While on the internet I thought I would try to find the article written by Bill Redekop in the Winnipeg Free Press about the tree stump in the woods off the Trans-Canada Highway in the Sandilands. I found the article and it had directions on how to find it. The article said there was a sand road 7 km west of the rest area, right at the sign that advertised Zack’s chip bus. The stump was supposed to be down a trail and was 100 feet off the highway. The article is located at http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/search-for-manitoba-lore-cracks-open-natures-door-97139459.html .
I made note of the instructions so we could look for the stump on the way home the next day.
We went for dinner at the only restaurant in town that seemed to be open on a Sunday, Knobby’s. It was overlooking one of the fly-in fishing docks. The restaurant was filled with stuffed animals. There was a stuffed beaver that greeted people at the door as they entered the restaurant. There was a bear wearing a t-shirt standing in the restaurant. The walls were filled with fish. One of the fish had antlers.
We stayed at the same rest area overnight and took care of the last shop in Sioux Lookout the next morning. Then we were off to Dryden to perform two mystery shops.
I got the shops completed, then tried to get an internet connection in Dryden at one of the hotels. I was not able to get a connection after trying for a few minutes, so we decided to leave Dryden and try again in another town.
We stopped in Vermillion Bay again, and tried to get an internet connection again, but did not have any luck. We did, however, find another statue. It was in front of a Napa Store, and was a huge Sasquash or something similar.
After leaving Vermillion Bay we went down the road just past Narrow Lake. Along the side of the road, coming from the West, was a shopping cart. It was the Japanese fellow we have been seeing on the highway these past few weeks. We stopped the van, and crossed the street to talk to him.
He was not able to speak very much English, but knew a few key phrases. He said he left Vancouver on May 10 and was going to New York, expecting to be there in November. He is a mountain climber and an adventurer. He has climbed Mount Fuji and Mount Kilimanjaro. He showed us a map of his next adventure he has planned. It was a map of Australia. He is planning on crossing it from the West Coast to the East. He said he purchased the shopping cart at the beginning of his journey from a homeless person. He paid $7.00 for it.
We gave his a bottle of juice, and asked if we could take a picture. He held up his flag of Japan and offered a marker for us to sign it. The flag was filled with signatures.
We asked him if Canada was a larger country than he thought when he first started. He did not now what we were asking but recognized the word country. Then he mentioned Japan. I pointed here and held my hands out wide. Then he knew what we were asking and laughed, nodding his head. He said it is very large.
We offered him a safe trip and waved good-bye. He watched us drive off down the highway, waving farewell before pushing on.
We pulled into Kenora by mid-afternoon. I was able to get an internet connection at one of the hotels in town and was able to submit my shop reports online. I had an eight hour deadline to have the reports entered from the time each shop was conducted. The first shop I did was at 10:30am, so it had to be entered before 6:30pm. I was not sure we would make it home by then, and did not want to rush the trip home because of the deadline, so finding a wireless connection was necessary. I got the reports entered and we moved on.
We stopped at the rest area across from the statue of Husky the Muskie. We needed to stretch our legs and I wanted a break and something to eat after working on the reports.
We took a picture of a tug boat docked in the park.
We left Kenora and headed back to Manitoba. I was watching for the rest area in the Sandilands so we could try to find the 10 foot tree stump. We passed the rest area where Zacks chip bus was located, and went 7 kilometers. There was no sand road or any other road. Another kilometer down the highway there was a road that crossed to the other side of the highway. We turned onto the highway heading East, and went one kilometer. There it was, the sign for Zack’s chip bus, saying it was 7 kilometers down the road. And just before the sign was a sand road. I turned down the road. I saw a two tracked path going into the bush, but was not sure that was it. We decided to keep going on the sand road a bit further. It went on for a while, and we were looking to the left and the right. We could not see anything in the bush that looked like a stump. The picture in the Free Press showed a large stump that would stand out in the woods. He said you could see it from the road. We did not see anything on the road we were going down.
I decided to turn back and have a look down the two tracked path. We walked a short distance and there it was, on the right hand side. It was a large cement tree stump. We found it. We took a few pictures, then got out of the bush. The mosquitoes were eating us alive, and we sprayed ourselves with bug spray.
After that we headed for home.
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