Travel With The Thayers: #12 Yorkton to Winnipeg

#12 Yorkton to Winnipeg

Yorkton to Winnipeg requires about 5 hours of driving. Happy Father’s Day!

A few miles out of Yorkton, I spotted two brown splotches of unfamiliar roadkill. Just as I was wondering what kind of critter lost their life crossing the highway, a small little brown critter pops up! We needed to get close enough to see it was a tiny little red, brown fox, white bushy tail and all. S/he exhibited the small thin body structure like a miniature Whippet dog. Its height also resembled a toy Poodle. Today s/he successfully crossed the highway. Wish I had gotten a picture.

We chuckled at an Insurance billboard that stated they were “a trusted name in hail insurance.” That certainly makes a statement about the weather here.

Small town after small town came and went. Some had farm equipment dealerships with all the big equipment needed for the fields. Other towns have vehicle dealerships with 90% pick-up trucks. With all the dirt roads, it makes Canadian’s love affair with nice trucks more understandable.

Oil and grain cars sit on the tracks getting ready to distribute their goods. The line of cars seem to go on and on.

Hello Manitoba! Almost missed the sign!

The first thing we noticed was real hills! The RV hasn’t climbed a hill for a while. The hills make a whole different look to the prairies.

Some ranches raise buffalo. Others support cattle. Some herds are all black, like Angus. Some are brown and other are mixed colors.

Farmers and ranchers out and about with their equipment to do their jobs.

The little town of Russel, looks like the typical little towns along our way. Liked the big steer at the information center!

Pools and ponds still sit alongside the road.

Some of the roadside pools in this area have bird nest built on stilts. They look like straw Quonset huts and face the pool. They were hard to see with enough warning to photograph.

A plane flew low over the fields. We thought it might be a crop duster, but then it looked like he was out for fun.

Rest stops are few and far between along the highway. Most stops do not accommodate trucks or big RVs. But on TC-16 you can pull off and on easily at wide spots in the road.

Actual freeway junctions outside the cities are basically just an intersections. Some have stop signs, or traffic lights with turn lanes. Some have “important intersection” signs!

Here is a seatbelt sign and an example of their “polite” signs. Gotta love the Canadians!

After miles of small towns, Neeschwin sits on the edge of urban life.

It has a chicken restaurant, McDonald’s, Dairy Queen in the same block. Boston Pizza is here too! Century 21 offices can help you locate or relocate.

Trees line the residential streets. A traffic light directs travel, and there exists the feel of a “real town”.

After leaving town we saw our first double yellow line on the highway. Passing lanes are provided on the flat highways to help move the traffic along.

We were a bit surprised to learn that Manitoba is a bilingual province. New Brunswick is the only other bilingual province. Quebec has French as its primary language, but we have had little difficulty getting around Quebec. In bilingual provinces signs appear in English and French.

The Arrowhead RV Park is located SW of Winnipeg. Fortunately a beltway called The Perimeter took us around downtown area, especially after seeing the downtown in person.