We enjoyed our two night stay in the community of Mitchell, MB not far from Steinbach and about an hour south of Winnipeg. Dwyne and his family live on a rural property with a long lane going to the house. Surrounded by brush on both sides of the drive, there is a cleared area about half way up where we parked the camper. However, it isn’t wide enough to get turned around so getting out may involve backing out 150 metres!
We enjoyed a nice meal on Friday night at Santa Lucia Pizza in Steinbach with the extended family. It was a great Italian restaurant so Paul had his favourite Fettuccine Alfredo and Joyce enjoyed a classic lasagna meal. We both had enough to take some home for another meal.
On Saturday, we headed into town for fuel and to visit a few local meat shops. We were hoping to find some turkey sausage. None to be had; we did however find some apple and cranberry chicken sausage, smoked pork chops, cheese bread and apple fritters. Back at Dwyne’s, the three of us barbecued some pork tenderloin for supper as the rest of the family was out for the evening.
We had two very hot days without power (except for our solar) there. We were thankful the nights did reach 19C and we had a couple of small fans that helped cool the trailer in the evening. Paul performed a few maintenance tasks so we were set to leave on Sunday morning.
We did have to back out to the road. Joyce managed to get us out due to the great directions from Paul and we returned to the Trans Canada. We had some light rain for the morning drive but by the time we made a lunch stop it was clearing.
We had a bit longer drive to our campground for the night. After about 475 km we arrived at Whitewood Campground in the town of Whitewood, SK. It is small, about 20 sites, but we had full hookups and we were close to the community pool if we had wanted a swim. We discovered most of Saskatchewan does not observe Daylight Saving Time so it was only about 3 pm when we arrived. We set up, got out our chairs and a drink and spent some relaxing time reading. We also had a nice chat with neighbours from Pennsylvania, who had been at the park for a month, awaiting trailer repairs. They were expecting the parts by the next day.
Monday morning was pleasant and we headed out for another day of about 475 km along with a fuel stop. We saw new agriculture for us – flax fields. They are a beautiful colour of blue. Flax can also be manufactured into linseed oil.
Our drive today was relatively boring. Lots of flat fields, trains and mostly small towns.
We stopped in Swift Current for a fuel fill up – another $250 of fuel – two days of driving! Then we just had a 45 min drive to the small town of Gull Lake. We’re in the town campground but with hookups.
When we set up the trailer we were upset to find this:
We were with the camper all day and didn’t notice it until we settled in and opened slides and windows. It’s in our bedroom and high up. Fortunately it’s also a small window. For now, it’s taped up to keep the water from getting in and anymore glass from falling out. Our only guess is a truck threw a stone up when passing on the highway. Oh well, it won’t affect things as far as the trip goes.
Tomorrow we’ll make it into Alberta and shorter drives.
Following Joyce & Paul's Travels in Retirement 