US Border/Minnesota/Voyageurs National Park

September 8-9: After getting the motorhome tires taken care of, we were able to get on the road and would be crossing back into the mainland US. We are going to Voyageurs National Park! Never heard of it? Neither had I, lol. 

The border agent actually came into the motorhome and took my eggs, chicken breasts, kiwi, and tomatoes! We have never had our fridge searched before. I understand they have an important job to do, but he took my eggs... (still upset about this, lol).

We are officially in Minnesota! This checks off another state for me, 7 left. 

We pulled into Wooden Frog Campground around 5pm and we initially had trouble finding a campsite large enough for the motorhome. The only option we had was the next to the last site in the campground, lol. There were other sites large enough for the motorhome, but most were taken by vans or small trailers. The park's maples were starting to turn colors for fall.  

If you know Hershey, you know that she can't pass up an opportunity to get in the water!

We went to the Kabetogama Lake Visitor Center and right outside of our parking spot was a phone... that worked, lol. After we got over the shock of seeing an actual lan-line phone, I added my "animal" sighting to the board and watched the park movie. We were by ourselves and their projector gave us a perfect opportunity to cut up. We were making shadowgraphy and having a grand time, lol!

Kabetogama Lake gave us a great area to kayak and explore. There were numerous islands and some of them had official campsites that you could boat or kayak to. They offer level tent areas, picnic tables and a pit toilet at each of these sites. We found some bones on one of the sites. 

Found a bald eagle!

Another site we looked at had its own bath tub, lol! 

Very pretty views. We barely scratched the surface of Voyageurs National Park.

Winnipeg Beach, SK/Assiniboine Zoo

 September 5-8: We started to traverse the plainsy hills of Saskatchewan along the Edmonton Trail (an old trade route).

We found some Pronghorn way up here! I finally did a bit of driving. As you can see in the video, I'm concentrating really hard, lol. Don't worry, Sean took over shortly after this video. 

We found another roadside point of interest to stay the night at. Again, this was about the trade routes and supposedly you are able to see old wagon ruts, but we have never had any luck finding them.

This was across from where Sean took me to breakfast! I know what you're thinking... that's a huge curling broom, but I'm more fascinated by Sean taking me to breakfast, hahaha!

We missed the Saskatchewan Province sign because we crossed the provincial border on the tiniest road imaginable, so we made use of their parking lot and got a 2 for 1. Manitoba Province sign was across the road, lol.

I was surprised to see fall colors of the trees, already. 

Google Maps sent us on this very tiny and rough road as a short cut to Winnipeg Beach.

Then we encountered a "carrot-tastrophy!" Seems a carrot transport trailer lost part of its load on the rough, tiny road.

Google Maps was determined to have us go down dirt roads as a short cut to Winnipeg Beach. We got to an end point for the motorhome and literally had to unhook the truck and turn the motorhome around, lol. We put Google Maps on notice and with poor internet managed to get back to TransCanada Hwy. Once we were on a road that was paved and got us in the right direction, Sean made short work of getting us to our destination, Winnipeg Beach, MB.

After getting settled into our site, we took a long walk with the pups. Hershey enjoyed the waves she's never experienced at a lake before, lol!

We walked nearly the entire town while we were there. Of note, there is a lighthouse, marina, jetty point (lots of bugs walking out to this), and native art in town.

Since we were still close to Winnipeg and Sean had an obsession with seeing a polar bear, we decided to go to Assiniboine Zoo. It was a lovely place to visit!

Snow Leopard

Wolf pack

Musk Oxen

We were a little sad at the Polar Bear exhibit because there weren't any visible. The enclosure was really neat, though!

We went to the inside exhibit and found a really cool aquarium with some lively Harbor Seals. 

Finally found the Polar Bear!

Churchill, MB is famous for their abundance of wild Polar Bears. The Assiniboine Zoo in Winnipeg have a very interactive enclosure. There's a cave, water tunnel, multiple pools, and huge grassy area.

Sichuan Takin (goaty antelope)

Camel

Red Crested Wood Partridge (fancy chicken)

Shy Bat, lol!

We seemed to develop a slight shake in the front of the motorhome. Before we left Winnipeg, Sean wanted the front tires balanced.

Turns out the tire bead wasn't seated correctly the last time we had the tires balanced in October 2024. We had noticed a shake, but didn't think much of it before. They got us fixed up quickly and on our way.