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<\/a>\nAt Nipigon, we hit an odometer reading of 112802 which signified 20,000 kilometers of travel since the May long weekend.\u00a0 And Jim had driven every one of them.\u00a0 I felt blessed to have been able to sit with the map on my lap and navigate us through this country while he did all the driving.<\/p>\n
We arrived in Kenora in the late afternoon.\u00a0 The sky was just clearing and the soon the warm sun was out.\u00a0 A quick visit with some acquaintances, Kevin and Betty,\u00a0at their home and then we checked into the campground on the lake.\u00a0 The sun was lovely and we were able to sit out around the campfire until late that night, watching lightening flashing in the east.\u00a0 We looked forward to a lovely day of sightseeing in the area tomorrow.<\/p>\n It was not to be.\u00a0 The next morning dawned clear and sunny but by the time we had eaten breakfast and packed up, the clouds had rolled in with a strong north wind.\u00a0 Flocks of geese were honking across the sky, heading south for the winter.\u00a0 Was this a sign?\u00a0 We looked at each other and somewhere in that moment we decided it was time to hightail it home.\u00a0 Maybe we could make it home by Wednesday to pick Carlo up from pre-school.\u00a0 If not, it would be a surprise for the kids whatever time we arrived since they weren\u2019t expecting us until\u00a0 a week later.\u00a0 We had hoped to see the MS Kenora but it was closed so a walk along the waterfront and a photo of Huskie the Muskie in the beautiful gardens along the waterfront sufficed.\u00a0 Then we were on our way.<\/p>\n We fought strong winds all day and drove right across Manitoba, arriving at Moosomin, Saskatchewan as the sun was setting.\u00a0 Along the way, we stopped at a mall in Winnipeg to \u201cmall walk\u201d for an hour and then another stop for a short hike in the forest near Brandon.\u00a0We also visited the Discovery Centre in Brandon, a beautiful interpretive centre dedicated to the preservation of nature in the area.<\/p>\n Travelling west through the prairies was so beautiful in the early morning light.\u00a0 Golden fields, cut with precision, fresh hay bales dotting the landscape, and cattle grazing in the pastures while trains snaked their way through the low hills and valleys.<\/p>\n We had a long drive ahead of us but we still took time to stop and smell the roses.\u00a0 Wolesley, a tiny little town of 3500 was so beautiful.\u00a0 A swinging bridge across the water beckoned and the colors of the trees reflected in the water was so gorgeous.<\/p>\n Indian Head was our next stop.\u00a0 Our niece used to live there so we knew it was a pretty town and we were anxious to see the Qu\u2019Appelle Valley in its fall splendour.\u00a0 She had recommended a stop at the bakery for a cinnamon bun so we grabbed one and headed north into the valley to have our snack.\u00a0 Along the way, a big round stone barn caught our attention.\u00a0 It was the Bell Barn, a reconstruction of the original barn built in 1882 for the first corporate farm in the area.\u00a0 At that time, 27 houses\u00a0had been built by the corporation on the surrounding land to house\u00a0the farm workers.<\/p>\n The valley was so, so beautiful.\u00a0 The trees were splendid in their fall foliage and the lake was so calm.\u00a0 Picnic tables were stacked, ready for cooler weather, and maintenance workers were busy marking trees that needed attention.\u00a0 Some were spray painted with the word \u201cDED\u201d which at first we thought was a mis-spelling of \u201cDEAD\u201d but then realized it meant \u201cDutch Elm Disease\u201d. Gulls and loons floated in the lake and we basked in the warm sunshine.<\/p>\n Reluctantly, we left the valley.\u00a0 Regina was our next stop\u2026such a beautiful city.\u00a0 A walk through Wascana Park gave us a great view of the Legislative Building and\u00a0from there, we went on a tour of the building itself.<\/p>\n The Regina Legislature was built in 1909-1911 and officially opened in 1912.\u00a0 It is built of Manitoba Tyndalstone\u00a0in the traditional English\u00a0Renaissance style, incorporating 35 types of marble from around the world.\u00a0 It is\u00a0magnificent, as would be expected.\u00a0 The copper on the dome was just this\u00a0year replaced so it\u00a0looked so shiny in the sun.\u00a0 Within the next two years it will oxidize and turn to green and eventually to black.<\/p>\n The gardens outside the Legislature were showing signs of fall but the roses were still in full bloom and most of the other flowers were keeping up their appearances!<\/p>\n Leaving Regina, we passed the Chaplin Salt Mine on Chaplin Lake.\u00a0 This 18 km long lake is one of the richest and purest sources of sodium sulphite deposits in the world.\u00a0 A little town that struggled agriculturally because of its poor soil\u00a0in its early years came to life when the mine opened in 1948.<\/p>\n As we made our way to Swift Current in the early evening light, what we thought was fog developing in the valleys turned out to be harvest dust as groups of combines worked their way across the fields.\u00a0 The landscape looked soft and velvety in the low light and we were treated to another beautiful prairie sunset.<\/p>\n When we arrived in Swift Current, we treated ourselves to dinner out\u2026it would be our last night on the road.\u00a0 Following dinner, we took advantage of the beautiful Aquatic Centre where we soaked our tired bodies in the hot tub before turning in for the night in the Walmart parking lot.\u00a0 It had been a long day.<\/p>\n How excited we were to get on the road the next morning!\u00a0 We would see our family again!\u00a0\u00a0 We were amazed at how much we loved the look of the prairies.\u00a0 After seeing mountains, forests, beaches,\u00a0oceans, and lakes it was unbelievable how good it felt to see flat prairie and big sky.<\/p>\n We started plotting our surprise tactic as we drove towards Alberta.\u00a0Crossing into Alberta was nostalgic\u2026it would not be long before we were back in our\u00a0own town in our own house with our own family!<\/p>\n We stopped to walk about in Medicine Hat at the largest Teepee in the world.\u00a0 The Teepee is a tribute to the native heritage of the area and paintings by various artists depict the native culture and the impact of European settlement of the land.\u00a0 One of the paintings is done by Nona Foster, a well known artist from our area.<\/p>\n We stopped in Lethbridge for groceries, a stop that required a drive through the beautiful river valley.\u00a0 Had we not been so excited to get home, we would have wandered through the valley or around Henderson Lake but we were on a mission now.<\/p>\n Once we were on the road home, groceries to stock our fridge piled in the back of the van, we sent a dinner invitation\u00a0by\u00a0text to Holly and Trevor.\u00a0 At first, Holly thought it was a joke\u2026a sick joke, as she called it\u2026but then realized we truly were on our way home.<\/p>\n The kids arrived for dinner.\u00a0 It felt so good to hug them all.\u00a0 Carlo was pumped to see Papa again and went flying into his arms.\u00a0 Lewis didn\u2019t remember us\u2026we had expected that\u2026but it wasn\u2019t long before he was smiling and crawling around the house as if he knew where he was!\u00a0 Tears and hugs and chatter and excitement filled the air.<\/p>\n It was great to be home on the first day of fall after travelling 22,209 kilometers in 121 days.\u00a0 What a great vacation!\u00a0 Thank you, Miles, for an amazing holiday and getting us safely home.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We left Neys Campground in Northern Ontario with a light rain falling and the promise of the same all day.\u00a0 Heavy fog met us as we passed through Terrance Bay and Schreiber and that eventually turned to heavy rain.\u00a0 \u00a0Northern Ontario offers so many beautiful roadside lookouts over Lake Superior but we were unable to … Continue reading Miles Takes Us Home (Part Two)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.littlewheelsturning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/IMG_3099.jpg?fit=3864%2C5152&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gMtD-qH","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlewheelsturning.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlewheelsturning.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlewheelsturning.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlewheelsturning.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlewheelsturning.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1655"}],"version-history":[{"count":116,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlewheelsturning.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1938,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlewheelsturning.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655\/revisions\/1938"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlewheelsturning.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlewheelsturning.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlewheelsturning.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlewheelsturning.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>
\nWe arrived at Mirror Lake Campground, about 50 km east of Thunder Bay, to camp with Wendy and Brian.\u00a0 They are seasonal campers there and have a beautiful set up on the lake that really does look like a mirror.\u00a0 We pulled into a site nearby and enjoyed two nights with them.\u00a0 Wendy spoiled us with great food and Brian kept the campfire stoked for all of us to enjoy.\u00a0 We were happy to see that they had their grandson, Austin, visiting with them from Claresholm.\u00a0 At two years old, he is a going concern and\u00a0he made us miss our little ones so much!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\nThe weather had been cloudy, damp and misty most of the time so when we woke to more of it on our third day there, we decided to pack up and head directly to Kenora.\u00a0The morning fog didn\u2019t lift until sometime\u00a0west of\u00a0Thunder Bay and heavy grey clouds loomed on the horizon ahead but we were teased with patches of blue sky along the way.\u00a0 We were longing for sunshine again.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\nMoosomin must be train central!\u00a0 We heard trains passing all night long\u2026each of them blowing their whistle as they passed through town.\u00a0 When we were woken by the 7am train, we decided to get up and hit the road again.\u00a0The sun was just getting up and there was a chill of autumn in the air.\u00a0 Coffee at Timmies and we were heading west again with a breakfast stop an hour up the road at a pretty little roadside rest area.\u00a0 Birds and squirrels were busy in the trees and we learned from a plaque that this had once been a major wagon trail during the days of the fur trade and later for the settlers to the\u00a0area.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\nAfter nearly four months living in less than 100 square feet, our house seemed humungous!\u00a0 We had two young ladies living in it till the beginning of September and they left it spotless\u2026we almost wondered if they even stayed!\u00a0 The flowerbeds\u00a0had filled with weeds and overgrown perennials, trees needed to be\u00a0trimmed and planters required my attention\u00a0 but that could all wait.\u00a0We wandered from room to room, marvelling at the space!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n