Before I start, are there any Winnipegites (Winnipegians?) in the audience?
Well, the lighting isn’t that good in here, so I’m just going to go with it.
I’m convinced Winnipeg doesn’t really exist, or if it does it’s a bit like Brigadoon, (doomed to appear only one day every hundred years) only Winnipeg exists when there’s a blindingly ferocious storm pounding it into the deep and ancient prairie dirt and at no other time on this mortal coil.
Storms like this …
A storm to cover the entire horizon
***
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Before Winnipeg there was Good Spirit Lake Provincial Park in Saskatchewan, where we decided to hang out after two grueling 8-hours-behind-the-wheel days.
Mrs Widds has no great love for mammals of the order Rodentia. We had a bit of a rat problem here on Widder island last Autumn and she Was Not Pleased.
Unfortunately the many and varied families of Rodentia have taken a perverse liking to Mrs Widds and appeared to inform their prairie cousins of this fact prior to our arrival.
I was snoozing in the trailer, she was outside, reading, when who should come along but these cuties …
Just passing by unnoticed
Why, I had no idea you’d be camping here!
I’ll be on my way then
***
Onward we drove through the Prairies along Highway 17
The Prairies aren’t flat. They also aren’t my preferred geological or geographical terrain to drive across, for hours, and hours, and hours.
They are beautiful, and I’m glad they’re there doing their Prairie thing. I think one of their main tasks is to stop the Rockies from sliding down.
Another task is to brew up gigantic storms whose torrential downpours reduce visibility on the afore mentioned construction-riddled roads down to a few meters, and speed to something below 40 kilometers an hour.
I thought we were alone on the drenched highway but when I glanced into the rearview mirrors, I saw a line of headlights following us. I guess they figured so long as they could see us they’d be fine. Silly little lemmings. I could’ve led them astray but I was too busy with my deathgrip on the steering wheel to give them anything other than a fleeting thought.
***
… which brings us back to Winnipeg. We drove Highway 100, the Winnipeg bypass, twice. Once heading east and then on our return journey heading west with Mrs Widds driving.
Both times this …
Canola fields in the sunshine
… turned into this …
No escape
I have no evidence that Winnipeg exists outside of narrow strips of road bordered by red construction pylons and blinding rain.
***
Next: On the Road to Niagara Falls
Widdershins Worlds 
lol the summers are very short here on the Prairies so it is non stop construction and road repair from around May til October , and you are correct…. contrary to popular belief, the prairies are not flat , lots of big rolling hills and deep valleys throughout .
Driving across the prairies is rather mind numbing at the best of times, if you liked the summer storms , you would get a real kick out of our winter blizzards, I hope you both are having a great time 🙂
Thank you for sharing your journey
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Um … I’ve seen the news feeds from last winter. Think I’ll take a pass on that. 😀
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I will be sure to take photo’s and post them along with details in my blog this winter, just so you can be thankful that you don’t live out here lol , enjoy your trip and Thank you kindly for sharing .
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Um..er…I think it might exist. I went to a conference there once – back in the dark ages. They had ropes on the street corner to stop people blowing off and the wind blew all my the wrong way…
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Like the ratlines on the old sailing ships! 😀
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Ominous storm weather as far as the eye can see reminds me of driving through the Southwest. Scary. I didn’t know canola was an actual plant. I thought it was something the food scientists invented and made in the canola oil plant.
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Apparently it used to be sunflowers as far as the eye could see, but I guess sunflower oil became passe and canola oil took over as the newest ‘thing’. We only saw one tiny field of sunflowers on the way back.
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Nice descriptions and analysis. 🙂 Here’s hoping no one from Winnipeg reads your post! *g* (Although, since it’s only a legend, there shouldn’t be any danger …)
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Exactly!
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So Mrs. Widds stopped in her reading to take pictures of the loathed Rodentia?
I’ve occasionally thought that the prairies aren’t as big as they look — the roads actually curve in circles, and with the horizon-to-horizon storms, you can’t tell that you haven’t gotten anywhere!
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The pics are from before they got a little too close. I think some squeaking may have happened, and not from the Rodentia!
The ‘Ouroboros Prairie’ concept occurred to us too. 😀
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