June 21 On The Road Again ....

Who started the idea for this trip?
Well, its complicated. There were several Mystery Shops available in Rural Manitoba. But I hate to take a shop if I cannot get a bonus or extra money to pay for my milage and my time spent travelling. A few different companies had a few different options. And then there was of course a bit of a bonus I could get for a shop in Morris, MB. Then I got an email telling me I could get a travel incentive bonus for a few shops. There it was. The opportunity to put a trip together. I applied for the incentive and got it. I now had Morris and Morden scheduled. I applied for three other shops located in Morden, Carmen and Portage La Prairie. That was all I needed to complete the trip. I had five shops scheduled, and I could pick up another two on my way home in the West End of Winnipeg. That would make the trip a total of seven shops. Not bad for a days work.
On this trip only one shop at a specific time range I had to hit. It was an afternoon range and in the middle of the trip, so that was easy enough to accomodate.
When we got to Morden this trip, one of the shops I was to do had a sign on the door stating the business was closed. And it was a shop I was getting an incentive for. The good side of the story is I still get the travel incentive. The bad side is I do not get paid as much for a shop that is closed. Instead of the regular fee, I get $5.00. That is pretty standard for Mystery Shop companies to pay $5.00 for locations that are closed. Then when I completed the second shop in Morden it was poring rain. I mean it was really coming down. As we left town the sky was a very dark grey and it got really dark for a while. Luckily that bad weather did not last long, and by the time we reached Carmen, it was no longer raining.
We got to Portage La Prairie in good time and then headed for home along the Trans Canada Hwy. It rained a bit more, off and on, all the way to Winnipeg.
We still had a bit of energy left when we hit the city limits, so we took care of the two other shops we had planned for in the West End area.
I had more shops I could do along the way home, but you can only do so many in a day. The shops still had to be entered online when I got home. And that could take several hours, depending on the type of shop it was and how much information the company requires.

I was asked to go to Killarney Manitoba

So, I was asked to go to Killarney, Manitoba for a Mystery Shop. These companies will pay bonuses or provide extra incentive to travel, if there are no Mystery Shoppers in the area to perform a shop they need done. I was asked to go to Killarney and paid to make it worth my while. So I decided I was going on June 12. I hade a look at other available shops I may take advantage of, to add to the trip. I found two other shops. One was in Portage La Prairie, and another in Carberry. So, given those locations, we headed out Hwy #1 West to Portage, then on to Carberry, and then south to Killarney.
Along the way we decided to start collecting pictures of those wacky statues found in so many of the small towns. We should have started this earlier, but you know what they say about hindsight.

Travels in Manitoba during the month of April

To do this properly I am going to have to back track a bit. I have already done some travelling since beginning my Mystery Shopping career back in February of this year.
The first trip I took was April 11-12. I started off going to Gimli, Manitoba and staying overnight at Winnipeg Beach. The next day I went on to Grandview and Gilbert Plains. I took the scenic route over the narrows.
The next stop was Neepawa. I was there the day after a murder took place in that small town. The police were still parked around the "crime scene" and police tape was surrounding the house.

After Neepawa, I went to Portage La Prairie, then back home.
The next day I was back out. I went back to Neepawa to grab another Mystery Shop. Then I stopped off in Portage La Prairie again for a few more shops.
To round off the month of April I took two more small trips. The first was on the 18th when I went back to Portage La Prairie. The second was to the town of St. Laurent.