day 8: Swan River Manitoba to Denare Beach, Saskatchewan (outside Flin Flon) 239 miles
june 8
we have arrived at this beauty spot near the end of the earth.
received with open arms by dear Sarah whom i know so well but have never met.
what a strange and wonderful artifact of 21st century life - deep internet relationships.
it is SO good to get out of the car. we have been pushing and pushing and pushing
and pushing and pushing every single day, every single mile and now we are here.
like having been in a boat and finally finding land, we are still a little shaky, still feeling
the pitch and sway of the road.
we saw a TREMENDOUS NEST (pictured above), big enough for me to sit in (no, i didn't try) perched on a high voltage power pole with a tiny head peeking out. right near a lake. we are thinking osprey?
then
it happened:
a small cinnamon bear was eating his way along a stream.
thrilling and joyful but, unlike with the mooses, Andrew was adamant
that we NOT get out of the car.
day 7 Minot, North Dakota to Swan River, Canada 310 miles
june 7th
today was a wonder, a glory, a beauty day.
we passed over into CANADA in a mix of rain and
sunshine. the landscape is stunningly green and mixed
with trees and fields. and abundant FOXES with their
kits (andrew saw two sets, i saw one).
yesterday was bleak and included my first full-scale
trip MELT-DOWN. it was non-pyrotechnic, just some
quiet weeping in a sandwich shop but inside i was it was
VERY messy.
we'd left the Ray Bern Motel, Richardton, ND in a full-scale
snowstorm after a long night in a room that stank of new paint.
i blame it on the firefighters convention in Dickinson which left only one
available room in that town which stank of smoke - so we drove another
30 miles in the rain, exhausted, and took what we could get.
across the street from the Ethanol plant beside railroad tracks
that ran hooting trains all night long. get the picture?
Andrew managed to drive from Richardton to Bismarck with
ZERO coffee (and this man does not operate without coffee) in a
snowstorm and for this he wins a medal of valor. he yanked out
our "emergency" parkas that were deep-sixed in the back in case
we went looking for polar bears up in Churchill Rivers and we
hunkered in the truck as the storm eventually downgraded itself
to freezing rain and then just slush. we landed at Cafe Aroma,
found some food, i cried a little and we made a plan to get to Minot
and find a motel.
once in Minot, a sizable little town, we realized we had tons of food
in our cooler which had not been cooked due to camping rain-out and we were convinced they'd make us throw it away at the Canadian border. therefore Andrew, inveterate outdoorsman, decided we'd go to a public park, in the pouring rain,
and set up our bbq and coleman stove under a pavillion to cook dinner.
and we did. and it felt like an adventure.
plus, we were greeted by Canadian geese (an early welcome wagon) and gaggles
of their offspring.
