St Malo, certainly not the St Malo Jacques Cartier departed from hundreds of years ago. La Rochelle is also close by.  The Atlantic Ocean is not.

Judging by the town names on the map, this is a French speaking area and the one person whose mother tongue is French I spoke with, a park employee, skipped from one language to the other several times seemingly in the same sentence.  Cultural assimilation is a sad fact of life for minorities.

Multiculturalism applies to and is OK for newly minted Canadians but not for French-Canadian minorities.

It rained heavily last night and the radar pictures of the coming storm were heavily streaked in red, not a good sign.  The worst of it ended up being elsewhere and the thunder was far off.

The rain however was extremely noisy on the Escape.  At one point, fire hose quantities it seemed,  I wondered if I had closed the truck’s windows as that as happened before!

First thing I checked this morning…no, closed tight. I may just drive myself crazy before I get home.

But, another checklist to write up and laminate: pre-bedtime check.

Nothing but the birds and the wind through the trees this morning and I am staying put for the day.

At the registration desk yesterday, I asked the two bored university summer job staffers what there was to see in the area and all they could tell me was there was a grotto by the highway, a reproduction of the Lourdes grotto. I have visited the Lourdes grotto and other Canadian and European shrines so I don’t think I’ll be visiting the local reproduction. I wonder if they have a Lourdes grotto reproduction in Vegas, probably not.

If the grotto was the only thing they could come up with I have to wonder about the Manitoba provincial park recruiting practices.

It is a big park though judging by the map. A couple of beaches and boat rentals. No power boats allowed which is good for the water and the ears. I would guess it is a popular campground as it is close to Winnipeg.

The lake is down the path and I will go for a walk after breakfast with my umbrella…dark clouds notwithstanding.

Very breezy by the water! I stayed for a bit with a book but with everything having to be weighed down and my Tilley held by its straps around my chin, I chose to head back to my calmer site and picnic table.

The Escape FaceBook page is a great resource. I had worries about the trailer brakes not being activated once plugged in…actually DEEP CONCERNS, forget the worries! It would work sometimes and not others. I was not driving until I could engage them of course, but what the hell was going on?

And then I was worried I would have problems hitching because I was crookedly parked with the Canyon close to a tree.

When something is bugging me, I tend to try and address it ASAP unless it involves house cleaning.

Anyhow, a couple of FB Escape Group members’ comments calmed me down explaining that the truck must not be running when the 7 pin plug is…er…plugged in and that I should just relax and take it easy. The learning curve steadily flattens. It worked!

Although I had to increase my data plan with Rogers, I am happy to have unlimited, Canada-wide phone and text.  Anything besides these two services just eats up data with the graphics.  Keeping up to date with CBC, Radio-Canada et al. is strictly a quick headline scan.

When driving, I’ll listen to a few Sirius stations depending on my mood. That includes 40s and 50s music, CBC, Radio-Canada, NPR, BBC and CNN. Not for long with CNN as they are totally focussed on Trump and the discussions are the same as when I left in mid-May.  Having said that, I did catch an interesting interview Fareed Zakaria had with Chrystia Freeland our Minister of Foreign Affairs.  It was so interesting I downloaded (data) her speech to Parliament and almost word for word it was Fareed’s interview. I do not know what to make of that!

On the road tomorrow to Sioux Narrows which is a bit beyond Kenora…Ontario. Closer to home. Yippee!