Casino Stopover

August 29 – 31 – North Dakota looks like Kansas, as did Manitoba and Saskatchewan. I need to get to Oz. We are heading towards St. Paul, but discover if we drive just 50 miles out of our way to Welch, MN, there’s a huge casino/hotel complex with an attached RV park. Oz here we come!

The Emerald City isn’t as green as we’d hoped. Actually, more like asphalt. But there’s a big casino and what looks like a decent hotel. We check in for just one night.

We’re tired, don’t feel like cooking, change our clothes and walk over to the casino for dinner and games. We have a very mediocre dinner in what is supposed to be their best restaurant. No clothes, paper napkins and plastic glasses for the wine. We lose a little money and head back to sleep having already decided that we’d stay a couple more days because we are just tired of traveling every day.

Felt really good to just sleep the next morning with no schedule. Spent the day cleaning inside and out and doing the laundry. Getting things back in order felt terrific. Head out to the grocery store in Red Wing, MN and find the Super WalMart is it. Was fine on the packaged goods things, but couldn’t get the tuna steaks I had been looking forward to. Bought tons of food, then decide to go to the Seafood Buffet. I have never seen so many people eat so much food! We settle for salads and king crab legs. Not bad! Lose more money.

Planned to play golf today, but just didn’t have the energy. Took a lovely morning walk to a tributary of the Mississippi River. There’s a nice marina associated with the casino also. Wish they had taken such care in their RV Park design. There are actually trees there and a terrific water view. Watched some migratory birds (we think cranes, but need to check Sibley’s) battle for lead positions on their road to somewhere.

Planning on going to the hotel pool and get some sun. Find out it is inside. So, Rick futzes with some mechanical Tor stuff, I take a chair, find some grass and some sun and settle down to read for a while.

For some bizarre reason we go back to the casino for more mediocre food and to lose more money. But I’ve found another destination we’ve got great hopes for….near the Wisconsin Dells. Have very fond memories of the Dells from my childhood. Christmas Mountain Village…golf courses, restaurants…we’ll see.

Hay!

I’ve had it with hay fields. That’s all there is…all day long. To relieve the tedium, we pull off at Moose Jaw where there is supposed to be a casino. We figure we’ll grab some lunch, play for an hour and get back on the road. We can’t find a place big enough for us to park…we get lunch for Tor and get back on the road.

More hay. We’re passing Regina (long “i”, called the Queen City). It rises out of the prairie with what looks like skyscrapers from the highway. We keep going. Trying to put a lot of miles behind us today as we work our way back to DC

We’ve been to Moose Jaw and now stop in Moosomin. If you’re really into the camping thing, the park we stop at is perfect. Its sites are very secluded in the woods. I haven’t liked when we’ve been packed in like sardines…this on the other hand is a bit too quiet…my imagination gets the best of me!

Haven’t been able to find a grocery store. Make do with what we can find in the refrigerator. Have a steak salad…tastes terrific after a very long day.

August 28 – We are bound and determined to make it back to the states today. Haven’t had the internet in 10 days and the cell phones are on some kind of international roaming which I’m sure is costing a bloody fortune!

More hay.

I’m really hating the hay now. We are only 20 miles outside of Winnipeg and there’s smoke all across the road. The traffic is stopped dead in its tracks. You just can’t see up ahead. An ambulance and police car go by. Dorkette (our GPS) says if we take an unpaved road to the right, we can skirt this. We check with the flagman who is holding the traffic. He says they are burning off the hay stubble and he thinks the fire caused an accident ahead. He says we can make it down the unpaved road. It’s at least 8 miles. We make it…find the Winnipeg bypass, and move along. Trying to make it to Fargo..not going to happen. Hopefully there is just something across the border.

We get busted at customs! They pulled us over and went through cabinets, the refrigerator and pantry. The guy actually opened every food container, everything thing that was wrapped in the freezer, pulled out the chorizio and quizzed us on what it was. He then found a leftover piece of salmon from a restaurant. He confiscated the lemon slices they had packed with it!!!!! I’m so glad our borders are so well protected!

We’re exhausted and just want to find somewhere to stop. We find Drayton, ND and low and behold a city park with RV hook-ups. We’re told there is a very good restaurant in town and set out to order take out from them. It is a cowboy bar and it’s still happy hour. We are in sweats and are overdressed. We have a drink..eavesdrop on some interesting conversations and head back to the park. There is no one there to pay for the site. Lenny from Winnipeg is parked near us and says someone usually comes around. He says if we give him the money, he will give it to the guy. We figure Lenny manages to stay for free by offering this service.

Canadian Kansas

We leave the glory of the Rockies heading west across the Canadian Prairies. I think we’re back in Kansas, Toto. It’s interesting for a very short time. We are in the middle of nowhere and stop at a RV park that advertises it has a coffee bar, hot tubs, a pool and a tiki bar. It is actually very nice…situated in a grove of trees. The tiki bar is adorable, though they don’t use it for anything…the hot tubs are inoperable…there is no pool…and the coffee bar is a pot of coffee in the office lobby. Seems the owners built this with great intentions, but perhaps didn’t have the traffic to make all the amenities feasible.

Anyway, we enjoyed the evening. Pulled out another purchase from Bass Pro…an injection needle for Cajun roasted garlic marinade. Have never tried this technique…shot thick boneless pork chops to cook on the grill…roasted potatoes, grilled asparagus and a watermelon/feta cheese salad rounded the meal out quite nicely. After a brief rain, it cleared and we took a walk and rather enjoyed all the surrounding hay fields.