Day 4 - Dryden to Winnipeg - Where are the natives?

We got up and went for a run this morning. We headed out in different directions. I wanted to run a bit faster and longer than Lynne. Lynne didn’t want the pressure!

I took off over the overpass right away. Not my smartest move. I’ve hardly run anywhere for a while. Starting out going up a hill hurt! It sure got the heart going quickly though. I ran down to the mill. The wind was blowing away from me, so the smell wasn’t a factor. The fact that it was about 2 degrees outside sure played a factor. I almost didn’t bring running tights. I sure didn’t bring gloves. My hands were cold! There is a nice boardwalk that runs along the side of the river. It reminded me of running along the Rideau Canal with Michelle last year. The scenery along the river was beautiful. (Really glad about the wind direction though!)

I ran out for about 20 minutes, turned and came back. I didn’t put on the heart rate monitor or the Garmin. I don’t know what distance or pace I did. All I know is that, I need to get my ass out the door every morning again!

We knew we had a couple of stops along the way coming up so we didn’t go anywhere for breakfast. We packed up the car, grabbed a Fibre 1 bar and got going. Louise’s friend doesn’t start work until noon so, sorry, we weren’t able to hang in and say Hi.

When Lynne checked out at the front desk, the receptionist grimaced about something. Lynne asked if she had a toothache. “No”, the woman replied “I was ‘doing wood’ on the weekend” Lynne came out tot the car and told me the story. I almost peed my pants. We finally figured out that she was chopping wood for the winter. It sure wasn’t what came to mind for me!

We pulled out of town, heading down the highway once again looking at green trees and rocks through a rain sprinkled windshield. Lynne spotted 3 deer at the side of the highway. They were almost crossing the road. They ran over to the side of the road when we went by. We stopped and turned around. The just stood there until we were maybe 25 meters away before they darted off into the woods. We got a picture. I haven’t checked yet, but I think we only caught the tails!

Our entertainment while driving, besides not committing suicide as we listen daily to a Learn Spanish CD (How do you say “Good morning”? . . . I say “Good morning” you bitch, now leave me alone!” – I’m not doing well with this Spanish stuff!)

Oh yea – the entertainment – We’re on a quest to take pictures of all of these strange huge statues that every town seems to need to put up.

We stopped for a moment in Minnitaki and got a picture of the giant sheep. We got a picture of a starving King Kong in Vermillion Bay. We got a great picture of a VW bug on our way into Kenora and, then, pictures of Husky the (40 foot) Musky in Kenora.

We crossed into Manitoba at about 1:00 and got a picture of a sign showing us we were in the centre of Canada.

It was amazing how, within a few kilometres of leaving Ontario, the ground levelled out so that we could see for miles ahead. Shortly after that, most of the trees disappeared too. We watched Winnipeg get closer from the horizon. I think the next couple of days are going to bring sightseeing boredom to it’s highest possible level!

Lynne and I did notice something as we were driving today. We were stopped, or slowed down a good number of times by the road construction. They seem to be widening or straightening the road all along today’s route. We noticed that there was not a single native person working on any of the construction jobs. We must have seen a couple of hundred or more regular white guys working, but no Natives.

It seems odd to me that I hear news reports about job equity for the police force in Toronto, but the where Miller Paving sends folks up north to make highways, there is no rule about hiring the native folks. Maybe I’m wrong. I don’t mean to single out Miller Paving; I just noticed a few of their trucks. Maybe the native folks don’t want to work construction. I just find it very odd that they tell us that the native suicide rate here is extremely high. The Chief wrote an open letter to the newspaper in Thunder Bay asking for any help for his people that anyone could give, that there weren’t natives on the jobs sites. OK – enough of that!

We stopped for the night in Winnipeg. It’s cold and windy here. We’re into finding a good place to eat tonight, but I hope we don’t have to walk much.

The drummer from our last band, Chris Brown, lives here in Winnipeg now. I’ve lost contact with him over the years. We looked him up online, but there are 45 of them in the phone book. It doesn’t look like we’ll b e able to find him.

Tonight’s experiment will be seeing if I can tack on today’s photos to the album I made last night, or do I have to re-create the thing all over again?