Such a beautiful day, such friendly people, just a few less mosquitoes and life would be perfect here. The Sinners and the Dinsmores are camped in Birds Hill Provincial Park just outside Winnipeg Manitoba. The camp hosts came over and greeted us. We were showered with Winnipeg pins and Canada Maple Leaf pins and flag pins. They had brochures for every attraction we might be interested in. We drove down town to “The Forks.” This is the confluence of the Assiniboine river and the Red River, and it is right down town. It is a combination shopping experience and park. We enjoyed the park and skipped the shopping experience. The rivers are very high and some of the riverside walkways were flooded deeper than the handrails. The water in the river still looks just a little to thin to plow. The area is still reeling from the second big rain storm series this spring. We hear the farmers cannot even get into the fields to start planting.

We found helpful people everywhere we went. Whenever we stopped to study our map, it seems like someone would stop to help us get oriented. I even found a library branch with free internet access. I was able to download a file I have been trying to get from my son, Glen, for over a week now.

As long as the sun was high in the sky, the ‘sketers stay hidden. Once the sun goes down, however, they are just vicious. I set up the telescope this evening, (we aren’t having an evening thunderstorm for a change,) and Al and I focused on the full moon and then on Jupiter. The mosquitoes just ignored our repellent and went straight to work draining our reserves. It is 10:30 PM Central Daylight time, and the sky is just now getting dark enough to see Jupiter and its moons.

Tomorrow we are going to enter Ontario and it looks like it will take five driving days to cross this Province. Everyone I talk to here says the same thing, “Watch out for the Moose.” We are going to try some longer days and we will be looking for some boondocking experiences, so we have no reservations for the road ahead. First stop will be one of the “Information” booths just inside Ontario, and we will load up on literature about camping and the roads ahead.

The adventure continues. Judy and I send our love to all our friends and relations back home.