In week 2 of this trip we started off touring the Louis Riel House National Historic Site in Winnipeg that turned out to be very close to Gunnar and Edie’s house and was even free since it was the last weekend of the season. Louis Riel lived from 1844 to 1885. He was a Metis patriot and spiritual leader and he dedicated his life to the defence of Metis and French Canadian rights in the West during the turbulent years from 1869-1885. He was a gifted poet and eloquent speaker and believed that he had a mission to bring peace and justice to his people. In 1885 he led the ill-fated North West Rebellion of native people and was subsequently hanged for treason. The present Riel house was built in 1881 (on this site which was the Riel lot) and this was when Louis Riel was away so he actually never lived in the house but his body did lay in state in the house in December 1885. Louis’s wife died in the spring of 1886 so his brother Joseph and his wife raised Louis’s children in this house and it was in the Riel family right through until 1969. The construction process was interesting and they had a model to show how the boards were slotted in for the walls. All pictures of Louis in the house had black cloth veils draped over them from when his body laid in state here. The park rangers were a wealth of information and since it was closing down the following day they even gave use some cherry tomatoes and potatoes from the garden to take home!
The following day there was a Powwow at The Forks so we decided to go see it. We watched the dances for about an hour and then walked around the National Historic Site and had a drink with a view of the rivers. There were lots of people there due to the Labour Day holiday so getting parking was tricky.
The following day we had an appointment at the Mercedes dealership in Winnipeg as the AC in our Sprinter cab was not working. We realized this just after we headed out on this trip and Winnipeg was the first opportunity to go for service. Some of our days driving out west we had 29 C temperatures so we had to start our generator and run our house AC in order to cool down the cab. When we went to drive to the dealership our Becker Navigation module also wouldn’t work so we had them check it out. It turned out we had 3 stone holes in our condenser for the AC so they had to order a new condenser. Luckily for us another LTV Unity came in for service so the technician was able to determine that our Becker Navigation was fine but the bracket it plugs into had failed. We were glad it happened on the way to the dealership instead of later. We set up an appointment for the following Monday to have both issues repaired (under warranty) once the parts had arrived.
On Wednesday we drove to Winkler Manitoba to begin our 3 day jam packed LTV rally. There were 79 RV’s attending at the WINKLER Bible Camp with about 160 guests and lots of LTV staff coordinating the events. We had signed up for something in every available time slot so here is a list of the things we did:
- Chapter Head lunch (since I am the Leader of the Ontario Sunrisers Chapter)
- Ice Cream social and meet and greet with delicious homemade ice cream, Charcoal Honeycomb was the most interesting flavour.
- For dinners we had Kielbasa Burgers one night, the next night was a Mennonite meal of Perogies and Kilkte (noodles) with Schmaunt Fat (cream gravy) and ham, and a steak dinner the final night.
- Mercedes and LTV Technical seminars
- LTV Cultural tour at the factory where we heard about how several departments operate and their Continuous Improvement efforts
- Photography class
- Pembina Threshermen’s Museum with several demonstration events
- Elemental Stone Tour (5 acre farm yard) to see many types of Manitoba rocks carved in various forms (including fish that Sharon really wanted)
- Alaska travel group presentation of the Southwest Roadrunners Tour
- Beachside fires and Smores at night
- Lastly an extremely funny Ventriloquist David Pendleton for the final night, he even turned one of the audience members into a dummy for his act!
Each day we were totally exhausted as had packed our schedule (from 8 am until 10 pm nonstop) but we met many very nice people and learned many new things so we were really glad we had attended. I even signed up for Instagram to try to win a photo posting contest but didn’t win. Our welcome package included a set of LTV bamboo dishes for the RV! What a fantastic event! On the way back to Winnipeg we stopped at Syl’s in Carman to have a breakfast sandwich and some French Fries, yum;-)
Joel & Sharon 
Beautiful Canada.
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Great photos and interesting displays.
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Thanks Pete, you would have really liked the Threshermen’s Museum 😊
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Okay, check those Louis Riel dates – he lived only 11 years?? (-:
Loved hearing about the rally and what you saw. The campsite looked like a parking lot for a dealership. (-: Fave photos – Sharon and her Mom in the red chairs and the fish stones! Plus Sharon at the phone board. That’s exactly what it looked like in 1975 when I worked for Bell as a long distance operator!!!
Glad to hear that you were able to get those fixes done so quickly and under warranty. Bonus. Happy travels!
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Good catch Ella, should have been until 1885. I’ll correct the blog.
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Sharon, did you bring home a stone fish?
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No she didn’t Paula, although we did talk about it a lot;-)
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Try the Miami Panoramic Bus Tour. Comfortable and modern bus with retractable roof and sliding windows. Very good sightseeing experience. Tour goes through Miami Beach and some of the best areas in Miami to visit, like, Wynwood, Little Havana, Design District and other popular Miami areas.
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Looking for something to do as a family or maybe a group of friends in Miami? Jump on the Miami Panoramic Bus Tour! This tour is between 4-5 hours and one of the best times you will have learning about Miami and laughing with our experienced city tour guides!
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Please stop posting this message
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