Yukon Ho!

May 28, 2006: Manitoba to Foam Lake, SK

May 31, 2006 on 1:35 am | In Uncategorized |

Woke up early with the goal of conquering Manitoba and half of Saskatchewan.
We drove into Winnipeg under black, black clouds and as we cruised apartment building parking lots looking for free wireless internet, the rain started, wind rocked the van like crazy and we took on water through the duct-taped back windows.
Summer storms are awesome.
After some Tim Horton’s we made for Neepawa -birthplace and hometown of Margaret Laurence; first lady of Manawaka!
Her house was on 1st Ave and the full-on tour cost $3. I was the only one of the crew who had any interest in her so the boys cruised the streets looking for coffee while I was led through the house by a shy 16-year-old who pointed at various artifacts as the mini-tape-recorder in her hand read aloud from the placards scattered around the rooms. It was a very cool place to go and I’m glad I went. I saw some neat stuff including Laurence’s childhood bedroom/study, and I bought a sweet-ass souvenier mug which I tested out in the van (mmmmmmm so tastes so literary!). My only complaints are that first -the tour guide didn’t really need to walk around with me and that recorder since I read all the placards in a third the time it took the tape narrator to do it out loud, and second -I should probably have her job. Very nice girl working there but she’s never read Margaret Laurence. Is there NO pre-requesite for that job?
Next we went on a search for the actual stone angel of “The Stone Angel” fame. An older couple walking around the Neepawa Golf Course gave us directions to Riverside Cemetary, as well as a brief history of all the notable dead buried within. Forget all you thought you knew about the westernmost graveyard to have Titanic victims buried in it -Neepawa is here to tell you it’s in Neepawa!
We found it fine, I looked at the angel and we headed for Saskatchewan (unsettling sidenote: all the hundreds of graves in Riverside Cemetary appear to be fresh -each one is topped with a perfect little mound of dark, wet dirt. Neepawa -home of Margaret Laurence…or the living dead?).
Ate some food 16km from the border then continued on through another storm all the way into Yorkton to buy some tarps at the local Wal-Mart where all the employees were mad at the world.
After that there was a bit of panic as we seemed to be stuck in nowheresville, with very little gas and no campsites in sight. Sean was on the verge of a breakdown when we found both gas and a campground in Foam Lake. The grounds consisted of 20 or so sites hidden behind a driving range right off the highway.
Favorite part -the sign we passed heading through the range and into the camping section (see below)
Second favorite part -only $10
Amy

Yesterday I made a discovery about all of the GPS problems we were having. THE VAN HAS A GPS PROOF WINDSHIELD! This probably also explains the problems we were having finding internet access. On the plus side, the government (and alien) surveillence systems are probably thwarted by the windshield as well, so at least our privacy and identities will be safe (Pat, you can borrow the van while we are biking if you like). After waiting out the tail of the storm at Tim Hortons, then driving randomly through the city for a while, we finally picked up a sweet little piece of wireless and had a very quick email check and internet surf.
Sean

(View all of our pictures here: http://www.burak.ca/gallery/v/YukonHo/)