Manitoba Farmers

There are some farms in Manitoba where the farmers have realized that most of us city folk cannot recognize crops. I loved this--they put signs up by all the different crops, visible from the highway, so we could learn. Crop after crop we would see "flax", "canola", "wheat", "barley", "oats"...

But my favorite sign? The one that read "pasture".

And along the way

after leaving Winnipeg, and the wonderful hospitality extended to us, we were presented with these two gifts...

and this

And now we are home.

Things we DID do

We left Minnesota and headed through Wisconsin and North Dakota, towards Winnipeg. On the way, we stopped at a place that Martin remembered as a kid. He remembered there was a great big otter--and there was. It towered over his 6'2 frame, and it was fun to take the picture for his parents.

What he had forgotten was this:

And really, they look silly when they are in the trees!

We spent a good half hour there, watching and photographing the cranes. We also spent some time trying not to get pecked by the geese and their 'teenaged' gosling. It was amazing!

We arrived at Cynthia and J-L's, and were charmed completely by their wee ones. Their daughter is bright as can be (and prints better than some adults I know). Their son is a major flirt. So we had a great supper and enjoyed their hospitality immensely. We like these people, a lot! They gave us so much freedom to come and go.

And come and go we did. One of the reasons for the road trip was to see where each of us grew up. Martin grew up in Winnipeg, and we spent the day looking at his old stomping grounds. There were several great moments, but the best one for me was when he spotted his neighbour--a handsome gent dressed in paint spattered short-shorts, and an equally paint-spattered shirt. His wife came to greet us as well--she didn't recognize him at first, but when she did, the most lovely expression transformed her face from one of total confusion to one of pure and absolute delight. She has alzheimers and so she kept moving between the present and the past...but that moment was completely perfect.

We also drove to the cabin that really does exist on the corner of Alice Lane and Wonderland Street. And we walked the beach which was a delight.

And also? We spent a lot of time watching these--there are a million of them!

Things heard on the phone

"He's going to be on strict bed rest for several days"

"He has pneumonia and a blood clot. Then he had a heart attack"

"He sounds bored"

"He is so tired"

"He's in ICU"

"He went home today"

(Thanks to everyone who read my last post and offered up a prayer for him).

The things we didn't do

We didn't go look at the prairie dog village, or take a leisurely drive to my cousin's, or stay overnight where my mom grew up, or see my cousin's kids.

We aren't going to go to my home town, even though we are only 20 km away from it right now.

My brother had a heart attack. We are going home.

I'll write more about the things we DID do a little later.

and, DARN!

I lost my sunglasses. They've been with me for a long time. I know this because of the sailboat incident and I had them then. I know THAT because I was so surprised that they floated!

Sigh. I hope whoever finds them enjoys them!

The longest day

Today was a really really long day. We didn't sleep as well as we expected to last night, because we had the dumbest bed in the full hotel. It was sloping towards the head, and not only that, the air conditioning fan was so loud that we awoke almost every ten minutes when it came on. The icing on the cake was that the room next to us was apparently empty (how could THAT be?). Either that or the patron was dead. The alarm clock was going before 7, and continued until after we left.

However--and this is important--the hotel manager did his best to make it well, better. He reduced the rate in half (the rate that had already been reduced by a third was reduced by another half). And he bought breakfast, which was actually pretty good. And it helped us today because we had so far to drive.

We drove from Chicago to Wisconsin. There's a lot of toll roads in Chicago! Then we cut diagonally across Wisconsin and came into Minnesota at St. Paul's. We decided to drive through the twin cities so that we could avoid the rush hour tomorrow. It's another long day! But at least at the end of it we get to see some cute kidlets and their parents.