July 21st to 24th - Manitoba

July 21st - Mon - Riding Mountain Ntl Park, Manitoba
Quite a bit of wooded, hilly terrain today. We drove through Riding Mountain Ntl Park, quickly checked out the campground and thought we might find somewhere a little less expensive outside the park. There was an RV park right outside the Riding Mountain park but it turned out to be just about as expensive - $37 for complete service which is all they offered.
After setting up we drove back into the park to Clear Lake. We wandered around the town and then took our chairs and beer to the beach where we enjoyed the sun and people watching. When we got back to our site, our neighbors were sitting outside with some friends and invited us to join them for a beer. We had a very nice time chatting with them for a couple hours until it was time for everyone to go their separate ways and make dinner. They live just across the border (about 100 miles) in Saskatchewan and have a spot here for the summer season. They answered the question about the little shelters/huts in some fields. They are for leaf-cutter bees that pollinate a certain type of alfalfa fields.

July 22nd - Tues - to Winnipeg
Uneventful drive to a PA park in Ile des Chenes just south of Winnipeg. We called our friends Clem & Marlene from South Dakota to see if they could join us here for a few days but they are selling a house which is closing tomorrow so didn’t think they would make it.
We had lunch after we set up, headed to town to find a grocery store and then ran the truck though a wash. We have wifi here so I caught up on some email.

July 23rd - Wed - Winnipeg
Lazy morning and a nice breakfast before going back to town in search of an RV place for some parts for minor repairs. Then we were close to a casino so had to go check it out. It was very impressive. They have a “walk through” aquarium (fish swimming overhead and on either side of a tunnel) leading from one room to another. There is also a very high waterfall feature.
When we returned, Terry did the repairs before dinner while I did some laundry. There are only 2 washers & dryers here so we had to make a few trips back & forth but it is a small park so didn’t have to walk too far each time. We were going to barbeque but the weather was not nice so changed the menu. It ended up raining quite hard for a while and was very windy all evening while still staying quite warm.

July 24th - Thurs - Winnipeg
We didn’t sleep too well last night as it was warm and we didn’t run the air conditioner. So we were lazy and got up late. Back to town for a tour of the Royal Canadian Mint. We timed it just right and only had to wait about 15 minutes before the tour started. Very interesting and surprisingly little security compared with the facility in Fort Worth, Texas that prints paper currency.
On the way to The Forks (an area downtown where the Red and Assiniboine Rivers meet) we stopped at the legislature building to view “Golden Boy“ and the building. “Golden Boy” is a 14 karat gold plated statue on the top of the dome of the building. We very cleverly picked a day to go to The Forks when there was a baseball game at the nearby stadium so there was a lot of traffic and parking lot usage. We had lunch in an old warehouse section that has been converted to shops and eateries. Listened to some music, wandered through shops & along paths and watched some boarders in a skate park.
We were now close to the other casino in Winnipeg so had to check it out also. This one is done in a train theme. Not nearly as impressive as the other one. I lost my “allowance” quite quickly but Terry played for quite some time. On the way out, I decided to spend another $10 and ended up finally getting to play for a while and getting some money back.