Day 43 Winnipeg (again)

Settled into Winnipeg once again after a long day of travel. This morning when we were getting ready to leave Moose Jaw, I realized it was time to go home. To be fair this happens at the end of many wonderful holidays. I am having such a wonderful time I don’t want it to end, but when it’s time to go home, it’s time to be home!

Camping is not for everyone, but I love it. I love the simplicity. I love the problem solving. I love the adventure. I even love how you need to work for everything you have, and what you want becomes less. This morning as we had breakfast and prepared to move on, I found myself thinking – this will all be much easier to do when I get home! I was feeling grumbly! A sure sign it’s time to be home!

Our travel was much better today. There was still significant smoke for our entire drive, but no rain. I can’t bring myself to complain about the smoke realizing that people here have been living with this all summer, and yet even those people are so much better off than those north of here who have been displaced from their homes and may not even have homes to go back to.

Our biggest issue today was getting gas. Finding a station that is RV friendly is sometimes the first hurdle. Gas stations are far apart and often very busy, and we take up more than our fair share of space. We plan ahead when we pull in to be sure we have a route out, only to find that someone has blocked that by the time we’re finished. We have clearly been spoiled in southern Ontario with an abundance of tap and pump stations. The same is not true here. Here you must go into the station in many places and pay first. Being asked how much gas I want is a question only honestly answered with ‘enough to fill my tank’! We have had places ask to keep our card while we go out to pump gas… don’t like that at all. In most we must estimate how much we will need (erring on the high end). We pay for that and then must go back in when we have finished to have the receipt adjusted. I just want a full tank and be on my way, but rarely possible! These stations also often double as grocery stores, restaurants, etc., so finding someone to serve you, twice, isn’t always a speedy thing! Told you I was grumbly today!

I took some time today as we drove along and had good cell coverage, to check comments on the blog. Some people email, text, message, or even call on a regular basis and I can’t tell you how great that is. Being gone for seven weeks means you miss people. Through blogging, people keep up with what we’re doing but when people don’t respond it feels very much like a one-way conversation! I am truly thankful to all of you who stay in touch regularly. Checking the blog for comments today, I was embarrassed and horrified by the number of typos I discovered. Good heavens! Now, I am not taking all the blame for this since David (who is an editor!) reads over every draft before it’s posted. Jonathan was also very good (I thought!) at reading the blog and alerting me to mistakes. My only explanation is, as you can see our days have been filled with adventure. So full in fact, before we left home, we downloaded the last three episodes of a show we were watching. We thought maybe a rainy night activity. We have only watched one, and it’s a great show! Anyway, I would never want to miss an adventure to blog, so those posts are created at the end of the day, before bed, when we are often quite tired. We have also often been a bit rushed to post while the Wi-Fi is good. None of that eases the embarrassment though, holy mackerel! Corrections are forthcoming.

Smoke very evident

Back to endless fields of canola