Manitoba with mixed emotions.

We got to Manitoba on Thursday nite. Took a very interesting trip through the Whiteshell. We saw some beautiful scenery with lakes and rivers and some wild animals. A bear and a couple of fawns. We also stopped in at a historical spot called the Bannock Point Petroforms which is a sacred Aboriginal site that has a variety of rock formations that tell stories of the past. This site is still actively used for educational and healing ceremonies.

It was kind of interesting that at this point we have visited both Thunder Bay as well as Pinewa in the past 2 days and my very great friends (Bob and Jolene Willacy) were each raised in these towns - seperately of course as Bob grew up in Pinewa and Jo was raised in TBay... Figure the odds that this would happen that I would be in their home towns within two days of each other.

We headed down to Victoria Beach and spent a lovely day with big brother Dennis and Landa. It's always so nice to see them and spend time as well. The mixed emotions of this trip hit the next day on our trip to Lundar to visit Mom. Saturday was the date set for the funeral of my cousin Ray Peterson who succumbed to H1N1 a couple of days before Xmas. So sad to lose such a great person and he was relatively young as he died in his early 60's. The nice part of this visit was the fact that I got to see a lot of old friends and relatives that I have not seen for as much as 30 years and this (touching base with old time friends and relatives) is kind of a goal of mine over the next few years.

The next day, Sunday we hit for Erickson to cut the grass at my house and get ready for continuing west. Took a lovely picture of the canola fields west of Erickson. The colours are beautiful, the road is smooth, and I'm travelling with my best buddy... Life is Good!