Back in the USA...

Last night we stayed in an executive suite on the 7th floor of the Quattro in Sault Ste. Marie, Canada, close to the Canadian/USA border. We couldn't believe how cheap it was. $115 plus tax, which is quite a deal when cheap (budget) motels cost around $100. The bedroom was large and the bed was the biggest we had ever slept in.

We left early in the morning (once again it was very, very foggy) and crossed the bridge into the US. The bridge was quite high and it was quite spooky not being able to see very far in front, or anything on either side or below, it looked like the bridge just faded into nothing. I was tempted to find the Twilight Zone theme on my phone and play it through the car stereo...

bearproof rubbish bins

We see these rubbish bins everywhere. They have been designed to outwit the roaming population of bears who manage to open pretty much every kind of bin ever used. This new bin requires you to slip your hand into the slot on the top and trigger a small latch to open it. So far the bears haven't figured out how to open them. Their paws are probably too big anyway. They could, of course, train their kids how to do it. Their little paws may just get in the slot.

only in canada

By the time we left the Mennonite Village it was 3.30pm and we had to plan were to go next. We settled on Thunder Lake, which looked interesting. Our tom-tom satnav said it would take 7 and a half hours to drive there, taking the slower route that avoided motorways, but there were no motels or hotels on the route. So I checked the alternative, which was the shorter route, using motorways. That was going to take 10 and a half hours.

In what other country would the longest route be shorter than the shortest route?

In the end we took the shortest (longest) route that took 10 and a half hours because there were towns along the way and we would have somewhere to stay. Little did we know that the route took us across the border back into the USA an hour or so later. We were very surprised. The border crossing was on a very quite road and only manned by one guy and there were no other people using the crossing. It looked like he had a very easy job.

We stayed the night in Bemidji, Minnesota.

We will be crossing back into Canada sometime tomorrow when the road winds back along Lake Superior

Winnipeg

On Sunday night we stayed in Headingley, a suburb of Winnipeg, and in the morning went into the city and walked around the waterfront until The Forks Market opened. It is an eclectic range of shops/cafes/produce stands in a three-storied building. Following that we checked out the Manitoba Museum which is probably the best museum we have ever seen. The design and craftsmanship that has gone into the displays is incredible. I won't bore you with all the photos, but we were very impressed. They managed to combine the feel of an old style museum with the look of the modern museum style. One of the central exhibits is a full sized sailing ship, that was actually built only using tools that were available in the 1800s, sitting in a dry dock harbour. The museum was pretty much built around the ship.

We left the city after that and visited the Mennonite Heritage Village in Steinbach. It is an interesting look at how they lived in the 1800s. Unlike a lot of the staunchly religious groups they seemed to have embraced technology, and there is a museum of transport which includes cars from all ages which have been owned by church members, dating back to the early 20th century.

They had a rustic restaurant there so for lunch we had: a bowl of Komst Borscht, Foarma Worscht, Vereniki smothered in Schmauntfatt, coleslaw and stone ground whole wheat bread with Plautz. Believe it or not, Vyv tried everything without knowing what was in it. It was all excellent.

(For the uninitiated: Meat broth made from cabbage, onions, potatoes and dill; boiled pockets of soft dough filled with cottage cheese covered in rich savoury cream gravy; a rhubarb slice with a baked crust and crumb topping).

The Mennonites have the only wind-operated flour mill still working in Canada.

Yet another swinging bridge

We found this very shaky bridge in the very small town of Wolseley, Saskatchewan. The original bridge was built to bring residents into the downtown area (such that it is) over the small lake. It now ends at what appears to be a restroom for senior citizens. I am sure the pensioners with their walking frames love it!

a wet and cold day

We spent most of yesterday driving through the endless prairies of Alberta and Saskatchewan in the rain and cold (about 6°C). We were going to visit, and possibly stay the night, in Calgary but it was raining so hard we just passed it by. We heard the next morning that it had snowed in Calgary later that night. We are glad we missed it.

This was pretty much all we saw ALL DAY LONG...

After staying the night in Medicine Hat (a very pleasant town with pop of about 60,000) we continued another day of driving through the prairies. Mostly the same scenery as yesterday, with the addition of a few more buildings...

It was warmer than yesterday (got up to 11°C) and tomorrow the temperature is predicted to rise back to the late twenties. Thankfully no rain. We did stop off at a couple of small town farmers markets which put kiwi efforts to shame. Amazing produce, crafts and home-baked goods (which we did sample). Cabbages the size of basketballs!

vulcan, alberta

It rained all day today and the visibility was very poor so we skipped stopping in Calgary and continued our way east, discovering the town of Vulcan (population less than 2,000).

The town has built on its name being also Spock's homeworld and built a replica of the Enterprise at the entrance to the town, changed its street signs, themed its welcome centre and hosts an annual Star Trek convention. A private Star Trek museum opened in 2010 and we checked it out. 

We also chatted to the curator/owner who is an old cowboy from Montana who had bit parts in a number of westerns and told us some interesting stories. His father hosted parties when some of the Hollywood crowd came out to make films and he remembers, as a little boy, being given a horsey-back ride by a big man at one of his father's parties and later asking him who the creepy old guy was. He was none the wiser when his dad told him. He had never heard of John Wayne.

Here's a slideshow of some of the exhibits and props that he has collected over recent years. WARNING: very geeky! May not be interesting to normal people!

Hot sunny weather out! wet and cold in!

Last night we were going to stay at Bamff. We had been warned that it was a very touristy place. Boy were they right. Tour buses everywhere. Tourists wandering around in groups and very expensive mega hotels lining the main street. Not our scene, so we drove on for a while in the rain and came across Canmore before it got dark (sun goes down around 9pm). We easily found a nice motel with a greek restaurant a short walk away.

These photos were the views from the restaurant just after sunset. The clouds were getting quite low. By the time we got up in the morning the visibility was so bad you couldn't even see that there were mountains there at all.

Heard about it. had to try it.

We have been hearing about the uniquely Canadian dish of POUTINE for quite some time so thought we would check it out while we are here. It consists of french fries smothered in beef gravy and topped with cheese curds. Sounds disgusting but is actually quite tasty. It is so common here that they even sell it in McDonalds.

This is the dish as Denny's serve it

tunnels that don't actually go through anything

We drove through five of these structures in Rogers Pass driving from Revelstoke to Golden. While they look like tunnels they are just basically concrete boxes built on top of the road to help redirect avalanche flows away from traffic. Note to self: Never, ever drive in Canada in the winter.

seen in white rock, canada

Not all homeless people travel light...

We are not sure if this is a motorcycle pretending to be a car, or a car pretending to be a motorcycle. Either way it is pretty cool.

It was very hot when we crossed into Canada. In White Rock it was 32°C so we decided to check out the beach. Not the golden sands were were expecting, but the locals like it anyway, rocks and all...

the face of the state

Most States of the US use the physical shape of their state as a major design element of their road signage, which can often look odd as some of the States have pretty weird shapes. Washington State goes one better and uses the instantly recognisable face of George Washington.