9/20/17

Hello, Canada!

We left Minot on Tuesday morning and drove due north for most of the day on our way to Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba, Canada. It was dark and rainy, and the weather was true to its forecast of thunder and lightning storms toward late afternoon and into the evening. For our drive, it rained steadily for most of the day. The cloud cover was low, making it very dark.

We passed a few more abandoned structures before leaving North Dakota. For some reason, I'm charmed by these old buildings, no matter how badly deteriorated they are.





Within about an hour, we approached the border between the United States and Canada. Despite being office hours, there seemed to be no one at home on the United States' side. The gate leading from Canada into the United States was closed and locked, while the one leading from the United States into Canada was open, and we were free to pass by without speaking to anyone.


Possibly this station is closed??? No idea.

Nevertheless, we drove just a few more yards to approach the Canada side of the border crossing.


There, we spoke with a nice customs agent who checked our passport cards, asked us if we were carrying alcohol (just the four bottles we purchased in Montana), tobacco (no), or firearms (no). We had a nice little chat about the purpose of our visit, how long we expected to stay, and what we could expect from the weather.


Then, he bid us a good day and waved us on. And, just like that, we were paying our first visit to Manitoba province. Hello, Manitoba!


We've visited British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario, but never Manitoba. Since we didn't go to Grasslands National Park, we skipped over Saskatchewan this time...maybe next trip.

Just minutes after crossing the border, we received this text message.


Well, heck, yeah! Tell us more about that. As it turns out, we can have international calling and data for $10 per 24 hours, and we're only charged if we use it. There's no need to cancel either. If we're not using it, we're not charged. Cool! We're going to check our account tomorrow because we've been using data ever since. We want to be sure we're not accumulating charges we don't understand. If our understanding is correct, we pay a flat rate of $10 per 24 hour period when we're using data and our data charges remain the same (unlimited for us) as if we were using it domestically. So that means that as long as we have a cell signal, we have internet access.

It's useful for blogging, texting, and generally staying in touch with the rest of the word, but the ability to map our trips and calculate distances using Google maps is proving invaluable. Fingers crossed that there are no hidden charges. We'll find out tomorrow after we've been using it for a full day.

As for the rest of our travel day, it looked much the same as North Dakota...flat, flat, flat open farmland


just as far as the eye could see.


Tonight we're staying just outside the national park in an RV park in Wasagaming, Manitoba. And we love Canadians. They're so trusting and polite. The man attending the RV park told us to go drive in, pick a site, and check in with him in the morning. So easy, and so nice after such a long, wet day of driving. So, I've said this before, but I'll say it again: You rock, Canada!

The weather is forecast to clear up by 6:00 tomorrow morning, and so we're hoping for nice weather to make our scenic drive through the national park. We'll stay here one more night, and then move on down the road, making our way to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. We've mapped out the next several nights of stopovers and figured out where we'll stay. Our first stop will be at a Harvest Host site. This one happens to be a "rainbow trout and chicken farm." That should be interesting. We've already called ahead to be sure they can accommodate us.

Beyond that, we'll be staying one night in a traditional RV park, and then the following night, we'll stay free at a Wal-Mart in Thunder Bay. From there, we haven't planned any more. My friend, Cathy, suggested Grundy Lake Provincial Park just south of Sudbury, Ontario, and we are looking at that carefully. The park looks lovely, but the question is whether it can accommodate our large rig...always a concern in state-run campgrounds anywhere.

We've enjoyed every day of the trip so far, despite running into some bad weather about half the time. It's been an adjustment not to plan everything weeks in advance. The good part of that is living in the moment and making plans only one day at a time. The part we're getting used to is changing our minds on the fly and deciding to do something different. For example, we've kind of decided against spending any time in Pukaskwa National Park. After doing some reading and looking at it, we've realized it isn't really the kind of park one explores with a big RV. It's more of a hiking/canoing, kayaking experience, and so we may just stop in for a look-see and then drive on. And then that begs the question: Would we have come to Riding Mountain at all had we known it would be our one main destination in Manitoba? Maybe not, but who cares? The only authority we're answering to at this point is the weather. We just watch the weather and move along.

So...okay...all of that to say, here we are in Canada. Happy to be here. Looking forward to seeing what we see tomorrow. After that...who knows?


16 comments:

WoolenSails said...

You are really doing some distance traveling, love seeing the countryside as you travel.

Debbie

crazy quilter said...

Enjoy your time in Canada. My kids went to France this year and did the same on the 10.00 for a 24 hour period. I am not sure if they used data but I think they did use the google maps to find their way around Paris. Keep on having fun!

Ray and Jeanne said...

Oh, Canada! Enjoy! We just left Ontario yesterday. This time we basically didn't use our phones - 1 1/2 years ago, our phone bill was about $300 for 15 days in Canada. That was a shock but we did learn to watch our bill. Good Luck and Enjoy ~Jeanne

Cathy said...

Grundy Lake can handle your large rig. They have two trailer specific campground with large pull through sites. One of them is called appropriately enough, Trailer Campground and the other is Poplar Campground. The site are large, supplied with hydro, and almost all of them are very private. https://reservations.ontarioparks.com/GrundyLake

QuiltShopGal said...

While we haven't ever been to Manitoba, all of the Provincial Parks that we've been to in British Columbia have been wonderful. Thus, I hope you get to visit as many Provincial Parks in Canada as you can.

QuiltShopGal
www.quiltshopgal.com

Brown Family said...

I hope st&t are as good as they use to be on international rates. I know in the corporate world, we could add and remove international at any time, as long as the customer had service. If they were in an out of the way place and had no 'bars' of service, they had to wait till they were back in a service area.

Enjoy Canada

piecefulwendy said...

It is so fun to see what you've been up to each day. I've often thought that doing a photo study in black and white using old abandoned buildings would be interesting. I always wonder what their story is. Enjoy Canada! I'll be waiting to read your adventures!

gpc said...

Canada is always a delight. I've only ever heard one bad experience by Americans there, and that was during the Viet Nam war and even then was unusual. I love the civility I always experience there.

Barb H said...

Barbara, I was in Thunder Bay this summer--after 20 years of missing it!--and if you have time, I strongly recommend that you visit Old Fort William. It's a restored living history fur trading post set around 1815. We used to bring the children and always loved it. Also a side trip to Kakabeka Falls, the second largest waterfall in Canada, I think, would be worthwhile too. As well, TB is known for it's Persians--pink frosted cinnamon buns that are supposed to be wonderful. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get any on our trip--but next time . . .

Beth said...

So much fun to follow along with you! Our niece is moving to Alaska right now--right this very minute!--and was making her drive across the border from Washington State to Canada about the same time as you were talking to the border guards. She had the same pleasant experience with them.

I'm curious--did they have any questions about the cats? Want to see vaccination records, etc.? The U.K. makes such a fuss about not letting anyone in, even with verification of rabies vaccination, until they've spent six months in quarantine and yet Canada seems so reasonable. I wonder how inquisitive the Americans will be when you return with the cats.

Susan said...

Just catching up on all your posts today. I am enjoying them. It is great to see the places you are traveling through. It is giving me and my hubby some ideas.

liniecat said...

Probably worth venturing into Canada just to see the charmingly worn and intriguing barns, love that third photo especially!
Thank you for blogging us along with you both, its fun to see your view on where you go and what your seeing : )

Lyndsey said...

I have always wanted to visit Canada so I'm really going to enjoy this part of your trip. We generally only travel to Europe on holiday and I don't have to pay anything extra to use the phone or data which is a great benefit especially for blogging. Love the barns and derelict building, they do have a great deal of charm about them

Dorothy said...

I see 2 eyes and a huge nose on that first barn/building. Looks like a good one to try as an improv barn

quiltzyx said...

What gorgeous gleaming golden grounds (and awesome alliteration!) as you crossed in to Canada!! Nice to know about the rate break on the phones too, just in case I ever travel that far.

Keep on going with your day-by-day planning - it's working out quite nicely for us too. :)

Kate said...

Sorry the weather early on hasn't been so nice. Hopefully you'll hit a nice spell while you are in Canada. It's been fun to follow you across the map and see all the scenery.