This morning we left the Flying J truck stop in Winnipeg at 8am to go directly to the Birchwood Chevrolet dealership, which conveniently was located across the street. It turns out the battery in Jerry the Jeep was very much dead, so we had a new battery installed and at the same time had Newman filled up with potable water. I was pleasantly surprised when Steve Chipman, CEO of the Birchwood Automotive Group dropped in to the visitors waiting area of the GM store to say “hi!” to us. With Covid protocols in place we took a very quick picture and had a nice chat. I had not seen Steve since February at the CADA Dealer’s Summit in Toronto, before Covid-19 hit. Steve reminded me of all the car dealers from Winnipeg to Vancouver Island we might be able to hit up for more potable water along our journey. Dealers definitely know how to use their network from coast to coast!
We left the Chevrolet dealership at 9:40am and made it to a truck stop in Brandon at noon. We were closely watching the weather radar since it looked inevitable that we would hit snow at some point today, but we weren’t sure how bad the snow would be! Prairies and snow...HMMMM? Lovely! I guess you’re not really a Canadian until you’ve lived through a Prairie winter. We’ll just take a day of it instead and say “we are Canadian!” and move on.
At one point in Manitoba near the Saskatchewan border, we decided to slowly follow the sander. We dropped our speed down to 60km/hour and let the trucks go flying by us while we safely tagged along behind the sander. Unfortunately the sander didn’t cross the border and the roads got very treacherous between the border and Moosomin, Sask.
After we made the decision to pull over in Moosomin, we found a Tim Horton’s next to the Co-op truck stop where we are presently parked...And an added bonus...both Tim Horton’s and the Co-op have free wi fi! Richard braved the elements for some Tim Horton’s hot chocolate for us and luckily made it back to Newman without falling. The parking lot is a sheet of ice! With my new and improved femur I won’t be going outside in Moosomin!
We are quickly losing the daylight and the storm continues to rage on. Looks like we might be hunkering down here for the night! Our original plan was to drive to Moose Jaw, Sask and last night we revised that plan to try and meet up in Regina, Sask. with Martha Cruikshank and her husband Don who we know from Niagara on the Lake golf club, (who were in Calgary visiting their new grand son). Looks like we won’t be meeting up with them in Regina tonight! Safety first!
