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| hula-hula girl does not like the rain |
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| a big teepee |
We left Calgary at the crack of 3:30 pm in our trusty van in
the hopes of making it to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan before midnight. After a couple of minor set-backs – Vince’s
AC/DC converter wasn’t powerful enough to charge his laptop on the fly so we had
to stop at Canadian Tire in Brooks, where we didn’t see Heather but we did buy
a bigger and more powerful power converter, and we almost ran out of gas
somewhere near Gull Lake because we couldn’t find Vince’s bank card, but a
trucker rescued us (trucker rescue number one of our cross Canada road-trip
adventure) – we made it to the beautiful town of Moose Jaw and had a
wonderful sleep at our one-and-a-half star hotel, the Knight’s Inn Moose Jaw. Eastern Alberta and Saskatchewan are flat and
it rained.
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| another great-looking van |
Next day, we hit the road bright and early. When we stopped for a coffee and pee break (in one end and out the other) Vince noticed that our tail pipe was riding lower than before, so we experienced trucker rescue number two when a kindly trucker went and found us a big fat length of wire from his truck so Vince could sort out the tail pipe.
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| They still have grain elevators in Saskatchewan |
We then found Winnipeg
and Dale’s house all by ourselves. Dale
was surprised to see us because he hadn’t thought we’d be able to traverse the
confusing streets of Winnipeg without guidance. But we did! We sat on his sofa
and had a wonderful catch-up visit of several hours before finally going to
sleep. Dale, being the extremely
gracious host, gave us his room and he slept on a very thin futon or something
in his guest bedroom, and claimed that he had the best sleep he’d had in
weeks.
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| flea-markety goodness |
In the morning Dale took us to his neighbourhood flea
market, which is a proper flea market.
Booth after booth of fantastic antiques and junk and garage-sale type
stuff – we bought a few little nutty things. Afterwards we met up with my old friend Amita, whom I know from teaching in
Egypt, and we all went on a little fun evening out in Winnipeg together. We went for delicious sushi, and then we went
to play Karaoke. Finally we were all too
tired to keep having fun so we were forced to go home and sleep.
On Sunday morning, we met up with another couple of friends
that I had taught with in Egypt, Valdine and Barry, and we went to Cora’s for a
delicious breakfast. Afterwards we went
on a Borrowman historical tour with Dale as the tour guide, because Amita (who
was planning a fun Winnipeg tour for us) had to go into a clinic because she
had a knee injury that was acting up.
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| misbehaving at Borrowman Place |
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| paying respects |
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| enjoying the first sunny day of our adventure - with Amita |
Our Borrowman historical tour started with a drive to Borrowman Place,
where we got out and tried to uproot the road sign post, but it was pretty
firmly stuck in the sidewalk. Next we
found Great Grandfather Leroy Borrowman’s house, at 1192 Wolseley Ave, but there was
nobody home there so we weren’t able to see inside our ancestral home, just
outside.
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1192 Waverly, former home of Great
Grandfather Leroy and Great Grandmother
Edith Borrowman of Wolseley Elm fame |
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| Edith Borrowman and her friends defending the Wolseley Elm in 1957 |
Then Amita was released from
the clinic, so we picked her up and the four of us started looking for the
sight of the Wolseley Elm, but despite asking countless pedestrians of the
Wolseley area, were unable to find it. Finally
we continued on our journey of Borrowman ancestral discovery with a trip to the
Chapel Lawn Memorial Cemetery. For more info on our illustrious Great Grandmother Edith Borrowman, read this: http://timemachine.siamandas.com/PAGES/winnipeg_stories/WOLSELEY_ELM.htm
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| haberdashery |
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| caryatids at the exchange |
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| our album cover art |
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| vince carried me through this long scary tunnel |
After all that Borrowman ancestral heritage, we went to a
part of Winnipeg called “The Exchange” which is pretty old and neat, and we
were going to get coffee but the fair-trade coffee shop was closed. However the haberdashery was open, so Dale bought
a cool new hat. Then we went to a place
called “The Forks” and had delicious food-court food, and bought a few
souvenirs. Finally we said “goodbye” to
Amita and came back to Dale’s to blog. Hope you are enjoying reading about our adventures! Stay tuned, because
tomorrow we resume our cross-Canada road-trip adventure through Ontario.
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| winnipeg is alright |
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