In a Manor of speaking.

Klassic RV Park, Kenosee (1 star)

Lee notes that, once again, things happen to use for a reason, usually a good one. Our plan was to take a back road west from Kenosee out of the park and then visit some towns west and north. However, as we started out on the back road it became apparent that even with Chuck in four wheel drive we were not going to have a nice trip. So, we turned around (carefully) and headed back to Kenosee. We also decided to head in tomorrow's planned trip direction which was to see Cannington Manor. Wouldn't you know it, that historic site is closed on Tuesdays, so our original plan would have been messed up anyways.

But first, a nice drive through the eastern part of Moose Mountain Park. There are lakes after lakes after lakes. We saw a beaver lodge in almost all of them. Great reflections in the still waters also.

Cannington Manor is an interesting attempt to establish a community of English gentry on the prairies. It failed mostly because the CPR decided not to put a train line through there. However, the English and Scottish gentrys' efforts are very interesting all the same.

There are two facts that stand out for Lee. First, the flour mill typically used three times the amount of fire wood per DAY that we used in our house for the entire winter. Second, the Humphreys house (three stories high, ten bedrooms) is an incredible structure given it was built in the late 1800's. It included a billiard room; Lee was reminded of the board game Clue when he was looking at the floor plans.

Lez had the camera snapping: yes, 260 photographs between the two cameras. However, there are many duplicates or similar photos so I am hoping to keep and prep half of them so that Lee can pick the best for sharing.

Photos of reflections on the lakes - so calm today. It was a comfortable 25C here, unlike what we are hearing from across western Canada.

There were lots of information boards that will provide titles and info with the photos taken. I will be culling through those too. As we walked through Cannington Manor - what a surprise! I had assumed this was one house or Manor. It's a whole town! Not much left of the structures, but enough to once again marvel at how our settlers managed to live through the hot, dry and windy summers and incredible cold, dry snowy windy winters. There was only one reference to the indigenous peoples of the area in one of the dwellings where a gifted Cree special blanket is on display. There was so much information given as we went through the townsite - I should have had a tape recorder going.

Saskatchewan's Moose Mountain Provincial Park - an attempt to show it all in one or two day's web pages will be a challenge. We laugh, because the standard assumption is Saskatchewan is so flat you can see your dog running away for days. Here, I give you 3 minutes and he is out of sight.