Dryden ON to Turtle Cross camp, near Brandon MB

Approaching Winnipeg

 

Weather was a mixed bag today. It started "ok" at Dryden after another nice stay at the Walmart, got really nasty around Winnipeg, then cleared up nicely by the time we got to Brandon MB.

Leaving Dryden we had to take a couple of pictures of a bridge that figured in to our 2022 trip blogs.

Today:

Going West, May 29 2022

Coming back East, Jul 4 2022

As you can likely guess, May of 2022 was very wet.

 

Near Feist Lake we came across yet another "Last spike" memorial. I think we looked for this plaque on an earlier trip but didn't find it.

It's in a pretty setting

It commemorates a 600 km (375 mile) rail line completed in June 1882, quite a feat in its day.  

There's always construction to provide parts of the Trans Canada Highway with a much-improved roadway once the construction is done, and short-term pain while it's happening:

 As we approached Winnipeg the sky started looking quite ominous:

Before the clouds let loose we noticed a display celebrating being the Longitudinal Centre of Canada.

 

The threatening skies delivered, along with lightning, thunder and  terrific crosswinds: 

In the midst of all this we had to deal with major truck traffic. A lot of the tractor-trailer rigs had 2 normal-sized highway trailers, likely 48 ft long each. When the crosswinds hit these guys the end of the rear trailer would be 4-6 feet downwind compared to the front wheels of the tractor. 

Some of these drivers would not slow down one bit from the posted 100 and 110 km/hr speed limits. It got quite scary sometimes when they passed us, as the crosswind could shove the trailers very close to us. We got off when we could and waited the worst of it out, then carried on to Brandon.

We figured we'd make it to Brandon MB today and see then whether we felt like continuing. Not today thanks! We found a nice private park just about 2.5km west of Brandon, but still in the town limits, the Turtle Cross campground. It's mainly for seasonal RVs but they had some spots empty today. $30 cash (3% more to use credit) for a fully serviced site. What a deal compared to Ont Provincial Parks!

Our nice level site

Large pool for summer visitors

A makeshift fountain to keep the water moving

Even toys for the "kiddies"

We were especially glad to be sunning ourselves here this afternoon. And virtually no black flies here!