So…uhh…what happened to the hills?

Thursday brought about a trip from Thunder Bay to the bustling metropolis of Winnipeg. We got up early again and started things right with a Breakfast of Champions:

 

Within a few minutes we were bounding along a highway that was quickly flattening out. It was fairly sunny, but not too warm, which made for good driving weather.

 

The lush, dense forests we had been accustomed to were beginning to thin out as we worked on our last few hundred kilometres of the widest province we’d be crossing. It was a fairly drastic change in scenery, especially compared to yesterday’s route. Here’s a shot Katie snapped of the sort of trees we were seeing:

We grabbed a quick lunch in Kenora, Ontario. (Before you read the next statement, try to keep in mind that options in Kenora are rather limited when it comes to restaurants.) Since Matt is such a classy guy who looks after his wife, he splurged for McDonalds at the local Walmart. We know, it’s some pretty high end stuff. Try to contain your jealousy.

Soon after, we entered Manitoba, and what little was left in elevation changes disappeared altogether. Here’s a few examples of what we faced:

  

(The deer crossing in that third one really adds a lot of excitement, doesn’t it?)

We arrived in Winnipeg around 3pm local time, after sitting in about 30 kilometres of construction work leading into the city. Good times.

Now, it’s time for some travelling tips from your Travelling Uncle Matt (for those of you that can’t remember, this guy is the original Travelling Uncle Matt, from Fraggle Rock – credit to Jim Henson & company)

Tip #1: If the rate for your hotel seems really great, it’s probably because the room is really terrible. It’s basically a universal truth that there is an inverse relationship between the awesomeness of your rate and the awesomeness of your room.

Tip #2: Hotels that claim they are “Pet Friendly” are not actually friendly to our furry little buddies. What they mean is that they’ll take your money, then tell you that you have to take a smoking room. This is neither friendly to the guest, nor the pet.

Tip #3: At all costs, keep your wife happy while on the road. If you think it’s bad when she’s cranky at home, you’ll quickly realize that you’ve been mistaken all this time and you’ve never actually experienced cranky until you do when the two of you are 2,500 kilometres from home (or better still, in between homes).

Tip #4: The pictures of that hotel room on the website? They look great because they want them to look great.

Now, let’s tie in all four tips into a single story. We arrived at our hotel in Winnipeg, which we got for a fantastic rate and was “Pet Friendly”. When we checked in, Matt advised that we had a cat (some hotels will charge a $200 cleaning fee if they find out that you’ve had a pet in their rooms without advising them). The girl behind the desk informed him that they’d have to be on a smoking floor. We arrived in the room and instantly knew we had a problem. The smell was horrendous. We left the cat in the room and went out to check out the city (details on that below). When we arrived back, Matt had decided that it was time for action. Using his powers of persuasion Matt convinced the manager to allow us to move to a non-smoking room. Katie believed it was simply that the manager was a reasonable individual. Matt knew it was really his striking good looks.

Finally, we decided to head down to the park and market that’s been built around The Forks here in Winnipeg. Here’s a description of the area:

(In a nutshell, this is where the Red and Assiniboine rivers meet; a natural and historic trading location.)

Here are some more shots from our visit there:

   

There’s a neat little piece of this park where they’ve set up sculptures that correspond to star constellations that come from different cultures (ie: Greek, Chinese, Indian, etc). There wasn’t a very good description, but we surmised that at the right time of the year, and at the right time of the night, if you stood in the centre of the whole installation, and looked at the right sculpture, it would align with the stars in the sky for a specific constellation. Here’s the whole installation:

Here’s one of the sculptures:

Here are a few more shots from the park, including the first shot, which is the new Museum of Human Rights, being built by the Canadian Government:

     

This bridge is a pedestrian-only bridge:

The base houses a restaurant that hangs over the river. We decided to grab dinner there:

This motorcycle was hanging from the ceiling:

Overall, the trip is going well and we’re looking forward to arriving in Calgary on Saturday. We’ll leave you with this shot of Charlie practicing for his stunt work in his upcoming film “Ninja Kitty”:

Love,

k&m