Mid-June
Vast, have we mentioned this before? Ontario was vast- really wide, Manitoba is not so wide but there is not much here- Winnipeg houses over half the provinces population- 700,000. The rest of the province is lakes, wetlands, flat farm fields- they grow the majority of the worlds flax (linen, flaxseed and linseed oil). We had errands to run so spent a night on the outskirts of Winnipeg at a Cabelas- residential, industrial, commercial and retail all mixed together within a few kilometers.
The roads here are not so good- really rough and patched; most side roads outside of the city are gravel- very dusty gravel!

We are spending a couple of days a Spruce Woods Provincial Park- there are sand dunes here! We took a covered wagon ride through the meadows and pastures which now cover most of the sand.

The dunes are 40 f.t high in places and are a sacred spot called Spirit Sands. Tthere is an area called Devil’s Punch Bowl that is very deep and the sand slides down into it and it never fills- as it turns out there is an underground river that moves the sand away.

The glacial history of this province is very interesting- from Hudson Bay to a huge inland sea formed by the glacier, sand here, river bottom plains, prairies, etc.
Poison Ivy like you have never seen before- 12-18 inches tall, leaves 4-6 inches wide- it makes a luxuriant mat under the trees, almost everywhere. They do not even try to control it! And wildflowers grow in and amongst the poison ivy.
Temps in the 80s, in June! Yikes! Lake of the Prairies – Assesippi Provincial Park-

The Assiniboine River flows from way north of here to here where it is dammed, down to Spruce Woods and back up to Winnipeg, then on to Hudson Bay- Crazy, huh?