Day 27 - Russell to Miniota

91.33 km - Total so far 2,438.38 km - http://ridewithgps.com/trips/5204198

Before heading out towards Miniota, we had a visit through Russell. Two items were of interest to us: the War Memorial and the arches on Main St. The War Memorial location is unusual in that it sits right in the middle of Memorial Avenue at the intersection with Assiniboine St. Memorial Avenue is lined with two rows of trees on either side of the street that come together at the tops to form an arch, a very impressive sight. 

Memorial Street, Russell

War Memorial

Arches seem to be  a recurring theme in Russell as Main Street also has a number of arches (8). This is what the Town of Russell has on its website in respect to the arches: 

• The wooden arches were rescued from the Town of Dauphin as they were tearing down the old arena, they were just 7 days away from being sent to a land fill site. As crews worked to disassemble the structure, a senior Dauphin resident brought forward a photograph of the then new wooden arches arriving by train. There in the picture was a clear stamp indicating the 32 ply nailed wooden laminate arches came from a former Russell business, the Glu-Rite Rafters Company, owned by Carl Mantie. It is now believed that this is a homecoming for the massive structures. The arches truly are both historical evidence of superior craftsmanship and modern engineering genius.

  

  Individual arch

The view down Main St

The arches sit on metal brackets surrounded by stone work. At first the whole assembly looks a bit odd but when you start looking at them as a group up and down the street and how they are individully assembled the whole thing sort of grows on you. There appears to be a lot of pride in Russell and it is reflected not only in the arches but elsewhere in town. As an aside, although Main St is wide enough for that, there is no angle parking!

You can order your Lazy-Boy and pick up live bait at Sears. How cool is that!

On the road we spotted another one of these huge billboard featuring a politician. This one has the local MP for the area. Although we don't remember seeing any of these billboard back home, they are fairly common in all provinces we have visted so far. 

A smiling hardworking MP from Manitoba

As well as the billboard, we took a picture of what now replaces the elevator of old. The one in the picture below happens to be a midsized one. They are called 'inland terminals' and they are a very common sight.

Inland terminal near Binscarth (Hwy 16 and #41)

As we neared lunch time, we rode into Birtle looking for a place to eat. We passed but did not stop at the local cafe as it lacked that 'unusual place appeal' we so look for. Up the street, we could see a number of people gathering in a parking lot. As we neared, we noticed folks lined up for food at what looked like a new pharmacy. As it turns out, they were having a BBQ for the opening of the new pharmacy. Since we never miss an opportunity for free food, we stopped, parked the bikes and got inline for burgers. It was not long before locals came over to speak to the two spandex wearing strangers. We had interesting chats with a few of the locals, one of whom happened to be formely from Alta Vista, in Ottawa. Most of them suggested to us places to see in the area and had we acted upon their recommendations, we might not be back in Ottawa till the fall. It was an opportunity for us to also find out why locations on some private and commercial signs always give distances in miles. It was explained to us that the Prairies are divided into sections of 1 Mile Squares (1 mile x 1 mile) and that the road system follows that grid as well. So it makes sense to use miles for distance vice km.

The spanking new Birtle pharmacy

We are about to join the line up for burgers and dogs

After Birtle, we had a nice 34 km ride to our final destination Miniota and the campground. The facilities are somewhat spartan and we would have more services available had we camped in the back of a truck stop. Oh well c'est la vie...things will be better tomorrow.

We leave you with a video of our first pharmacy opening. The lady doing the talking (co-owner of the pharmacy) was Manitoba Pharmacist of the Year last year and was praised by the local MLA and a representative of the Manitoba Pharmacist Association. What was equally impressive is that the community had a hand in moving the pharmacy from their old location to this new one. Packing and moving of boxes was done by local residents. When was the last time you heard of something like that happening back home?

56.75 miles - Total so far 1,515.14 miles