Manitoba is beautiful too.

I am still experimenting here on Blogger.  I would like to put some of my old contacts into the Reading List.  ( I am assuming that is the same as CONTACts on Multiply)  I am not even sure what my internet address is here, to send to other folk who want to connect with me. 

I am such a Klutz. Is there a way for you to just put yourself on my list?  I will click OK if you can.

We were awed again at the country of Canada after passing through AB, SK, and most of MB.  Creator was really creative in this chunk of the world. Oil wells are pumping in hay fields.  Manitoba is the green coloured province in the middle of Canada.  We were travelling along the Boundary Route east on #3 and #23 across the prairies that parallel the border with the USA.   

If you miss a turn you go south and end up at a USA Customs spot.  I didn’t realize there were so many places you could sneak over into the USA.  It takes some map-watching and sign-reading to stay in Canada.  Sometimes the signage is too late for my old eyes. 

We were delighted to see a sign that said Miami Golf and Country Club.  Finally we got to see Miami.
We drove on by the country club and stopped for lunch at the village of Miami.  It is probably the closest we will ever get to Miami, Florida. The pub has a lovely mural on the side of it, concerning the pioneers



 Further along the highway, while I shopped and Old Man napped, I went on walk-about around the village of Baldur.  I am always looking for places that old folks/farts like us could settle into, and pay rent/lease but not have to do any yardwork.  This complex below is typical of what prairie villages do for their pioneers.  As I took pictures a lady came out and asked what I wanted to know, and then took me inside to see what really good units they are. 

The bay-window bumps out front are living rooms, the second front entrance has a sun room facing east, that most use for a computer/library/tv space, and the one-vehicle garage and storage area,  is at the back off the alley.  The lawn is brown as the whole country was on fire alert for a few months so they weren't allowed to water.  Anyhow I think I could live in one of these units with 2 bedrooms, bathrooms with bars and geriatric showers, wide halls and doorways and all the yard work done for you.  The architect should get a prize.  These folk are like us, needing ground floor and a place to walk on soil/grass.  She showed me around the rooms with laminate wood flooring and 5 appliances and then went back to her trip to the local library, just down the road.  Thank you Mrs. Prairie-Farmer whose husband died.  We didn't even exchange names, but had fun together.  We laughed together about old age.  That is good.  Well it is better than getting depressed or crying.

I am reading my way through the book of Exodus, the bible version, as I read Leon Uris’ 20 years ago.  So right now, it makes more sense when the land is parched and grasshoppers bump into you when you step outside. We stayed at a safe-enough campground just west of Steinbach, MB.  We had also camped at Boissevain, Manitoba.  These little towns and villages are trying beautification projects.  The Communities in Bloom Society really helps rejuvenate small towns.  Boissevain has won some awards. 

This is just a lunching/napping spot we pulled into along the Trans-Canada Highway.  The prairies are about 1/3 harvested.  Manitoba has more rolling hills than the Saskatchewan flatlands, and then we started to move east into the Canadian Shield where the roads had to be cut through rocks deposited by glaciers.