Gnurple dot Net

On July the First, in the year Two Thousand and Seven, the world had known the Dominion of Canada for Seven score years. At midnight on this hallowed day, beavers in the pockets of Kanuckis everywhere winked. None of the numismatists of the world noticed, however, since nobody was wearing anything with pockets at the time. I mean, c’mon, who wears stuff with pockets to bed? Wait, don’t answer that. I don’t want to know.

July 1^st, 2007 - Canada Day - Day 3
We rejoin our protagonists just as the beavers stop winking. Just under ten hours later, I had greater success frying kielbasa slices on my cooking rock and heating up my breakfast quiche. Packed up and showered, we returned our borrowed extension cord and departed. On our way out we discovered that there’s a reason the place is called Raleigh Falls:

Raleigh Falls

It turns out there’s a waterfall there! Surprise, who’d've guessed? Yes, we completely missed it on the way in, and would have driven right by it on the way out, too, had the nice lady who lent us the power cord not pointed it out for us.

In Kenora we stopped for gas (FBD won a free drink!) and Dairy Queen. Mmm, green MistyArctic Rush. OK, someone tell me why Mr. Misty™, a tasty treat whose honoured name is twice as old as mine, had to get renamed to Arctic Rush? What marketing genius throws away 40+ years of tradition for “cool sounding”? Is nothing sacred? Dennis the Menace would be ashamed, Mr. Marketer. What fate shall befall the great Dilly Bar in the future? Perhaps the Next Big Thing will be brand-named brands. Would you like a Dell Dilly Frozen Treat? A North Face Arctic Rush? Nah, that’ll never happen. I wonder if there’s a Dairy Queen in the Palladium Corel Center ScotiaBank Place Palladium?

Rant over. Shortly thereafter we crossed into Prairie-Land. We left the Trans-Canada highway to head northwest on Hwy. 44. Word to the wise: avoid the stretch that goes through the Provincial Park; the road was narrow and in pretty bad shape. You can really tell where the Great Canadian Shield ends and the Prairies begin: suddenly the trees and hills are gone, and colourful fields begin. Some of them are dotted with bales of hay, and other odd things:

Huts for Cows?

We saw a lot of these little blue shelters. I think they’re either for animals, or they keep hay dry so animals can feed. I don’t know; a prairie boy I ain’t.

We arrived at Chez Audette Cottage, Western Branch, around 16h00. Surprise! The place is full of friends and relatives I’ve not seen in a long time! Introduced my hunnykitty to everybody, and then let the drinking, snacking and socializing begin! Winnipeg is often fraught with flooding around this time of year, and we made a short excursion to haul a dinky li’l truck out of the mud. With a bigger, better, diesel truck. Rrrr.

We capped the evening off with some fireworks:

We Don’t Need No Microchips
Inside Our Hockey Pucks

The way this worked was Brad and I stood in the yard lighting these things off from a coffee can filled with sand - or more often, hand-held style (as above). I learned that if you put the firework in the can upside-down, you can make the can glow red! Hunnykitty took the pictures, everybody else stayed inside where it was warm.

Happy Maple Leaf Day, Canada

After the show we all went to bed. Ooh, look, a real, warm bed.

Stay tuned. Next time, adventure in The City.

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