Day 57 Selkirk, Manitoba

June 26, 2011

Winnipeg is just 100 km or so south of Lake Winnipeg, the massive 600 km long feature into which the Red River runs. At the extreme south end of the lake is Winnipeg Beach, a long time playground for people from Winnipeg. Just a bit north of that along the lakeshore is Gimli, a village with proud Icelandic and Ukrainian origins.

We (Bill, Paddy, Ben and ourselves) headed up to the lake by car for a look.

We took the recycling to the dump. Clearly other recyclers have been there too!

Based on the historical markers, what we found was just a faint shadow of what had gone before. At Winnipeg Beach there used to be a row of ritsy hotels, and a roller coaster. Now, although the sandy beach is there and reportedly in summer there are swarms of people, we found only a few overpriced coffee and ice cream shops and the like.

Gimli, on the other hand, is more developed. However there is very little of anything that looked like original flavour. Instead we found blandly pleasant waterside features, like walkways, marina, fountain, and so on.

Seawall painting depicting the famous Air Canada crash landing at Gimli when litres of fuel and gallons of fuel were confused, or something like that.

Seawall painting depicting Norse gods above Gimli

Gimli was founded by Icelandic settlers and does cling to its background to some extent. So we found the giant Viking statue, and books about Iceland in the historic general store.

Tergesons store is one of the few "historic" sights in Gimli

Learn Icelandic books in the general store

There is an old hotel, and we flagged this as the most likely place for Dodie to find some authentic Ukrainian perogies. Indeed, the menu board did feature some of the expected specialities, mixed with the usual American fare. We ordered pickerel from the lake, borscht, poutine, and perogies. When the waitress admitted that the perogies would be deep fried, Dodie switched to cabbage rolls, which we know as holipshkes.

Unfortunately, though the pickerel was ok, the other dishes existed in name only. The cabbage rolls contained 99% mushy rice (not beef, in a rich tangy tomato sauce), and the borscht was bland. My clubhouse sandwich, though, was a model for its genre - with real chicken and lots of lettuce and tomato.

The menu in the Gimli hotel has some authentic looking items, but that's as far as it went.

Since surgery on the drowned Canon camera had failed, we returned from Gimli to Walmart, where we sprung for a Fuji camera that claimed to be waterproof, dust proof, and shock proof. It even has a mode for underwater movies. On the other hand, Fuji's lawyers are not up to speed on this. The enclosed Warnings pamphlet admonished me to read, understand, and keep the warnings. The first warning - do not use near water. I can just feel a Garmin coming on!

Good example of a 5 Chevrolet Nomad on the streets of Gimli

Bill is tending the farm of a neighbour, but the irises there are doing well on their own.

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