Day 152, 153 and 154, Winnipeg, Manitoba

And what a winter week it was. In our hotel lobby there is always a message board set up to give us the important info, like breakfast times, laundry , relay convoy form-up times, where to park, internet info, etc.

Back track to the end of day 151. That evening in Winnipeg we headed out for dinner to say good-bye to Bryn, our photographer who has taken a job with LLoyds of London for the 2012 Olympic Torch Relay. On the way we passed by the Burton Cummings theatre

A chilly 10 minute walk but it was through an older section of Winnipeg that was really cool.

Not my best pic, but it was a nice evening out and a chance to say good-bye to another good friend. It was at an authentic old english pub called the ..................

Day 152 is a Sunday, and a big NFL football Sunday for the diehards. The side bets were numerous among the "experts" on the relay crew.

On the way back from dropping Rick, Connie, and Mike at the airport , who were on their way to Yellowknife, I saw this billboard on Notre Dame Ave. in Winnipeg.

My other duty on this
Sunday was to write the recap of the week's happenings on the 25th anniversary relay for the road crew and the people that work back at the home office in Richmond. This shot shows my office for a few hours, my bed with my laptop, and a bunch of scribbled notes I made over the course of the week. I also include a few pictures to give people a feel of what happened , kind of like maybe - a blog?

Day 153,  our transport manager Don in the hotel lobby with his nemisis "the key box" (holds the keys to all the vehicles in the relay)

3 types of drivers in Manitoba that I have seen. 1 is the standard driver with the standard friendly Manitoba plates.

The 2nd is the Winnipeg Bluebomber football team super fan.

And the third is the NHL Winnipeg Jet die hard fan, I see a lot of these around, and only $70

Back to Crown Honda today to get some more service work done on the wheelchair accesible Honda Odysseys

I am not sure about this replacement part, but I am glad it is not me putting it in.

We left the vehicles there, and I caught a ride back to the hotel with Jeremy and Hank.

Day 154, the sun rising over the Peg.

Today was another non-relay day. Some of us on the relay crew set out to G.A.M (global accessibility map) some of the businesses around Winnipeg. It is a rating system for accessibilty, not only wheelchair, but sight, hearing, elderly, or any other physical challenges.  

Going to Mountain Equipment co-op was a good place to start, I had a chance to check out the accessability, as well pick-out a balaclava to get me through the rest of the prairie winter.

Trying to take a picture in the store without getting caught...........

The White House ( in Winnipeg)

The Bank of Montreal building, built in 1913

The corner of Portage and Main is considered the windiest and and coldest intersection in Canada

There's Main St.!

One of the many murals commisioned by the city of Winnipeg, I am not sure of the reference to the Britons will never be slaves. I was told in might be the general strike of 1919

 One of the many historic building in downtown Winnipeg

The Royal Trust building

Next stop on the G.A.M. tour was the Manitoba Museum

The volunteer monument outside of the museum

The museum was well worth it, we could of spent all day there. Here is one of many display depicting early life in Manitoba, these are actually stuffed buffalos, very realistic.

The Ordovician period of Manitoba

Duck-billed dinosaur fossil

Polycotylid plesiosaur

The lay-out of the museum showing the different eras was very well done.

Realistic but not real

Depicting an early native encampment

A moose in hiding, I can relate

great attention to detail in every scene

how's it going brother?

OMG, so many moose on the loose!

Porcupine sneaking up a tree

Old snow machine, the side were made of wood.

Lawrence Elk

This desert like scene with the snake reminds me of parts of the South Okanagan in British Columbia

The garter snake den

na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na bat cave!

I used my flash on my camera to capture these shots, the cave was in the dark , and they gave you flashlights at the museum to check out what was inside.

and way in a dark corner was this hibernating bear, you could not see it with the naked eye

burrowing owl den, which is an endangered species in the South Okanagan  of B.C.

depicting a native ambush of the buffalo

The museum also included a planetarium, an interactive circus exhibit, and a science gallery

There was an extensive display of early life in Manitoba

re-creation of an 1800's townsite

including the local pharmacy (no Andrew, you cannot buy anything here)

This poster was on one of the walls, I found it interesting to see where the fundraising money was going.

old fashioned theatre included some classic black and white movie clips

there's a dentist office I would not want to go to, what, no novocain?

Heading back to the hotel. Not often you see the fire escape on the front of the building.

We had a break-in in one of our vehicles in the parkade on the 3rd floor. So we moved all of our vehicles to the vacant 6th floor of the parkade and hired security for the last couple of days of our stay.