Day 4... Ontario vs Manitoba

First, I would like to share with you what seems to be the theme for our GPS for the past 2 days. Drive 700 kilometers, then turn right!! hehehehe

Our day started out early as we are trying to stick by the advice of the truck driver who took our furniture to Saskatchewan and told us to stick to daylight if we were going to do this drive in the winter. Sundown and the twilight can take much longer when you are driving the twisting and winding roads along the rocky shores of Lake Superior. This, combined with huge signs that say "WATCH OUT FOR THE MOOSE AND DEER AT NIGHT" can make it seem as though the rocky wall on the right is either a Moose, a deer, a female deer... (hehehehe) but i digress.

Pine Trees. Lots and lots and lots of pine trees. Every so often, the scent of pine seeps through the vents and you look around at these endless rolling hills full of pine trees with 3 to 4 inches of snow on each of their branches surrounded by pristine, untouched white snow and you can't help but feel like you're in the middle of a post card. Ontario is beautiful. I know Neil said it last night, but this is something you have to experience for yourself. I could use a thousand words to describe what we've seen in the last couple of days, but I don't think it does justice to how you feel when you realize this is where you live. We would have had to stop every 5 minutes to take a picture in order to capture every moment we went around a bend and said "wow". Maybe I'm a little melancholic for having just left Ontario, but I cannot emphasize this enough - If you live in Ontario, drive up here!!

2010 kilometers. That's how long it took to drive from Toronto to the end of Ontario. Yesterday, we were wondering what today's drive would be like and I asked Neil if the rolling hills and rocks ended as soon as we crossed the border between Ontario and Manitoba. He looked at me and said "I'm sure it's not as though you're on the hills with twists and turns and then suddenly, boom! it's flat. Who knows? We'll see tomorrow!" As it turns out, the answer to my question is, YES. You cross into Manitoba and you immediately go into a 401-look-a-like highway and it's all flat as far as the eye can see!!! It's soooo weird!! It's as though someone said, well - the hills have ended... new province name please!! hahahahaha

And so here we are. In Winnipeg (aka. the Peg!). Officially in the Central Standard Time zone. One hour behind most of Ontario. We drove for about an hour from the border and noticed a few things. First, the highway is weird. Cars merge onto the highway from every which way. From the left mostly! It's kinda freaky. That will take some getting used to. Second, we are glad La Mama got us the GPS. After that first right turn after 700 kilometers, we went through the Peg and it's twisty, and and down streets that go north for 1/2 a block and then west for another 1/2 a block and so on and so forth. We're pretty sure a few Winnipegers cursed at us and our Ontario plates tonight! And that's pretty much all for Manitoba first impressions. We checked into our hotel and ordered room service and realized how close we are to our new home from here. Only a 5 hour drive to our new life!! eeeeeek!! hehehehe

We'll take a quick look at the Peg in the morning and then we'll make our way home. We'll have to come back another day to explore a little more.

So for now here are the main differences between Ontario and Manitoba.

Ontario: Hills, twisty and winding roads, lakes, pine trees.
vs.
Manitoba: dark, flatter and they have weird names and logos for the beer and liquor store!

Okay, to be fair, we've only been here for a couple of hours, so i guess we can't make a final decision based on just this. We'll make better comparison after a few visits.

Tomorrow as I said. We get to our little house on the prairies. We haven't set up cable and internet yet, so you might not hear from us on the blog for a couple of days. We will take lots of pictures catch up with you guys as soon as we get connected!

Meanwhile, know that we are missing all of you already and we will keep you posted as often as possible.

Nighty night from two temporary Manitobans!

Vero & Neil.

P.S.: This one is for Cristoven. We made it to your home town!!!! Max the Moose says hello!!



Oh, and of course, Killer's daily photo:

Here he is waiting to be transported to his hotel room on the luggage carrier at the end of the day.