May 25 Winnipeg, MB to Riding Mountain National Park

This morning was bright, sunny and warm … finally… but still windy.

Today we headed to Riding Mountain National Park about 3.5 hours (theoretically) north and west of Winnipeg. We stopped to do some food shopping at the Sobeys in Birds Hill. It was one of the best food stores we’ve found yet. We now have a refrigerator full of fresh fruits and vegetables and a bigger variety of meat etc than we have been able to get so far.

We thought we would try a shorter route than the TransCanada but Google didn’t indicate that it would be 60 miles of gravel road so we had to abandon the idea after 10 miles or so. We have quickly found out that a lot of Manitoba roads are just gravel even if they are numbered highways. Even the paved ones are pretty awful!

Not a lot to see along the way as we are now into prairie farming. Nothing is growing yet and farmers are just now planting. The agricultural nature of the landscape and equipment being used is impressive. I wasn’t expecting black soil. It will be interesting to see the growth change on our way home.

We stopped for lunch at a local bistro at the pretty little town of Neepawa. My smash burger was delicious! I discovered that Neepawa was the birthplace of one of my favorite writers when I was a lot younger, Margaret Laurence. I am going to have to revisit her books.

Jean Margaret Laurence CC (née Wemyss; July 18, 1926 – January 5, 1987) was a Canadian novelist and short story writer, and is one of the major figures in Canadian literature. She was also a founder of the Writers’ Trust of Canada, a non-profit literary organization that seeks to encourage Canada’s writing community.

Among other books, she wrote The Stone Angel (1964), the novel for which she is best known. Set in a fictional Manitoba small town named Manawaka, the story is narrated by 90-year-old Hagar Shipley, alternating between her present moments and recollections of her entire life. The novel was for a time required reading in many North American school systems and colleges. Laurence wrote four more works of fiction set in Manawaka.

After driving some pretty awful roads, we arrived in our campground in time to do dome exploring at Katherine Lake and doing some personal chores like hand laundry, showering, etc. Dinner was simple after the great lunch we had. Our camp neighbors with a similar vehicle as hours came down and introduced themselves and we had a lovely half hour chat.

Camp fire tonight… first one we’ve had. Someone had left the firewood behind. Still can’t get over how late the sun goes down. We haven’t needed any of our camp lights. Temperatures were in the 80s today and it’s nice to be outside and not be freezing.

Tomorrow is another province, Saskatchewan, and we gain an hour again. Saskatchewan doesn’t observe daylight savings.