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1 to 15 August 2018 16 to 31 August 2018

Thursday August 16, 2018

Our last full day here in Wakamow.
Jeremy and Gabriel came by to say "hello" before lunch.

Just fun times!

We start to pack up the MH for our departure tomorrow morning.
We even took the bikes and the toys back home with the car in the afternoon.
Look at the smoke in the air today!
The smoke is so thick, the flying school had to cancel many training flights because of it.

One last quiet evening at the MH tonight.

Friday August 17, 2018

We are up and about at 6 am this morning.
We have to get the MH ready to go to Crystal Glass at 7:30 to change the windshield on the MH.

The Sioux bridge in Wakamow.

At Crystal Glass at 7:15 am. We leave the MH here and drive to Jeremy's place with the car.
Everything should be done for us at 4:30 pm.

This is where the rock hit the windshield.

Back home, Jeremy is installing the sponsons on the canoe. Gabriel is busy looking and catching spiders.

Not much is better than a garden hose for a kid!

A little water fight!

He is looking for some old bones in the egg.

Another water fight, this time against Kristin.

The pool is very nice and Gabriel is having lots of fun with his Dad in the pool.

Gabriel explaining something about bugs to his Dad!!!

Grand-Maman and Gabriel warming up in the sun after spending a long time in the pool.

Time for Grand-Papa to be in the pool with Gabriel.

It was a great day, well almost!
We went to pick up the MH at Crystal Glass at 4:30 pm. What did we find?
A job so badly done it was disgusting. I was NOT a happy camper.
I asked the owner if he would accept a job like that on HIS MH?
He did not say a thing and went to get a ladder and fix it.
That's when he found the job was really, really bad.
I now have to come back next Thursday morning to get it ALL fixed again!!!
It is not just a problem with Moose Jaw's business, it seems to me many business are like that.

Saturday August 18, 2018

Ah! The garden hose and a bucket!

Building a Lego with his Dad.

Kristin and Jeremy are hosting us and Kristin's family for supper.

This is the sun with lots of smoke in the air.

Gabriel was playing with Ethan when Gabriel got hit by accident with a ball on his left eye.

Nice!

We had a lot of fun tonight. It was a pleasure to meet with Kristin's family again.

Sunday August 19, 2018

Last full day at home for Jeremy. He is leaving again with the Snowbirds tomorrow morning. Jeremy finds it hard to be on the road when Gabriel is home. So does Gabriel.

Grand-Maman playing with Gabriel. Those two get along so well.

Today at noon is the official Grand Opening of the splash park on base.
They have lots of game for the kids.

Of course, got to have speeches!

This is the new splash park in the married quarters on base. The official name is now "Splashpad Landing".
I am sure you can see all the "stuff" related to a runway and airplanes?

The meal was free and so was the ice-cream.

He had a cherry snow cone!

A big firetruck was on display. The kids could get in the driver seat.

Gabriel the Firefighter!

It is a BIG Firetruck!

It is with a belly full that Gabriel goes and play in the splash park.

After the opening, we went back home. Jeremy is getting his stuff ready for travel and Gabriel plays Wii. The rest of us are also busy.
Kristin and Jérémy made a nice Taco supper for us.

Gabriel is sad, his Dad is leaving with the Snowbirds tomorrow morning. He will not see him again until maybe the fall.
He also misses his mommy a lot, but he will be back with his Mom Saturday when we take him back to his Mom. He has a hard time this year. His little heart is very sad. It is hard to understand for a 6 years old boy.

Monday August 20, 2018

It is 5:30 am and Jeremy is saying goodbye to his son. Jeremy is back on the roads with the Snowbirds.
Jeremy will not see his son other than on Skype. Sometime life in the military is like that, like it or not. I guess it is like working in the oil patch and being in a camp...

Gabriel wanted to send a funny picture to his Dad.

A busy morning for me. I am closing the pool for the winter. I have to wash and dry the cover and the actual pool vinyl before we put it away. It is not one of my favorite jobs. Jeremy, you will do this next year.

After two hours of washing, the pool "stuff" is drying for then next few hours. Time to do some light maintenance. This time it is the door. It is hard to close at times. I just had to file a little here and there and everything is good to go now.

Gabriel is playing at Joshua's house this afternoon, quiet time for us!

What a nice snack for Gabriel before he goes to bed, strawberries and blueberries while watching TV in our bedroom!

Gabriel is going back to his Mom's house on Saturday. We spoil him a little more until he leaves.

Tuesday August 21, 2018

Today we are working on the bedroom ceiling repairs.
We are installing the trimmings around the ceiling.
We are using some quarter-round trims and you can see where they will go and the actual trim waiting to be installed.

We are also using some flat trimming above the closets.

I cut and file the angles so it will look as good as we can make it.

They need some paint too!

We are letting the trimming dry for the night and we will install them tomorrow.

Jeremy was supposed to be in Pittsburgh, PA, but he is in Grand Fork, North Dakota.
One of the Snowbirds aircraft is broken and he is waiting to parts to fix it. Then he will go to Atlantic City and join the other Snowbirds.

We had a busy day.

Wednesday August 22, 2018

The airplane on the right is the broken one.

We are installing the trims today. All that is left to do is just some touch-up to make it look better.

I am finally taking the empties to SarCan for refund.
Not too bad, I got $72.00 from Jeremy's empties.

Gabriel got to play a little bit of Wii before supper.

Jeremy made it to Atlantic City, this is the view from his room.

Thursday August 23, 2018

I am going back to Crystal Glass so they can do a better job on the windshield.
I am a little early, so I take this time to go at Wakamow and dump our tanks.

Here I am at Crystal Glass.

They have some work to do and they better do it right this time!!!

They did OK on the repair. Now all I have to do is refuel the MH so when we leave for Quebec on Monday, we will be ready.
I actually paid $1.179 because I have the Flying J RV Card and it gives me $0.02 per liter discount.

Now that the MH is empty of used water and full of gasoline, we have a quick lunch and go back to Wakamow so Gabriel can play one last time with Asher. Those two play so well together. It also gives us a chance to say goodbye to Hannah and Denver before we leave.

Kristin is in packing mode tonight. She is taking the military Airbus tomorrow morning from Régina to Summerside (PEI) to be with Jeremy and the Snowbirds. for the weekend.
Michele is not feeling very good right now. I think a combination of a cold and allergies.

Friday August 24, 2018

Kristin sent us a photo of the plane she is about to take to go to PEI.

The Snowbirds met up with the Airbus and flew in formation.

Meanwhile, I am cutting the grass in Saskatchewan. LOL!
We also started to pack the MH for our trip back to Quebec.

Gabriel spent most of the day playing with Joshua, his best friend.

Gabriel got to skype with his Dad in Summerside before supper.

Michele is busy getting Gabriel's stuff ready for when he leaves to go back to his Mom tomorrow morning.
Michele is feeling better, but not at 100% yet.

Saturday August 25, 2018

We are up by 6:30 am and on the road by 7 am. We are driving to Medicine Hat, Alberta. A very boring drive of 400 km one way and hen back! It is in Medicine Hat that we meet with Danielle, Gabriel's mom, and Gabriel goes with his Mom for the winter.

It was on the cool side this morning, 7°C, brrr!

The actual road is very nice, it is the scenery that is boring once you have done it once.
The sodium sulfate mine in Chaplin, SK.

A nice sour ring pop.

Sometimes you do have something new to look at, like those giant tires...

As I mentioned, this is a boring drive. You do what you have to do to entertain yourselves.
The last crazy faces of Gabriel.

Yo man.

It is a good thing the speed limit is 110 km/h and no police on the road!
Shoot! I forgot to take a photo of Gabriel with his Mom and Shannon at McDonald's.

Back on the road for another 400 km. We have a lot of smoke from the forest fire in B.C.

We made it home by 5 pm. We are tired of just witting in the car and doing nothing for 800 km.

Sunday August 26, 2018.

We are having a misty day, light rain and a cool +7°C.
We slowly get ready for our trip back to Quebec tomorrow morning. We should be at Michele's brother place on September 11th.

This is the road we will be taking to get to Patrice's place. It is about 3150 km from Moose Jaw.

Just to compare, if you drive from Montreal to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, it is only 2600 km.
We can't wait to be on the road again. We should be leaving Moose Jaw at around 10 ish tomorrow morning.

Monday August 27, 2018

We are leaving today!
Jeremy is still on the road with the Snowbirds, Kristin is on her way back from PEI.
With the MH out of the driveway, we put Jeremy's car in the driveway. It is time to hook-up the car to the MH.

One last check and Michele will get behind the wheel, we will check that the lights work on the car and the wheel do turn when she moves the MH forward.

Everything is working fine, time to hit the road. Goodbye Moose Jaw, Quebec, here we come.

This time we are taking a different road to get to Ontario. We leave the Trans-Canada highway and move to the south and drive on the Red Coat Trail in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Like many small towns, the churches are the second to go after the grain elevators. We hit just a small work area on our way to Weyburn.

A crop duster, we wonder if it is Denver flying it?

Most of the small grain elevators have been replaced by those giant elevators.

In Weyburn, we stopped at the local Walmart for lunch. It is a very small Walmart.

Do you notice something strange by the doors?

A phone booth! And it works!!!

We are now starting the Red Coat trail.

Are they growing hammer?

After a little over 200 km, we arrive at our destination for the night.

Stoughton is a small town with about 700 residents.

Why here? Why not! They have a campground like many small towns and towns in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Our new filtration system at work.

We had a bad surprise when we stopped at Walmart in Weyburn. Our fridge is not working on the inverter!
I remember having seen that the inverter has a GFI plug, maybe it has tripped?
The inverter is behind where the arrow is pointing.

I have a look and sure enough, it has tripped. Once I reset it, the fridge is now working from the inverter if we do not have electricity. I just saved ourselves a $150 service call from and RV dealer...

The view from inside.

Now the same view from outside.

Our home and yard.

Michele is still not feeling very good. She sleeps a lot.

We had to unhook the car to get to our site, but once in place I could hook the car back up no problems. Ready to roll first thing in the morning...

We traveled about 223 km today. Once we were on the Red Coat Trail ( between the number 3 and 4) we could slow down to 85 km/h without bothering anybody. A relaxing drive.

It seems like our first night on the road is not the best. It must be our excitement or just being tire from the summer!

Tuesday August 28, 2018

We are back on the road by 9:45.
As I have said, not much traffic, but around a bend you get surprised sometime!

Going through the little town of Redvers with its statue of a Mountie.

We enter Manitoba after 120 km of driving.

Most trees are still green, but some are already changing colours!

Our destination, the small town of Souris, Manitoba. Our campground is in Victoria Park.

It is a very pretty campground with lots of trees, but our site was not very level. We are a little tilted to the front, but for two nights, we will live with it.

Plum creek goes around the campground.

I took a short walk around the campground just to see what is here.

Cute campground (CG). Tomorrow we will be visiting the town with its many attractions. Maybe one or two trails as well.

The CG (campground) has this beautiful pool.

What have we driven today? We drove 210 km on roads that were better than the trans-Canada highway at times. Of course, some short stretches were not as nice, but they were short.

We will spend two nights in Souris.

Wednesday August 29, 2018

Time to Explore Souris!
I am a little surprised the town is not French speaking. The name souris means mouse. The town takes its name from the river and not from its origins. Population of Souris? 1900 souls.

The town has some murals, like this one at the Legion.

The story of Souris.

Even the bell has a story.

Crescent avenue with some of the merchants.

1st street has some more merchants, but no pictures of that one!

Our first stop is at the town information center. It is also a historic site, but it is closed! It is lunchtime.

So we crossed the street and visited a small museum with tool from the old days.

Shortly after one o'clock we went back to the information center, but it was still closed.
Michele with a moose honoring somebody special in the town!

So with the information center closed, we head to the other museum. This one is the "Souris Railway Museum & Diesel Engine Simulator".
It is small, but very interesting. Souris was an important hub for the C.P.R. at one time.

On to the next museum.
The arrow point to a peacock on the roof of the museum.
The Hillcrest museum brings us back to the early 1900's. It is considered one of the very important heritage museum of Canada.

Nice dinning room.

We have seen this knife holder before, but I think they are nice.
A looked cabinet for your tea? Never seen this before.

We were wondering what were those silver things.
We were told they are to clean-up the tablecloth after a meal, like a dustpan.

Another item we never seen before (we think), it is a protect mustache tea cup.

Nice bathing suit!

You want to take a bath in there?

With all the museum visited, we head to the swinging bridge.
The bridge was originally built in 1904. It was destroyed from flood water in 1912, 1961, 1976 and 2011.
It measures 184 meters long and it makes it the longest in Canada. Many swinging bridges make that claim, but so far, it is the longest and it is in Souris, Manitoba. We saw another one in August 2, 2010, but it is not, by 2 meters I think.

The famous swinging bridge of Souris. It is impressive.

The peacocks were there too!

On the left you can see the remnant of the old swing bridge.

We have come this far, we have to cross the bridge and yes, it does swing...

Who is that?

The bridge spans over the Souris River. We got to see an otter sunning herself.

On the left is the Souris River and on the right is Plum creek.

For over the trees you may see an observation platform.

There it is!

The swinging bridge.

On our way back and another bridge, we saw this big turtle.

We use a trail to go and have a look at the oldest oak tree in Manitoba.
It was "born" in 1497.
Sadly, we saw no signs indication anything along the trails and the observation tower was closed too!

As we were walking back home, we came across two small turtles wanting to cross the street. I am not going to hold them, those animals do bite! I will make sure they go across without getting hit by a car. They made it no problems.

Michele is still not feeling good. We still had a good afternoon.

Thursday August 30, 2018

The dump station is locate outside the campground, on the side of a regular street, weird.

Back on highway 2 driving east.
Southern Manitoba is not as flat.

Those were BIG! I moved to the shoulder of the road to let them go by.

We drove by a little town called Holland with its windmill.

Before Winnipeg, we leave highway 2 behind and get on the Trans-Canada highway. We stop at the Flying J for fuel
Not bad, we paid $1.116 per liters with our discount.

Once we are out of Winnipeg, we drove by the Longitudinal Center of Canada.
We will try to stop there one of these days.

We are getting closer to Richer and our CG (campground).

We will be here for 4 nights. We decided not to travel during the Labour Day weekend. We do not need to be driving when everyone else is driving and having to find a CG.

We have the same site as last June.

This is the road we took today. We did not stay on Hwy 2 because there is a lot of road construction going on near Winnipeg.
Traveled distance for today? 330 km.

We think we did the right thing by taking the Red Coat Trail to travel east. It changed us from the TC 1.
Maybe next time we will be using Hwy 3 (MB) and Hwy 18 (SK). It is just more south then the road we just took.

Friday August 31, 2018

After a lazy morning, we head to Steinbach for a little groceries shopping.
We drove through Richer, a good thing they have a stop or we would have missed Richer!!!

Steinbach, here we are! Population? 15,000 residents.

Michele spent some time at the local thrift shop. We continued to the Real Canadian Superstore and Walmart.

We found some chicken for $10 for about 12 boneless chicken breasts.
I cooked them and we will freeze them for later use.

A quiet evening, Michele watch tennis and I read my book.
Michele still does not feel 100%.

Until next time.

Life is good...