND today as they head back home, and we are heading to Winnipeg. It was fun to spend a few more days with them and we hope to meet again! We left Brandon at 10 – Acey’s mileage 93,002.9 and Thor’s 105,209. The drive to Winnipeg was uneventful (thankfully!) and we arrived at Arrowhead RV Park at 1:10. After getting set up and having lunch, we visited the Royal Canadian Mint.

They not only produce all the circulation coins for Canada, but also mint coins for many other countries around the world. They stopped producing the penny in 2013. We learned some interesting facts about Canadian coins.

The Bluenose has been depicted on the Canadian dime since 1937.

Here’s the anatomy of a coin using the “Toonie” – the $2 coin.

The Ottawa Branch of the Royal Canadian Mint (Right side above) produces collector coins, gold and silver bullion and medals, medallions and tokens. The 2010 Winter Olympic Medals were produced by the Royal Mint. At 500-576 grams each, they are among the heaviest in games history.

Jim and the loonie loon! (The $1 coin is called a “loonie” after the loon on the reverse side)

Well, they didn’t give out free samples at the Mint 🙂 We stopped at Stone Angel Brewing and enjoyed some craft beer.

Sunday morning, we zoomed with our Sunday School class, looking at Acts 9 again – the Jews plotted to kill Saul and he escapes from Damascus and goes to Jerusalem; the disciples feared him since he had been persecuting the church – before his conversion. Barnabus confirmed that he is a new man – and had been boldly preaching in the name of Jesus. Saul then goes to Tarsus. Peter’s ministry becomes the focus – and he performs miracles of healing.

It was a beautiful day out, so we went for a bike ride on the Bishop Grandin Greenway, a nice, paved trail through Winnipeg.

At a rest stop, there was some Canadian History to learn about – specifically about Winnipeg.

We rode 12 ½ miles today! Tomorrow we will be crossing the border – back into the lower 48. We made sure we finished all our eggs, fresh fruits and vegetables!