The days are flying by!

We are now in a small town in Northwest Ontario where there are lots of woods and water. We have chosen to stay in the area for an extra night because there are many fires nearby and the smoke is pretty bad, possibly getting worse as we head east. We know folks in the midwest and on the east coast of the US have been getting hit pretty hard by the smoke from the fires up here in Ontario. It has been raining some, so there’s hope that the rain will help. Plus, we really needed to do laundry and found a campground with lovely laundry facilities. As of now, we’re planning to stick pretty close to our original itinerary, but we will adapt as needed depending on smoke and fire. We talked to someone here today who has most of her life loaded up in her truck just in case– the closest fires are only about 20 kilometers away. She thinks it will be fine because there are a few lakes between there and here, but wanted to be ready just in case. Nobody in this community seems too worried, just attentive.

Despite the smoke, we have been having a good time. After my last post, we passed into Manitoba and spent a quiet night (except some passing trains) in the small town of Austin. We were staying in a boondockers spot connected to the Austin Woollen Mill, started by Bryan and Lynda to process wool from farmers all over the country. They receive the wool, wash it, dry it, clean it, and turn it into yarn for those farms to sell. It was a really cool operation and we enjoyed talking with our hosts! Lynda is also a librarian in the local schools so we talked education and literacy as well. They recommended the public swimming pool in Gladstone, about 25 minutes away, to get out of the heat– a great suggestion. We also had a delicious muffin and coffee in the morning at Sprucedale Industries, a coffee shop run as part of a program for adults with developmental disabilities. It was lovely to sit in a coffee shop and look ahead at our next stops, surrounded by local folks having the morning coffee and talking with one another.

Our next stop was Winnipeg. I’d been looking forward to Winnipeg ever since I first started reading about it, and it didn’t disappoint! We spent our first afternoon at The Leaf, a giant greenhouse and garden with many tropical and mediterranean plants, plus a butterfly garden and delicious restaurant. This was our first time eating out besides the brewery in Regina and we really enjoyed the food there– roasted carrots, burrata salad, and tuna crudo. Yum. We got our bikes out and biked around Assiniboine Park, which is huge, and shook hands with some bears at a sculpture garden.

After a night in a boondockers north of the city, we spent most of the next day at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. I’d specifically been looking forward to this museum, having read that it was one of the best human rights museums anywhere, and we were both very impressed. We ended up spending over 5 hours there and easily could have spent another 5. It focused initially on the question, “what are human rights?” and displayed advances and events related to human rights throughout history. Then proceeded into specific displays about the rights of various groups in Canada and elsewhere. It was quite interactive with media, displays, and information presented in multimple formats and languages. It’s also just a really cool building. Highly, highly recommended if you’re ever in Winnipeg.

After the museum, we wandered across the river on a cool pedestrian bridge and found our way to St Boniface Cathedral. The original cathedral burned down in 1968, but the facade still stands, connected to the new cathedral in the back. It was really cool, visually, and I got a kick out of the signs telling you to enter through “the ruins.”

Also at the site of the cathedral stands Louis Riel’s headstone. We stopped to read a plaque and I mentioned that I had just been reading about him. He is considered by many to be the father of Manitoba, and he was instrumental in securing rights, land, and recognition for the Métis, a group with mixed Indigenous and European ancestry who are recognized as one of the three Indigenous peoples of Canada (along with the First Nations and Inuit). He was executed at age 41. There were three other people taking a picture at the grave site, and as we left the cathedral, one of them ran up to us with a flyer. They have created a new, factual but funny retelling of the life of Louis Riel– “The Seven Lives of Louis Riel”– and were about to have opening night at the Winnipeg Fringe festival. We figured, why not, so we grabbed some dinner and headed for the show! It was wonderful. Funny, informative, and definitely a local experience. Also, it took place in a theater at the top of an old mall that looked just like Lloyd Center…

Since leaving Winnipeg, we drove a bunch of hours out of the prairies and into a landscape that looks a lot like Maine or Northern Minnesota. Granite outcroppings, water everywhere, rolling hills. It’s really beautiful! We also finally had time to sit still for a minute last night, so we set up our bug tent, played a game, and had a glass of wine. We remain really impressed by the wonderful interactions we’ve had throughout our journey. We’ve had meaningful conversations with everyone from hosts to gas station attendants to neighbors in the campsite and people we meet outside a post office. Everyone has been generous in sharing local wisdom and ideas. Morgan has promised a post soon that’s all about the snacks we’ve tried along the way, so keep your eyes open. Until then, hope everyone is doing well!