Day One

Traveling from Winnipeg, Manitoba to Yorkton, Saskatchewan - Approximately 454kms We left Winnipeg around 9:30 in the morning. Here I am at mile -well actually km 0 but km 0 doesn't have the same ring as mile 0:

After stopping for gas/petrol we drove on the Trans-Canada Highway to Portage la Prairie about 80km west of Winnipeg.  Here we made a brief pitstop and picked up breakfast to go.  From Portage we drove a little further on the Trans-Canada and then turned off onto the Yellowhead Highway to Minnedosa. This is a very pretty town in a valley.  Some would say that being in a valley isn't impressive on its own, except we don't have a lot of valleys in southern Manitoba, so this makes it very different and quite pretty.  In Minnedosa we visited Grandma and we had a lovely visit touring the garden patio and looking at all the beautiful plants and flowers they have planted there.  Grandma was telling us how she had been working hard the day before weeding one of the beds with a friend.  We visited for about an hour and left Grandma to have a late lunch.  We returned to the car and raided the cooler for a picnic lunch and headed off to Inglis, Manitoba.   Inglis has the longest row of still standing wooden Grain Elevators in Canada.  Once a frequent sight along rail lines on the Prairies, the old wooden grain elevators (called woodies) are rapidly disappearing.  Some have been replaced with unsightly concrete monsters and others haven't been replaced at all.  The five elevators in Inglis have been preserved and now operate as a tourist site offering tours (guided $10, self-guided $5) through 2 of the old woodies.

 The first elevator has been opened up and the various parts of the elevator on the main floor have large signs talking about their different functions within the elevator.  Here I am at the manlift:

The other elevator and office were left untouched as if everyone and the grain left yesterday so you can see how the elevator actually looked when it closed.  Here I am in the office checking out the old wall telephone:

The interior of the untouched elevator was quite the sight to see.  

 

After we had finished at the Inglis Elevators we drove from Inglis to Yorkton and stopped for the day.  Our rest stop for the night was an older independent and very clean place called the Redwood Motel.  Here I am resting before we headed out for dinner: