29JUL-06AUG22 - Sprucewoods & Winnepeg, MB (💕wedding bells🔔)

Friday, 29JUL, not doing much of anything, still recovering from the drive here to Sprucewood, MB.  In AM Corrie went into Brandon with sister-in-law, Elaine, for errands; that evening Elaine’s daughter Kim stopped by for a visit.

Saturday AM Corrie’s youngest brother Rob stops by for short visit (his son Matt is the one getting married, & the wedding is the reason for our visit).  Then Dan takes Toad & heads over to Kim’s to use her husband Brian’s shop to work on towing baseplate on Toad.  With Brian’s help get four years worth of grease & road dirt cleaned off the two towing connection pins.  Then after lunch Dan heads to stores in Brandon to get few parts needed for RV sewage system.

Sunday Corrie visits with some of her relatives in Brandon most of day – Brother Rob & wife Yvonne, nephew Scott & daughter Danikka.  Monday (first day of August) wake up to rain; Corrie runs AM errands in Brandon & meets HS friend Marlene for lunch & reminiscing.

Wednesday we meet up with Ester (another of Corrie’s HS friends) & husband Rob, and Marlene for lunch.  Last time we all saw each other was back in SEP2019 for dinner.  This time the guys (Dan & Rob) were at one place, while the ladies were at another.  Then we all came together after lunch.

Back to Elaine’s to start prep’ing RV for departure.  Buy some “fort” cheese at Sobeys.  According to WIKI, fort cheese is  --  Fromage fort (literally "strong cheese") and is a French cheese spread traditionally made by blending together pieces of different leftover cheeses, white wine (or other spirits), garlic, and various herbs.  Other ingredients include pepper, and leek broth.  Aging is optional.  The Sobey’s fort cheese was just plain cheddar cheese; apparently since fromage fort is from France, the real thing is only sold in Quebec?

The Ryan RV Express: 06-13SEP19 - Sprucewoods, MB

Thursday (Coast Guard Day) we hook-up Toad & head due east to Winnipeg; Why?  The wedding we are in Canada for, is in Winnipeg.  Originally we had reservations at hotel there, under the assumption that the after wedding functions were at hotel.  Turns out wedding is across town & all functions (before & after) are at the wedding venue.  There will be limited shuttle busses from the hotel, but many attendees are staying at different hotels thru-out the city.  Dan discovered a very large RV park ten minutes away from wedding; & we changed our accommodations to the RV park.  Now dogs won’t be locked up in hotel room for half a day, we won’t have to depend on shuttle bus, and we save money😊

The drive to Winnipeg was with gusty winds from the south, making staying in your lane a bit of a challenge & knocking our mileage from 12 mpg to 11 mpg, even though driving 5 mph slower than normal.  As we entered Winnipeg we tried to go to the cheapest diesel Dan had found on the internet; lets just say this was a mistake!!!  We have maneuvered our much bigger RV & bigger Toad thru many a major city with nowhere near the problems & close calls as Winnipeg.  Eventually we gave up & punched the RV park address into GPS and stopped at first gas station seen.  The diesel pump took our credit card but wanted PIN number (we have no PIN on credit cards, we have PINs for our debit cards).  Finally solved that problem and made it to RV park😊

Friday house cleaning & maintenance on RV; then head to wedding venue to help Matthew Reismeyer (the Groom) & friends set up.  Corrie’s youngest brother Rob & Yvonne (father & mother of the groom) show-up to assist.  We take off with Yvonne in the Toad to do some last minute shopping before calling it a day and heading back to RV.

Saturday (wedding day), not much done all day until time to depart for the wedding & reception at Ron Paul Garden Center (where Matt previously worked).  The “prelimin’s” for the wedding were in the front yard of the garden center owner; with the actual outdoor wedding in another portion of the backyard of their house.  Reception was in a storage building of the garden center, that we had help decorate yesterday.  Beautiful wedding & great reception (even though we party-pooped & left “early)!