August 16 - Leaving Winnipeg with fond memories
We drove about 15 km. south to a little town called Steinback.  It is a Mennonite Community with a very interesting Heritage Centre.  We took some time to look around but the best part was lunch.  They have a restaurant there, I am sure it is frequented by the locals as the food is really good.  On Thursdays, which is the day we were there, is all you can eat soup day for $5.99, you get a bowl of soup and whatever type of bread they have, they usually have more than one type.  When you are finished your soup you can go and try one of the other types.  Dalton had 3 bowls of soup, I only had room for one but wish I had room for more.  We also had a fabulous rhubarb crumble for dessert. 

We even spent some time in the Gift Shop, Dalton usually keeps me away from those places.  I bought some soap and some honey.  They had an old time General Store on the tour and we bought a beautiful wood carving.  I think we were both surprised about how much we enjoyed the place.

The General Store where we bought the carving and another little business, we forgot what it was

The print their own Newspaper and the Restaurant is on the far left, Great food

Blacksmith shop and Tinsmith shop was in behind it

A very large steam tractor

A beautiful Windmill, look how lovely the grounds are kept

One of the residences

Look how they painted the floor, this was the eating room separate from the living quarters of one of the larger homes

Streets are all so clean and the fences are all nicely painted, everything is so clean

The drive was really nice, we took the South route because we thought it was more picturesque, however, there are fewer RV Parks along that route.  You can tell the Country's capital is in Ontario, the roads are so much better than the rest of the country's roads.  The road from Regina to Winnipeg is really bad, I probably already mentioned this but it is worth repeating.  It is nearly washboard all the way, but once you get into Ontario, even the secondary roads are beautiful. 

We notice all the signs in and around Winnipeg are all bilingual, and I mean every one.  If there is a sign saying to slow down for school children, there is another sign right behind it in French.  I though that as we were getting closer to the Nations Capital that we would find more French.  Wrong.  Once we hit the Ontario border, back to English. 

One thing I really noticed was how nice all the yards are kept.  They mow all the way to the highway.  I know there are some areas of BC that looks like an auto wreckers, but you don't find that here.  There are lots of flowers and massive lawns.  Everyone must have a riding mower.  It is very impressive.  There are also lots of very large solar panels along the road.  There might be a dozen in one place, further down the road there may be three, but the three will be much larger than the dozen.  It was a bit of a different sight.

We stopped for gas in Kenora - $129.9 - it is a beautiful little town, 15,000 people.  It is on Lake of the Woods, a huge lake.  We followed it for hours.  Everyone seems to have a cabin and a boat.  Everyone here must fish.  The Town was full of Marinas and fishing shops. 

We were planning on staying at Fort Francis, however, I don't think I am allowed to mention it in the blog.  Dalton was so mad, he said we weren't even going to take any pictures of the place.  We stopped at a Walmart, we hoped to spend the night but a city bylaw prohibits overnight parking in the lot.  There were no other places to park, lots of tenting sites but nothing for us, or even anyone close to the size of us.  Dalton was so tired, the wind had been blowing all the way form Steinbeck so it was tough driving.  We were going to get some groceries, have a bite to eat and go to bed, but we had to move on.   We had to drive another 115 km.  We stayed in a little park in Atikokan for $25.00 for the night. 

There was a Bass Fishing Derby happening there and the park was filled with fishermen.  After the Derby they could go for a beer at the "Cat Sass Tavern" in Richter.  Dalton says that is what he wants to call his next boat, if he ever gets one.

August 17 - Thunder Bay
Nothing exciting happened today.  We drove all day in the wind, nearly as bad as the day we took the RV out for a test drive.  The gas at Thunder Bay was $132.9...getting worse.  We are staying at a little park called Stillwater Park.  We were just stopped on the Highway while some paving was happening.  The bridge had been ripped apart and they were fixing a new section of highway.  I brought out a deck of cards so the time passed fairly quickly for me.  I am sure the people in the vehicles were not quite so comfortable.  When we finally got moving, the oncoming line up was about 3km. We pulled off the highway about 5 minutes after that.  Soooo glad we did.