May 23rd to May 26th, travel

May 23rd, off to Governor’s RV Park and Campground at Casselton, North Dakota, we were happy to get a reservation at any campground due to the long weekend. This is not really a campground, just a gravel/dirt spots with full hook-ups and for 26.20 we would not stay there again, unless that is all we could get as in this case, although we could have made use of their exercise room/spa if we had chosen to.
May 24th to 26th
This morning heading east on I94 to I35 (the campground we stayed at was 20 miles west of Fargo, ND) we were heading into heavy SSE winds. The poor ole Dodge was working hard, could not get enough speed to use 6th gear, glad it was only 20 miles, once we turned north the wind was pushing us down the road, gotta like that eh! This is the first time the Dodge was working that hard on a flat stretch of road including our trip in 2006.

Close to the border, we stopped at a Rest Area in North Dakota, just as we pulled in a ¾-ton pulling a gooseneck trailer pulled up right beside us loaded with lumber with a Manitoba licence plate. Of course, as Woody was heading to the washroom he commented to the gentleman regarding the SSE wind pushing us down the road. With that, they started chatting; yeah I know what a surprise eh! At any rate the gentlemen said they could cross the border buy the lumber, pay for the trip, pay the GST at the border, no duty for some reason and the lumber is still less costly than buying it in Winnipeg, MB, which is disgusting because the lumber originally comes from Canada. After much chatting regarding the price of lumber the gentleman asked him if he would like a half bottle of whiskey, they would have to toss it, could not take an open bottle across in his truck, so Woody put it in the fifth wheel and thanked him very much, never know what kind of bonuses one might get from a little chat! Crossing the border was no problem at all; we declared the liquor, smokes and gifts we had purchased, answered all the normal questions they ask and that was it, took about 15 minutes. We pulled into the Arrowhead Campground about 15 minutes south of Winnipeg earlier than we had expected, which is always nice. The campground is very clean, with some trees and is covered with limestone, no grass at the sites. The owner said that mosquitoes do not like limestone and there is never a problem with those little critters in the campground area, interesting, surprising what one learns along the road. The little town just north of the campground is named Ile des Chenes. After crossing the border most little towns had French names or German, must be a mixture of both, saw German Restaurants with good German menus, we would have stopped but no place to park and really didn’t have time anyway.

The prevailing language, just south of Winnipeg as well as the south end of the city of Winnipeg, is French; most signs are French and English. Woody knows a little French, so of course greeted the owner in French, the owner was ready to carry on a conversation in French, and Woody had to admit that he only spoke a little French. Next day he was chatting with the owner and his wife, in jest asked owner’s wife if she would like to dance in French, she replied in French “sure would, let’s get to dancing” and then they both laughed. Honestly, there is hardly a dull moment when I am with Woody! We spent a couple of days relaxing, replenishing our larder, did laundry and generally relaxed. The campground has a very large grassed area for dogs and kids to play in so Oreo could run and play free, the weather was okay with occasional showers, and of course, wind, we all enjoyed our stay there! Cannot believe we did not take any pictures on this leg of our journey!