We spent the weekend in Winnipeg visiting Sharon’s family and then started the trip further west for the reunion. Our first destination was Spruce Woods Provincial Park but along the way we had to stop to see several touristic sites in the small Manitoba towns including: the world’s largest fire hydrant, largest smoking pipe, the glass bottle houses (made from thousands of whiskey, rye, wine, rum and gin bottles), and Sara the Camel.

After we checked into Spruce Woods PP, we setup in our campsite (which was surrounded by Poison Ivy) and then went for a walk around the campground, the beach area and then Isputinaw Trail which climbed from the marsh up 30 metres to a lookout and ridge. The following day we got an early start so we could do the Devil’s Punch Bowl hike in the Spirit Sands section of the park. The ranger had warned us to start early which was a good thing as the daytime temperatures were climbing to 35C! We got the 10 km hike through the forest and desert completed in the morning and it was a good thing we brought lots of water with us as one couple had run out and we had to give them some of our water.

We saw lots of flowers along the trail and insects in the sand. The Devil’s Punch Bowl was formed by springs that were flowing towards the Assiniboine River but after the sandbanks collapsed, they formed a bowl-shaped depression called a punch bowl. Over time the bowl continues to move further away from the river. The colour of the water makes for a dramatic contrast from the surrounding dunes and forest. The bowl now has lots of water plant life and even some turtles. We had seen very few people on the trails but there was a fair number congregating around the bowl. After the Devil’s Punch Bowl, we detoured over to see the Assiniboine River which had been a major trade route with birchbark canoes, river ferries, and even paddlewheel steamers late in the 1800’s. We had done this same hike 9 years ago but that day we got very wet with rain so even though we had lots of heat this time it was still more enjoyable.

Our next destination was Crooked Lake PP in Saskatchewan but on the way, we made several stops to see new things. The first stop was the town of Wawanesa because it was the place where our RV insurance company started it’s operations in 1896. The original building for the insurance company was built in 1901 and is now a museum but it wasn’t open the day we arrived. We met a local town councillor, and he was very happy to let us know what to go and see in the town, including the tea house where we could buy freshly baked large cinnamon buns. We also saw the Anglican Church built in 1882, it is the second oldest church in western Manitoba and was declared a provincial heritage building in 1991. It is the best example in Manitoba of an elaborate high gothic revival church built of wood.

The Manitoba tourist guide recommended the town of Souris to see Canada’s Longest Swinging Suspension Bridge at 604’. The first suspension bridge was built in 1904 but was then swept away by floods on the Souris River in 1976. The second bridge was cut loose in 2011 to avoid shore damage from flood waters. The current bridge was built 5’ higher in 2013 and has incredibly strong cables so should last a long time. We crossed the bridge towards town and could see the remnants of the original bridge, which looked pretty dicey. Next, we drove around Victoria Park and saw the Peacock statue. We could hear the live Peacocks they have in the town, but we didn’t see any of the actual birds. We also saw the Hillcrest Museum, the Railway Museum, and The Plum Souris Heritage Museum, but they weren’t open when we were there. We went out for lunch in the Whistling Donkey restaurant/bar.

Our last stop in Manitoba was the Antique Automobile Museum in Elkhorn. Sharon’s dad Gunnar had donated his 1955 Packard to the Museum. It was supposed to have been driven in the July 1^st parade the day before, but the test driver felt the brakes weren’t working properly so it wasn’t able to be driven. We spent a couple of hours looking around the museum at the cars, the schoolhouse, the 1912 Pioneer house, the 1905 Church, the old gas station, and the outside collection of cars still to be restored.

We entered Saskatchewan and headed North off the TransCanada and had a dramatic descent into the Qu’Appelle Valley in order to reach Crooked Lake PP. The Saskatchewan parks charge you for your campsite, but they also charge a daily “parking permit” fee of $11 per vehicle. Our campsite was quite pretty right on Crooked Lake, but we had to back through a lot of tree branches to get into the site. We weren’t too happy about that after having our ceramic coating done on the vehicle before we left for this trip. We did a couple of kilometres walk around the campground, down to the beach (water was nice), and to see the boat launch area. When we returned for happy hour at our campsite there was a baby crow that was in our campsite. He was crying because he couldn’t figure out how to fly back to the nest. His parents kept swooping down trying to tell him to fly but he wasn’t able. When we left the next day, he was still hopping around, we hope he eventually figured out what to do. Crooked Lake PP was a new one for us and 1 night was enough time as they didn’t have any hiking trails.

The next day we were heading on to Regina. This time of year, it’s quite pretty to travel in the prairies as the canola crop is in full bloom. It was a very hot day at 37 C, so we were glad for the AC in the RV. Our first stop was to visit Barb and John, and we went out for a poutine lunch at the Coney Island Café. I had the Mexican Poutine and Sharon had the Perogy Poutine and needless to say we took away lots of leftovers😉 After lunch we did a quick tour of Government House which was just down the street. Government House was declared a National Historic Site in 1968. A full restoration of the house started in 1978 and was completed by September of 1980 when it reopened. In 1984 Saskatchewan’s 16^th Lieutenant Governor was able to move back into the house. They do tours on the hour but we didn’t have time for the full tour so the guide gave us a very quick walk through so we could take pictures. We should return the next time we’re in Regina for the full tour.

Our other reason to visit Regina was to go to the RCMP Heritage Centre. Gunnar had made a rocking horse (named Cocoa) for Maya when she was 2 years old. Susan & Brian had contacted the archives area, and they wanted to put Cocoa on display in the hall where the RCMP trainees have their graduation. The rocking horse was incredibly sturdy, and Gunnar used his gun holster to make the saddle and the ears. The plan is to setup a display area with exhibits explaining about Gunnar’s time in the RCMP and the story about Cocoa. They have 24 to 32 new graduates almost every Monday during the year and their families often come to see the graduation and now Cocoa can be used by the kids of the graduates. After leaving Cocoa we toured the RCMP Chapel and then went to pay our respects to Gunnar in the cemetery on the premises.

Our next stop was Moose Jaw for 2 nights. We had booked a campground site on the river in the Wakamow Valley – Lorne Calvert campground on the Moose Jaw River. John & Christine were joining us from Calgary and camping with us in their new tent. Brian, Susan, and Edie were staying in the Temple Gardens Hotel & Spa in the downtown area. After checking in we went out for deep dish pizza dinner at Houston’s and then went to the Spa pools at Temple Gardens.

The next day we started off with a big breakfast at Veroba’s Family Restaurant. As it turned out Moose Jaw was also having their annual Kinsmen Sidewalk Days Festival, so we got to walk the main street to see all the vendors along the 9 blocks that were closed off. It was a hot day again, so we took the opportunity to go inside the Grant Hall Hotel (opened in 1927), in the basement was Prairie Bee Meadery. The salesperson had lots of history to tell us as we sampled 14 different products and of course purchased several of them😉 Sharon had heard about a place called Déjà vu Café that had 80 flavours of milkshakes and had been featured on the TV show called “You Gotta Eat Here” so we went to try them out. I had the Habanero Milkshake, and it was surprisingly good. In the afternoon we spent more time in the Spa pools and also tried out the steam room. That evening we tried out Nit’s Thai Food and it was excellent for dinner. We had fun with the waitress as she acted like an Elephant when we ordered the Chang Thai beer (has 2 elephants with locked trunks on the label).

As I mentioned in the first blog of this trip, our primary motivation for this journey was to attend the Swenson family reunion in Regina. It was to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of the Swenson family travelling by ship from Sweden to Canada to make a new life. On the Saturday morning, we drove back to Regina from Moose Jaw and were able to park our RV at the hotel where all the family members were staying. We then went to the Hungarian club, close to the hotel, where the reunion was taking place. There were about 60 people in attendance. We started the day with each family talking about who was in attendance from their side of the family. We had a catered lunch with the famous Swedish thin bread. In the afternoon family photos were taken and there was a talent show with prizes. The dinner was excellent, and the conversations carried on until close to 10 pm. The organizers had done a phenomenal job to put together the whole day. Sunday morning several people had breakfast in the hotel before dispersing, some to return to Kelliher where the Swenson family had settled in 1925.

We were heading with the RV to Moose Mountain PP in Saskatchewan but again had to stop in several small towns along the way. The first was Montmartre which was named by settlers in 1892 that came from the Paris suburb of Montmartre. In 2009 to celebrate the communities 100^th anniversary they constructed the 8.5 m Eiffel Tower replica which contains 3,600 kgs of steel. We also went to see the St. Peter & Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church and it appeared to be the same layout as one we had seen in Alaska in 2019.

Our next stop was Kipling where you can see the World’s Largest Red Paperclip which was made to celebrate the famous trade up story. In 2005 Canadian Kyle MacDonald did 14 trades over the span of 1 year to work his way from 1 red paper clip up to a house in Kipling Saskatchewan (you can read about it here: From paper-clip to house in 14 trades). The record red paperclip is 15’ 2” long and is made of 3043 lbs. of steel. The actual house Kyle traded for is now a bakery, but it wasn’t open on Sunday.

We were going to Moose Mountain PP for a 2-night stay. It was the first Provincial Park in Saskatchewan when it was established in 1931 and contains 400 square kilometres of forested hills, lakes, and prairie grasslands. It reminded us of Falcon Lake where Sharon’s parents used to have a cottage as the campground is nestled in amongst the cottage/home residences within the park. The park seemed to be very full since this was the first full week in July. After setting up we did a short hike on the Peninsula trail, and we regretted not taking our bug spray as the mosquitoes were having a hay day getting our blood. However, we did get nice photos of a Northern Pearly-eye butterfly, a Hairy woodpecker and a Baltimore Oriole.

The next morning, we had really heavy rain (our first of this trip) so it stopped our plan to go Mountain Biking. Finally in the afternoon it cleared so we got the bikes out and rode to the Visitor centre. There were some artists in residence buildings, and we spent about 40 minutes with a bronze statue artist as he explained all the steps involved in making a bronze statue. It’s quite a fascinating and involved process and if you zoom in on the slide it will show you all the steps. The artist Ken Frederickson actually has made some of the statues/trophies used for the contestants of the Calgary Stampede.

The visitor centre was on the lower level of the stone chalet with the park offices on the upper levels. The first chalet was completed in 1932 but just over 1.5 years later was destroyed by a fire and then rebuilt 1 year later. There were several exhibits to go through, including history of the stone chalet, Treaty 4 land claim settlement, wildlife in the park like the Cougar, and the ecology of the park with 1,000’s of lakes.

After the visitor centre we decided to try an MTB ride on Beaver Lake Trail and Youell Lake Trail. The conditions were muddy from the morning rain but it was fun as there were a lot of up and down sections. Hard work on the climbs but maximum speed on the descents. We brought our bug spray today, so we didn’t have any issues with the mosquitoes. We only saw 3 other people on the trails. On the way back to the campground we rode through some of the cottage streets and there were some pretty impressive places. We had lots of mud to clean off the bikes before we could put them away. That evening we had a gorgeous sunset across Little Kenosee Lake from our campsite, what a perfect ending to a great stay.

Our final camping destination for this leg of our journey was Rivers PP in Manitoba. Enroute we stopped in Maryfield Saskatchewan for lunch at the Arlington Hotel and to buy some groceries at the general store. Then we stopped in Virden Manitoba to see the old train station. On the way to Rivers, we saw some typical Prairie grain silos/elevators which are the symbols of rural heritage in western Canada.

Rivers PP turned out to be a bit of bust. Our campsite was nice along the water but unfortunately due to the high temperatures we’ve been experiencing the lakeshores were covered with Blue-Green algae which really smelled bad and you definitely couldn’t go swimming. We did go for a hike to the beach and down to the dam but we were glad we had only booked one night.

The following day we were returning to Winnipeg but again had some stops along the way. First was Minnedosa to see the Lions Lookout Tower and the Swing bridge in the Heritage village. We also saw the outside of the Octagon Agricultural Display building which is one of only 2 left in Manitoba. Next was Farmery Brewery in Neepawa where I tried a flight of beers while Sharon tried some canned Caesars with different flavours. We bought lots of products here as they no longer sell in Ontario. Further in the town there was a restaurant called Brews Brothers Bistro so I thought we should go for beer and lunch, but it turned out Brews was for coffee not beer😉 Our lunch was very good with Sharon having the Perogy pizza while I had the Smoked Brisket Burger. We stopped in Gladstone to see Happy Rock which seemed to have a fresh coat of paint. The last stop before Winnipeg was Portage La Prairie so we could see the Windmill, the Canadair CT-133 Silver Star training plane, and the birdlife on the lake.

We spent one week back in Winnipeg with a variety of family visiting. Some of the highlights included seeing the Rock of Ages theatre show at the Rainbow Stage in Kildonan Park with Brian and Susan (a very hot night at the outdoor theatre), trying a new restaurant called Dave & Laverne’s with family, going to a Family BBQ at Brian & Susan’s, and seeing the new F1 movie.

Tomorrow we will begin the journey back home, so we’ll have one more blog to follow to close off this trip.