Leaving Manitoba in the broad daylight

Today is day one of the 2011 winter escape. We had great hopes of leaving by 9 am. We had said all our goodbyes the night before. The water was turned off, the thermostat was turned down. But there was no way we were leaving on time! Even after we finally drove our loaded van off the driveway at 10:30, we still had to make one more stop at PrintStudio so that Sue could drop off her Sobeys coupons for Lois. After more goodbyes, we were off. But wait! A few miles down the 52 hwy Sue remembered that we had forgotten our road atlas. Turn around. Back home.

We had to pull into the garage at U.S. customs — and Sue had to surrender her illegal basmati rice. That took a bit of unpacking and repacking.

Sandwiches from home enroute. Nice drive. First gas stop was at Watertown, SD. Well, why don’t we call it a day here? Okay. Checked into a Hampton Inn. It’s cold here! Thats when we discovered that Rudy had forgotten his jacket at home. And his sandals. A bit of verbal abuse from Sue.

Walked through the big Walmart next to our hotel and bought a new fleece for Rudy. Then out for some very delicious burgers at the neighbourhood bar and grill. Everything around here is all decked out for hunters. “Welcome Hunters” signs in all the windows and doors. In fact, we decided to alter our route because Sue struck out getting a hotel reservation in Dickinson, ND this morning because all the rooms were booked by hunters. That’s why we are here in Watertown. We’ll head west to Rapid City after breakfast this morning. Hoping to avoid the big SNOWSTORM that has hit Denver. And we thought we would escape all that bad weather this year. We’ll see.

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