Day: 7, Tuesday, July 2, 2007
Hot going to bed, little too warm to go to sleep. Started to rain in the early morning hours but let up about 7:30 am. We started rolling about 7:30 to 8:30 am. Now this sounds like we are sleeping-in in the morning but remember we are two hours ahead of BC time and so we are actually rolling at 5:30 to 6:30 am. We wanted to spend the day in Winnipeg, and we did. We hit the Royal Canadian Mint and did the tour, very interesting. Not only do they mint the Canadian coins but they mint for other countries all over the world and they will stamp out 750,000 coins an hour and they run 24-7. The process is unreal, from steel blanks, each blank is coated at least 3-4 times with
copper, silver and nickel. My question was why not just use the steel blank and stamp the coin directly on to them but apparently the coins last much longer with the process they use, in fact the coins last 20-25 years. We also got to hold a $400,000 solid gold brick unfortunately it was very well chained down. From the mint we drove to the Forks Market right in downtown Winnipeg. The traffic was a little heavy but I am very comfortable with the motorhome in heavy traffic, in fact I even parallel parked it in one place. The Forks Market is similar to Granville Island. The Forks National Park is an old railway turnaround and is close to the old, I think, CNR or CPR Station which is a very old building. The Forks gets its name from the confluence of two rivers The Red River and The Assiniboine River. This was an old meeting ground for the Native Indians 500 plus years ago. Its about 3:00 pm and we decided to head east and get a little road time in today. We had to do a little grocery shopping and pick up a few things at Walmart. I thought the generator sounded a little funny and I got to checking and here the exhaust pipe had come off the muffler. The way the exhaust comes out of the generator it was blowing right on the wall of the m/h. This had to be fixed. So found a little shop that took us right away. He had to customize the pipe because it is an “s” shape, but they were
very accommodating. Now we are off right after I fill the m/h with gas. Now we are off like a “turd of hurdles”. As we are heading east it is hotter than all get out and to offset the heat and cool the m/h down I run the generator and the rooftop a/c. Remember the horizon and how far you can see, well on the horizon you can see the big white thunder clouds forming in front of us. The road kind of scooted in between two big storm, so to the South of us rain and to the North. About 30 minutes later we hit the rain and although it was heavy it was not like the storms that hit Winnipeg the day we arrived. Now I cannot imagine this but they had 1.5 inches of rain in - - - - - - - one hour. Boggles my mind. We are camping tonight in a provincial campsite, Whiteshell Provincial Park in Falcon Lake, Manitoba. Seems like a very quiet place and with the rain it is much cooler about 64 f compared to 85 f in Winnipeg. At one stage when we came back to the m/h after sitting for several hours, it was 101 f degrees inside. Well much cooler tonight. As we drove further east the country is changing, no more horizon and just trees on either side of the road so the driving may not be as interesting as it has been. Tomorrow should be interesting, can’t wait to see what the road will deliver. Well I am off to bed, Willa and Tegan are already settling down and it’s now my turn. Well good night all.
Hot going to bed, little too warm to go to sleep. Started to rain in the early morning hours but let up about 7:30 am. We started rolling about 7:30 to 8:30 am. Now this sounds like we are sleeping-in in the morning but remember we are two hours ahead of BC time and so we are actually rolling at 5:30 to 6:30 am. We wanted to spend the day in Winnipeg, and we did. We hit the Royal Canadian Mint and did the tour, very interesting. Not only do they mint the Canadian coins but they mint for other countries all over the world and they will stamp out 750,000 coins an hour and they run 24-7. The process is unreal, from steel blanks, each blank is coated at least 3-4 times with
copper, silver and nickel. My question was why not just use the steel blank and stamp the coin directly on to them but apparently the coins last much longer with the process they use, in fact the coins last 20-25 years. We also got to hold a $400,000 solid gold brick unfortunately it was very well chained down. From the mint we drove to the Forks Market right in downtown Winnipeg. The traffic was a little heavy but I am very comfortable with the motorhome in heavy traffic, in fact I even parallel parked it in one place. The Forks Market is similar to Granville Island. The Forks National Park is an old railway turnaround and is close to the old, I think, CNR or CPR Station which is a very old building. The Forks gets its name from the confluence of two rivers The Red River and The Assiniboine River. This was an old meeting ground for the Native Indians 500 plus years ago. Its about 3:00 pm and we decided to head east and get a little road time in today. We had to do a little grocery shopping and pick up a few things at Walmart. I thought the generator sounded a little funny and I got to checking and here the exhaust pipe had come off the muffler. The way the exhaust comes out of the generator it was blowing right on the wall of the m/h. This had to be fixed. So found a little shop that took us right away. He had to customize the pipe because it is an “s” shape, but they were
very accommodating. Now we are off right after I fill the m/h with gas. Now we are off like a “turd of hurdles”. As we are heading east it is hotter than all get out and to offset the heat and cool the m/h down I run the generator and the rooftop a/c. Remember the horizon and how far you can see, well on the horizon you can see the big white thunder clouds forming in front of us. The road kind of scooted in between two big storm, so to the South of us rain and to the North. About 30 minutes later we hit the rain and although it was heavy it was not like the storms that hit Winnipeg the day we arrived. Now I cannot imagine this but they had 1.5 inches of rain in - - - - - - - one hour. Boggles my mind. We are camping tonight in a provincial campsite, Whiteshell Provincial Park in Falcon Lake, Manitoba. Seems like a very quiet place and with the rain it is much cooler about 64 f compared to 85 f in Winnipeg. At one stage when we came back to the m/h after sitting for several hours, it was 101 f degrees inside. Well much cooler tonight. As we drove further east the country is changing, no more horizon and just trees on either side of the road so the driving may not be as interesting as it has been. Tomorrow should be interesting, can’t wait to see what the road will deliver. Well I am off to bed, Willa and Tegan are already settling down and it’s now my turn. Well good night all.
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