Note: The next three pages are about Canada, but are duplicates of pages on the Alaska Trip section.

May 20: Left Topeka and drove to Des Moines. Will spend next six days visiting the grand kids. Campground: Saylorville Lake, Prairie Flower Section. Sites 129 and 130 are nice, in the trees and you can reach the water. No sewer. SL is a Federal Park and with a Golden Age Passport the cost is $10. a night. Miles Driven: 291, Diesel Cost $1.74.9 gal.

May 25: What a week, one night the sirens went off 4 or 5 times. We were taking care of the grand kids and spent most of the time in the basement. Rain and flooding all over the state.
May 26: Crossed Iowa on H-141, 169 and 30 to Sioux City IA. GPS appears to be working properly. Dean has it hooked up to his computer that's sitting on the dash. All highways traveled were pretty rough. Stopped in Sioux City to see Jim and Dolores Kruse. Spent the night in their dive way. Miles Driven: 191

May 27: Traveled I-29 from Sioux City to Fargo ND. I-29 is a good highway without much traffic. Arrived late in Fargo, stopped at Flying J for fuel and spent the night. Only thing we stopped to see coming across the Dakota's was the Redlin Art Center at Watertown SD. Terry Redlin is a world famous artist and he built the center, which is huge, to display his art. Admission is free. Across N & S Dakota is a pretty boring drive. Miles Driven 356: Fuel Cost $1.68.9 gal.

May 28: Another day, another adventure!! Stopped in Grand Forks ND to go to Wal Mart, Sams and Cabella's. If you want Wal Mart & Sam's don't go by the FMCA Atlas, they aren't on I-10 like it says. Crossing the Canadian border was the highlight of our day. NOT!! We were given the dreaded yellow slip and told to pull over and be searched. Don't, and we mean DON'T forget you have pepper spray in your coach. They only searched the main floor of the coach, not the basement or the car. She came out with the pepper spray in her hand and said "You lied to us, there will be some paperwork and a fine. It went down hill from there. They took our drivers licenses and disappeared for 45 minutes. We were run through the national crime computer. Finally we were informed the vehicle was being confiscated and it would be $200. to get it back. Since we gave them an American credit card they only got $150. (HA). The agents were polite but not very nice. The record will remain on their system for six years. We spent a total of two hours at the border. The whole thing was pretty stressful, but it was our dumb mistake. Funny part of it, they sell pepper spray in Canada, however it says "Bear Spray". Finally reached Winnipeg, stayed in a small campground at Isle Des Chenes. Owner very helpful and nice. Cost for camping $17.75 American. Full Hookups, 30 AMp. Miles Traveled: 242. Total miles since we left home, 1080. Purchased fuel on the American side, $173.9, because it will be higher in Canada.

May 29: A trip to see the sights of Winnipeg, Started in Steinback, a small town just outside of Winnipeg. It's a town rich in Mennonite history. We visited the Mennonite Heritage Village, a village patterned after the Mennonite Villages found throughout Southern Manitoba at the turn of the century. The village features schools, houses built as early as 1877, a church, a housebarn that is traced back to Danzig, where the Mennonites settled in the 1700's, a restaurant in a replica of the livery barns that were rest-stops for the pioneers. The food was wonderful, as was the rhubarb pie. There is a windmill that was built in 2001 by local trades people and Dutch millwrights and is an exact replica of the Steinback windmill first built in 1877. It's the only working windmill in Canada and grinds organic flour, which is for sale.

After lunch we drove to Winnipeg, first stop St Boniface Museum. It's the oldest building in the city and the largest oak structure in N. America. It's built of white oaken logs and is a prime example of early red frame construction. It was built in 1851 and was originally a Gray Nuns convent. It housed the first Gray Nuns to come West and was a mission used to care for the aged, orphans, treating the sick and instructing children. Next to the museum is the St Boniface Cathedral-Basilica. Built in 1908 and was destroyed by fire in 1968. The rock walls that remained were incorporated into the design of the new church, creating a dramatic facade facing West across the Red River towards downtown Winnipeg. From these two attractions it was a short drive to The Forks National Historic Site of Canada. It's a 13.5 acre park in the heart of Winnipeg, which encompasses open green spaces, and a tree-lined river walkway. It was starting to rain so we ducked into the Forks Market. it is housed in a fun and funky building that once was a horse stable. It housed over 50 shops, open air veg. market, specialty foods, a hayloft with clothing, gifts, jewelry and much more. We ate wonderful sweet rolls (cinnamon buns) for supper. From there we took a shuttle bus to the intersection of Main and Portage, which is reputed to be the windiest corner in N. AMerica. It was really raining now so we ducked into the city's underground walkway system. All shops and businesses in the underground were closed because it was Sat., so we just walked around. It was huge.

May 30: Didn't leave today as planned because it was raining so hard, but we did go back downtown. Visited Union Station and the train museum. Very interesting, been a long time since either of us had been in a train station where there were actually trains leaving. Went back uptown to see some of the buildings and take pictures. The Hotel Fort Garry is very ornate and leads to an underground shopping area. The city of Winnipeg encourages merchants to paint murals on their buildings, really makes the town look neat. Found out that Winnipeg was the drop off point for the Western pioneers. Transportation by rivers stopped and overland travel began. Glad we didn't leave today, feel like we've seen most of what Winnipeg has to offer. One thing we learned about that would have been an adventure, there ia a train that runs up to Churchill, on the Hudson Bay. It's the polar bear capitol of the world. The train is the only way one can get there. It would take several days to make the trip up and back, maybe some other time.

May 31: Got out of the campground without getting stuck, seeing lots of flooded fields. Will travel the Yellowhead Highway all the way across Canada. Found out we could have visited the Canadian Mint, but not on a weekend. Took a wrong turn, ended up on Hwy- 9 to Canora and H-5 to Saskatoon, great road, no truck traffic. Miles Driven: 543