Prairie Schooner eh?

We continued our travels through Canada leaving the beautiful Canadian Rockies behind us with the vast prairie lands ahead. As the driver in this expedition, I for one was rather relieved. No more mountains to climb, just nice flat wide roads that gently merge into a point at the horizon. I guess it was appropriate that the nice older man we met at a rest stop made the comment looking at our rig “Nice prairie schooner eh.” It really did feel like we were floating along in a vast sea of green and yellow. Yeah, yellow. That’s the color of the canola fields in bloom. Very pretty indeed.

Moose Jaw – No I’m not talking about some left over road kill. Moose Jaw is a nice quiet town in lower Saskatchewan on Canadian highway #1. We pulled into the Prairie Oasis RV park for the night. Besides the Casino Moose Jaw about the only other thing to see in town was Al Capone’s hideout. Seems at some point in his criminal career, Capone hid out here in Moose Jaw. There are actual tunnels that he used and these have been preserved as a tourist attraction. I might be stretching the definition of attraction but one sure could not call them “a historic site” eh? Guess we will never know for sure, we passed on seeing it opting to watch “Canadian Idol” on TV instead. No comments on Canadian singing talent. Sorry, my many Canadian friends and family would not be happy.

Winnipeg Manitoba – On our second day of sailing though the Canadian prairie we dropped anchor in a nice RV park just south of Winnipeg. Arrowhead RV park is actually in the town of Ile des Chenes (don’t ask me how to pronounce it, I could barely understand the instructions given by the camp manager, it was all French to me). But to be truthful, the biggest attraction to this place was they were members of Camp Club USA. What that means is we get a 50% discount, yeah! Time for another unscheduled stop. We decided to take a day off and tour Winnipeg. Near the center of town is the forks of the Red and Assiniboine rivers. This has been a traditional meeting place for centuries. Aboriginal peoples, fur trade rivals, settlers, merchants, politicians, immigrants and now Lande’s have congregated in the famous Forks National Historic site of Manitoba Canada. There are beautiful sculpture gardens, flower beds, river walks and lots of interesting shops to see. If you cross the foot bridge, Esplande Riel, you enter the French quarter of Winnipeg. More shops and restaurants to see.

Barbeque Quest – One of the activities we have added to our trip is a quest to find the best barbeque. When I saw the restaurant, Muddy Waters Barbeque, I though I had to give it the test. This way we can truly say we have looked for the best barbeque in all of North America not just in the US. They claimed to have Texan style slow cooked barbeque. The barbeque was ok (I was hungry) but having enjoyed real Texas barbeque and knowing the difference, I would be generous to give them a 3 on the 1 to 10 international barbeque scale. Sorry Canada it does not look like you will win the “best barbeque in North America” title.

Road revelation #6 – Be cautious of asking simple questions of talkative French guys. I made the mistake of asking the manager of the RV park “so what’s to see in Winnipeg?”. He went into a 20 minute lecture with maps, brochures, and personal accounts of several places not to miss (he even included his favorite grocery store and Home Depot location). I guess it would have been useful if I was able to understand him. I could not quite decide if he was talking French or English. But the maps were helpful anyway.