Canada Farewell Tour

Though Winnipeg was a bust, we did manage to eek out a few positive experiences on Day 16, our second (and final) full day in Manitoba. We started to enter semi-prairie territory about a half hour (maybe more) after departing "The Peg." We took our chances with a place called the Little Red Barn (A on the map) that was advertising fresh produce along the highway. It proved to have been a really nice little shop, with some of the wares from their farm adjacent, and the rest grown or produced locally. The owner, a lady in her sixties (I reckon), was kind and talkative--but not overly so--and (I can only speak for myself here), but I left the shop not only with some of the best homemade relish I've ever tasted, but a sense of restoration after the debacle the night prior. I needed that stopover to be a win, and the lady at the Little Red Barn (who looked a bit like former Federal Reserve head Janet Yellen, but is clearly a much better person) delivered big-time. Shout out to...

Day 15 had us get our first oil change, then power on to Winnipeg, which proved to have been a mistake. The oil change came after roughly 8000 kilometers of ground covered (Montreal-Nova Scotia-Newfoundland-Nova Scotia-Northern Ontario). The good people at Rust Check outside Kenora, Ontario got the job done quick, and for a fair price. Engine fully lubed and the day still young, we decided to push on until Winnipeg even though we'd already driven 4 hours that day and originally intended to stay in Kenora. The drive did take us through the heart of Kenora, which is on Lake of the Woods. I'd heard of both, and it turned out for good reason. It looked like a splendid place and it will likely be one of the few we passed by that we'll regret not having thoroughly checked out.  ... This is especially true after the Winnipeg experience. We stayed outside a brewery located in Pembina, a commercial district craphole if there ever was one. But even before that, the roads leading into...