Headed North

Thursday, October 5, 2017

Today was the first driving day of our tour, heading north into Manitoba Canada.  We started with a frosty morning, but it turned out to be a beautiful sunny day, and the fall colors were spectacular! 

Along the way, we ran into some very rough roads…they are trying to get the rough places smoothed out and potholes filled in before winter sets in.  It reminds us of the roads in Alaska! (and sometimes the roads at home).   Part of the highway travels through a provincial park.  While enjoying the scenery and watching the road, we were greeted by a deer who scurried across the road right in front of us.  Unfortunately we missed the bull moose that others saw, and we are still trying to figure out if it was real, or a lot of bull.  This area is dotted with many small towns and farming communities.  We travelled through Brandon, the second largest town in the province—population 34,000.

   It was so dusty that Jim had to wash the windshield at the end of the day to make sure the rocks that hit the windshield didn’t do damage…all is ok.

We arrived at our destination, Dauphin, Manitoba, a city that began as a trading post in the 1800’s, and eventually became a Ukrainian settlement.  Today, about 41% of its population is of Ukrainian heritage, and 26% of them can actually speak Ukrainian!  (The only Ukranian I know is Nadia, the lady that does mom’s nails at Perfect Pinkie!)   We learned about the area through a tour of the Fort Dauphin Museum, a pioneer site which includes a pioneer home, trading post, a one room school house and a blacksmith shop.   Jim tried on a buffalo coat, and could have blended in with the fur traders! 

We then toured a beautiful Ukrainian Catholic Church, and learned about the beautiful painting of the interior by an “iconographer”.   A crystal chandelier was added in the 60’s, donated by a group of nuns!

Afterwards the ladies of the church sang a prayer in Ukranian and then served us a feast of authentic Ukrainian dishes, many made with vegetables from their own gardens.  It was delicious enough to inspire me to buy one of their cookbooks, just to get the borscht recipe!

PS.  Had to find a Tim Horton’s with wifi to be able to post!  Their coffee is great!