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?

Quilt Shop: Sew Bernina, Minot, North Dakota

There are four quilt shops in Minot. In such a small community, one wouldn't think four quilt shops could stay in business. We went to the one nearest us. It was literally on Main Street in downtown Minot.

This is how the shop looks as you enter the front door. It's also an authorized service dealer for Bernina sewing machines, although that wouldn't help on this trip. We're traveling with Pfelicity, who prefers the Pfaff brand. I believe the woman walking toward me in the image below is the owner. She was doing books in the back office while I was there, and that seems like a pretty good indicator. Also...she was very friendly and helpful and she knew where everything was.

There were lots of pretty and fun quilts hanging on the walls. This one is called "A Slice of Summer."

At the front of the store was a large collection of books,

a display of notions and my favorite Creative Grids rulers,

and some pretty buttons,

It's a long narrow shop. this image was taken standing at the beginning of a long hallway lined with patterns.

To the left was a small room full of fabric. These would have been more appropriate for dressmaking.

Also, there were lots of woolens and supplies for those who like to work with wool.

There was a basket of woolen floss.

Back out in the hallway, I was intrigued by these many patterns priced for clearance.

I snagged this one by one of my favorite designers, Bareroots.

It's a little hard to see the quilt in that image above, and so I snagged the one below off Pinterest. I think you'll be able to see it better there.

There was a second room off to the left full to the brim with beautiful quilting fabrics.

Don't you think that yellow and black stripe in the middle of the image below was tempting? Yes, yes, it was.

There was a good supply of landscape prints.

And sock monkeys! Swoon!

Also, some beautiful batiks.

At the extreme rear of the store was a classroom and there was also an office just to the right and outside that frame.

So I enjoyed the friendly service here. I looked for a regional print, and I settled on this one below that reminded me of the sunset at our campsite in Theodore Roosevelt. It's more gold than the photograph would indicate, and those lacy leaves are gold metallic. I purchased a full yard, thinking I could use it in the Thanksgiving Wall Quilt pattern.

When she saw my selection, she pointed out this one, and I decided to purchase a yard of this pretty fall print too.

The lighter outlines and leaf veins are in metallic gold. I think I can find a way to use one or the other, or both, in the Thanksgiving Wall Quilt, but I'll use the first one in my Quilty 365.

So that was a fun and friendly shop, just minutes away from the fairgrounds where we camped last night. Ordinarily, I find quilt shops using the Quilt Shop app, but sadly, the app will no longer be operational with the next iPhone update, and so I've moved back to using the most recent version of the Quilter's Travelers Companion.

It's always best to call ahead to check hours and update addresses. You can purchase the Quilter's Travel Companion right here.

We're still in Minot as I'm writing this. I'm scheduling it ahead to keep up with my daily blogging schedule...just in case I can't get online while we're in Canada. You won't know the difference, will you?

Thanks to all of you who are leaving such nice comments. It's so much fun to travel with my quilting/blogging friends.

From Theodore Roosevelt NP to Minot, ND

We're traveling the Great Plains states now, and that means it's flat country. There's barely a ripple in this terrain.

What you see in North Dakota are fields of sunflowers and rolls of hay.

When we started the day, the kitties were in their places...tired after a night of keeping everyone else awake. Smitty was in his cubby...

Sadie was snuggled up in a quilt.

This is also oil boom country, and the flames from stacks could be seen burning all over. Mike explains to me that when they are drilling for oil, they also hit deposits of natural gas. The gas is burned off, rather than releasing it into the atmosphere. Also, burning it prevents explosions.

In some areas, the flames seemed quite incongruous with the rest of the landscape.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we stopped for lunch at a lovely overlook of the Four Bears Bridge and Lake Sakakawea. The bridge has several names, and you can read about it right here.

The lake is enormous. We tried to find the dam on the map, but were unable to. Looking back over my shoulder from the image above, here is a panorama of the area.

I took a picture of the map, and amped up the saturation of the lake so you can see how big it is. It reaches nearly halfway across the state of North Dakota.

Did I mention that the landscape is flatter than flat?

We were on our way to Minot. I wanted to show you the little blurb from our AAA tour book about Minot. It's a town with a storied past.

Also on the way, I managed a shot of one small barn.

We're continuing our experiment with non-traditional RV spots by staying at the North Dakota State Fairgrounds. Ahead of us are the livestock barns for the fair.

Behind us is a lovely park setting.

We got Smitty out for a walk here. If you look carefully, you can see Ms. Sadie Houdini in the catio there. No more walks for her.

There are four quilt shops in Minot, and we visited the one closest to us. I'll tell you about that in a separate post.

By the time you read this, we will have crossed the border into Canada on our way to Riding Mountain National Park. We'll be staying in a traditional RV park, and if the park wi-fi is up to the task, I'll be able to blog from there. If not, then it could be a while before we catch up again. From Riding Mountain, we're planning to head over to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls before crossing back into the USA. There will be a lot to see along the way, but it is a journey of over 1,200 miles, and so it will be a journey of about a week.

I'm scheduling these posts to appear on separate days...kind of a cheater way of blogging daily. Hopefully, the time away will be short, but if not, then you know I'll catch up with you on the other side.