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I headed back to Whiteshell, stewing the whole time that I had not timed things so I could have gone longer on that walk. But I resigned myself to it. 9.98 miles. Not too bad. I knew I wasn't going to be able to get to the exact spot. For the year this means 2 trips to the exact spot, one about 30 miles from the spot, and now this one 10 miles from the spot. That was fine. The view wouldn't have been much different from another 2 miles closer. I got to see a nice bright moon on the way home though.
When I got home it was postcard time. I had gotten grief from a couple people (mainly Kelly) on my failure to send postcards on the Q3 trip. So I sat down, and while watching news on TV, munching on chips, and otherwise doing other things and multi-tasking, I did postcards for the top 20 people emailing me between November 2001 and October 2002. Well, actually, there were 21 postcards, because there was a tie for #20. And actually in terms of people, there were only 19, because two people made the list with two email addresses, and thus got two postcards. Anyway, over the course of a few hours (although not sztraight through) I wrote all the post cards.
Then I went to sleep.
I woke up early though. At 10:00 UTC. It was still quite dark. This was because I had Manitoba radio had been chattering for the last few days about the Persiod meteor shower, and how Manitoba was going to be a great location to watch them, and how the weather was going to be good (few clouds). And since this was supposed to be the most active meteor shower for the next 150 years or so, I figured I would get up for it. It was supposed to peak at about 10:30 UTC.
So I dragged myself out of bed, threw on a coat, and headed outside onto the porch.
It was completely cloudy. I could barely see the glow of the moon through the thick clouds, let alone any meteors. "Partly Cloudy". Yeah right. Admittidly, I had been able to see patches of sky about 7 hours earlier when I had last looked outside. I had seen the moon! The people on the radio had said it would be clear ay the peak though. But no... I couldn't see a thing.
So I went back to sleep.
SNORE
I was a little behind on my logs when I got up. I had been trying to always stay no more than a day behind. So when I got up as I was shaking out the sleepies, I wrote a little while watching CNN and CNBC for a bit. When I deemed myself awake enough, I stumbled in and out of the shower, got dressed and watched a little more TV.
Before long though, I realized I had better get to packing. Checkout was at 17:00 UTC. I had not packed a thing yet. So I started shoving things into my suitcase, leaving a few things to put in my backpack that I thought I would need sooner. It was hard getting the bag closed. I really did bring too much stuff, and surprise surprise, I hadn't used half of it. Why did I have an umbrella? I hadn't really needed two coats. And these bricks? Why bricks? (OK, just kidding on the bricks.)
I gathered everything up, packed up the car, double checked the place to make sure I had everything, then locked up and headed to check out.
Oh yeah... except a few groceries. I had bought some stuff that I never ended up even opening. Some flavored rice meal thing, some instant soup... that kind of thing. And all the paper plates and utensils and stuff. I never even opened them. So I left them for whoever got the cabin next.
I went into the little store to check out, and Linda was there to check me out.
As I got a few additional things for the road (souviner sweatshirt and t-shirt, gasoline, etc) we talked for awhile. She asked me all about my little random trips and how I did them, and she told me a bit about the kind of visitors they often got. November and April are the slow months. Things actually gbet busier again in the mid-winter after the lakes are solid enough to be safe and there is enough snow for snowmobiling. Lida had been very gracious and pleasnt each time I'd come in, and this last conversationw as quite nice as well. It was fun to just talk for a bit about everything. Linda recommended that I check out the museum in Winnipeg before I caught my flight back home. I put it on my mental list. And then it was time to say goodbye and get on my way.
I was planning to once again try to eat at Jennifer's. It was Tuesday, it was supposed to be open. So I drive there and... it was closed again.
Oh well. Jennifer's was not going to be part of my fate in this vacation. I contemplated my options, and decided I would try to find something to eat in the town where I had found that bank the other night.
After I got to that town I drove up and down the main street a bit to pick a place to eat. I picked a Chinese/American restaurant.
They had both burgers and the like and Chinese food at the same place, which I thought was rather amusing. (I am easily amused.) I was even more tickled once I sat down, and the waitress handed me one of those little pads waitresses use, and told me to write down what I wanted. She came back a few minutes later to pick up my order. I ordered beef with brocolli. When I got my meal, it really seemed a lot more like brocolli with beef. But that was OK, I like brocolli well enough.
After finishing my meal, I went about a block away to the town post office, where I got stamps for all my postcards, then one by one put them onto the postcards. I then lovingly left them on the counter where the post office lady had said for me to leave them, and sent them on their merry way.
After that it was just a straight ride back to Winnipeg, and to the Comfort Inn where I would be staying for the night.
When I arrived, the first thing I did was log in. I'd been going into withdrawal! I had 108 non-spam emails during the time I had been away from email. I also discovered my home server had gone down, so I couldn't update the website. That annoyed me. Oh well. I decided that I'd head out and explore Winnipeg before doing the email thing any further.
So I headed out looking for the museum. Driving toward downtown first. Then I saw the museum as I was passing by it. Next task, find parking. I wandered a bit more. I finally found a little lot a couple blocks away from Main Street. I parked, and then walked toward the lights.
Of course by this time I'd gotten myself completely turned around, and didn't know which way the museum was. So I just started walking. Winnipeg is a nice city.
And all was going well until I saw a sign inviting me underground, at which time I was attacked by a band of vampires... uh... no... but I did get down into an underground network of shops and tunnels... with some above ground walkways too. In any case, it was a maze. And it went on forever. I got completely turned around and lost. Somehow I ended up at the public library.
Eventually I made my way back outside. I was still all turned around though. So I just decided to get back to my car. It took me awhile, but I found the car.
Then I decided to try to find the museum by car again. And I found it! I pulled in to the street right next to the museum, and there was parking right there. I pulled in. I ran up to the museum... and it was closed.
And thus ended Day 5.
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