Skip to main content

Back to the Rodeo

Sunday, June 24th – Morris, Manitoba to Vermillion Bay, Ontario - Day 163 

The kids were promised a petting zoo and a petting zoo they demanded. The rodeo had free entrance to the grounds, so we stopped in quickly to see the petting zoo before we got on our way. Our first distraction was free face painting; John was Elsa, Charlotte was a butterfly and Aisling had a mermaid crown. Gen snuck off to buy a hot dog and a poutine. We ate while watching amateur cowboys isolate cows. 


Finally, we reached the petting zoo, the kids were satisfied petting kittens, ducks, rabbits, a pig and some goats. Time to get on the road, well, except for the coffee stop, ice cream stop, time for kids to run around on a big platform, shopping for necklaces, washrooms and, finally, exploring the exhibits building. My pleas to leave fell on deaf ears. At least I got to see some of the rodeo from behind a fence. 


 Farmer’s sausage was a must in Manitoba, so we needed to purchase some at a Ste. Anne’s grocery store. John was napping and Gen and Jo-Ce took the girls for a tour of the local church grounds. We then hit the TransCanada to head for Kenora. 

 Finally, we were back in Ontario after 161 days! High fives were thrown as we celebrated. Our next big moment will be when we get back to Eastern Standard Time. Our next stop was Kenora to have a picnic in the presence of Huskie the Muskie, a gigantic fish. You could see the water level was high in the lake as paths and benches near the edge were underwater. Apparently, they had the most snowfall since the 1940’s and the rain started before the ice melted causing huge flooding issues. We drove through downtown to get gas and see more flooded buildings. 


 Onwards we drove, we wanted to reach Vermillion Bay for a prospective free campsite. The site was an overgrown gravel lot between the train tracks and a few small buildings producing a high pitch noise. We tried to get the camper level, away from the high pitch noise, but couldn’t and gave up on the site. It was midnight and we needed a place to stay. We pulled off the TransCanada to look at a campground and found a pull out just off the highway. Perfect, well, the highway noise was not perfect. Also, the tremendous amounts of mosquitoes were not perfect but we set-up and got a little bit of sleep.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Desert Forest

Saturday, May 28th – Joshua Tree National Park - North to Joshua Tree National Park - South, California– Day 107 Our campsite was a large open dirt area with some scrub around the outside. In the dark we had managed to park beside the pile of horse poo and shaving. Horses were allowed in this site. Gen stepped in the middle of a pile.   The Joshua Tree National Park visitor centre was a five-minute drive away. The town of Joshua Tree was packed with college age millennials communing with nature. There was a market with kombucha, organic greens and a few small tortoises. It was all very pleasant but very busy. The laundromat was at the edge of the market, I charged the devices and did the laundry. Gen bought some produce from a guy loading a truck. I even snuck in to buy some watermelon kombucha.   The drive into the park was ten minutes followed by a ten-minute line to show our pass. A quick stop to fill up our water bottles and we were into the park. Th...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Desert Forest - Part 4

We finally decided to move to our last destination before the sun set. The Arch Rock Nature trail was next. We reached the parking lot and saw the rocks in the distance, we were debating what we wanted to do. We just started moving and once we did, we found ourselves racing down the trail to the rocks. The kids wanted to play monster and once they started running, everyone else was running as well. We had another poo-mergency with no restroom in sight, the evidence is buried in the desert. There was more climbing on the rocks. We took pictures of the sun setting and took a quick look at the Arch rock before starting back to the car.  Gen was behind the wheel, an hour later we were leaving the park’s south entrance. We stopped at the Ranger station to freshen up in the bathroom and fill our water bottles before heading to our campsite. Luckily, the site was the overflow campsite for the park so was minutes from the outside of the park....
Post a Comment
Read more

Canyonlands is Another Planet - Pt 3

Thursday, May 12th – Moab, Utah – Day 91  Our day was shortening already, our next hike, the Grand View Overlook was closed due to a search and rescue operation. Apparently, falls and accidents happen quite a bit at National Parks; Gen looked up the top ten most dangerous parks and Canyonlands wasn’t there (it was number 12).  We got a recommendation to hike the White Rim Overlook trail, a 0.9-mile easy hike. The kids were running out of energy. They made it most of the way and then decided to stop to climb a rock. Gen and I continued the short distance to the canyon edge to see the sights. Canyon after canyon after canyon was what we saw. We stopped to sit and marvel at the scenery as the shadows started to lengthen.   On our drive back, we saw the sun set and we stopped at the visitor centre one more time to see the view from just across the road. I couldn’t get enough canyons; I was in love ...
1 comment
Read more