Across Canada Day 3

Our third day began at the White Fang. We got up about 6 (as per the last two days), packed, took a pic in front of the White Fang sign, and were on the road before 7.

Ontario is a beast of a province and took up the better part of 2 days to cross. Aside from the beautiful scenery of the hundreds of lakes that polka-dot the highway, a heatwave also brought the beautiful and distinct smell of Jack Pine. Any smells in nature are always multiplied in the heat, and as Dad and I took a short walk at lunch time, I found the Jack pine smell bringing me back to my last two summers in Kelowna.

In the mid-afternoon, the hills began to settle down. A large wooden sign bid us a due from Ontario, and a small metal sigh welcomed us to Manitoba. It what seemed like only a few minutes, the rocky hills tapered down, the land flattened out completely, and the trees gave way to grass.

We were in this grassland only a few moment when I felt the urge to roll down the window in order to get a fuller nose of fragrance I was beginning to detect in the truck. As the window came down and I inhaled deeply through my nose, I was suprised to recognize the scent... During my time as the assistant brewmeister at the Pump House in Moncton, I had the not so fantastic job of cleaning out the brewing tanks after they had been drained of their beer. The odor was pungent and unpleasant. Though the smell of Manitoba's flooded fields was not as strong, it was the same.

I know a lot of people say the prairies are boring, but I enjoyed seeing them thoroughly.

As the evening wore on and the sun began to sink in the sky, a cloud of millions of dragonflies descended on the province. It was incredible. I've seen huge swarms of Dragon Flies in China, but never in Canada. And though I've seen them that thick in China, they never cover the miles and miles that we found them over that evening.

The setting sun painted the gigantic sky with brush strokes of pink and purple. This, the incredibly flat prairies and the Dragon flies helped to make the evening enjoyable and memorable.

Though Ontario seemed like it took forever to cover, we managed to travel about three quarters of Manitoba that afternoon. We stopped for the night at a Motel 6 in Brandon, a town about 2 hours west of Winnipeg.

A View of Lake Superior














Good Day 3