Canada/West 2022:
Day 7 - Winnipeg

	Tuesday, August 16, 2022: We were up early, transferred our stuff to the van, and headed through the rainy weather toward the Canada border.
	There was a preliminary checkpoint on the US side of the border to pay a toll to cross the bridge leading to Canada. It had warnings about items that must be left behind. Firearms, poultry, eggs, and nightcrawlers were big on the prohibited list.
	We drove through the rain over the bridge ...
	... until we reached the checkpoint on the Canadian side. We had gone online to submit an ArriveCAN online entry form to make our entry go as smoothly as possible, and we were only stopped at the immigration point for about five minutes in total.
	Welcome to Fort Frances, Ontario, Canada!
	Our first order of business was to drive to the Canadian McDonald's. We ordered two Egg BLT McMuffin meals with two large Diet Cokes, which we were delighted to see were served in large paper cups with paper straws.
	Doesn't this Egg BLT McMuffin look delicious? Yes, yes, it was.
	We then headed to the CIBC Bank so that we could withdraw some Canadian cash from their ATM.
	Have we mentioned that we love Canadian paper money? It has a silky, not-quite-paper feel with a clear plastic section in the middle. It just seems very hi-tech. Check out the two portraits of Queen Elizabeth II. We didn't know then that she would pass away three weeks later.
	We drove through the eastern end of Fort Frances and looked out over a large lake.
	We laughed and laughed when we realized the name of the lake was ... Rainy Lake. Well played, Canada. Well played.
	Here's our first Canadian Adopt-A-Highway sign. Plain, simple, and to the point.
	Okay. Canada doesn't mess around with animal crossing signs. Come nighttime, the moose here are going to mess you up. Take appropriate precautions.
	We drove through a mix of forest, lakes, and hills, with occasional signs of logging activity.
	Just after 11 AM, we entered the town of Dryden. From here, we would start our journey westward.
	What's this? Another Canadian McDonald's?
	Look at that maple leaf in the golden arches! How adorable.
	We used the drive-through and ordered six McNuggets with Sweet and Sour sauce, fries, the Spicy Habenero McChicken sandwich, and ...
	... poutine! Glorious, delicious poutine! We parked in their parking lot and ate it all. We vowed to each as much poutine as we could while we could.
	Leaving Dryden, we got this shot of the national flag of Canada and the provincial flag of Ontario.
	The rain continued off and on, and the lush green landscape beside the road was mixed with ...
	... beautiful rock outcroppings and other stone features, ...
	... and idyllic lakes with tree covered islands.
	We were on Ontario Highway 17, also known as King's Highway 17, which meant that the highway signs had crowns above the number designation. This road was also part of the Trans-Canada Highway, which runs through all ten Canadian provinces and covers more than 4,600 miles. We noticed that the Trans-Canada highway sign had the province name, Ontario, in the banner at the bottom of the sign.
	We crossed the Winnipeg River, which has its headwaters in the Lake of the Woods, before running northwest for almost 150 miles to Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba.
	Speaking of the Lake of the Woods, here's part of it. It is more than 70 miles long, has 65,000 mile of shore line, and forms part of the northern border of Minnesota.
	Around 1:30 PM, the rain was more intermittent and we were starting to see blue sky through the clouds.
	At 2:00 PM, we were nearing the border between ...
	... Ontario ...
	... and Manitoba.
	The rain gave way to sunny skies and big fluffy clouds. We were already liking Manitoba.
	We were now travelling on Highway 1 and the Trans-Canada Highway signs now had Manitoba in their bottom banner.
	The weather kept improving as we continued west.
	The close trees and rocks had given way to tall trees and grasslands beside the road, ...
	... with some areas of farmland.
	What's this?! Giant red chairs in the wild?! We have to stop here!
	There was a display announcing that we had reached longitude 96° 48' 35" which is apparently the East-West center of Canada.
	As we neared Winnipeg, we drove on the ring road to the south side, crossing irrigation canals, ...
	... and the Red River, ...
	... as we approached our intended destination of the St. Norbert Hotel. This had looked like a fun, quirkly hotel online, with an attached bar and beer store, ...
	... but as we got closer, it looked a little sketchier than we were comfortable with. We drove around the property and found a place to park before heading into the bar to check in. We had to wait behind several chain-smoking patrons ordering drinks before we could get the bartender's attention and indicate that we wanted to check in.
	We found our assigned room, and after going in and looking around, we decided that we were too creeped out to stay. Debbie did a quick search and booked a new hotel a few miles away, and Tom went back into the bar to return the keys and tell them we weren't staying.
	Five minutes later, we were pulling into our new destination, the Queen Bee Hotel.
	This was much more to our liking, and we were very, very glad we had made the spur-of-the-moment decision to switch.
	We celebrated our new room with a cocktail of Tahitian Treat Fruit Punch and 99 Mangoes. Cheers!
	Dinner was Easy Mac with chicken chunks, and it was delicious. Day 8 >