Day 33:Th Sep14 : Dryden ON to Arcola Sask

Len and I got up about 07:30 and got ready and packed up and hit the road after toast and coffee...( Len drinks Tea ). We stopped at a place just west of Dryden about 20 miles and did some shopping. The place is a sheep ranch that has a big store where they sell wool and sheepskin products. They have some really nice stuff and I bought some cabin slippers for Mom and Judy. We continued west to Kenora ON where we stopped for gas and then went downtown so I could get a picture of the Big fish by the Harbour. We had missed that on the way east because we took the by-pass.
We stopped for lunch a bit further west and then headed for Winnipeg. We took the by-pass around Winnipeg and stopped for gas at Headingly on the east side. While we were gassing up a guy came up to look at my bike. He was the Chief of a First Nation's Reserve north west of Dauphin MB. We had a good visit and when we were talking about our kids I told him that Nancy and Terry lived on leased land on the Tsu-Tina Reserve. He then went to the trunk of his car and came back with a braid of sweetgrass. He gave me the sweetgrass to give to Nancy and Terry for good medicine in their new house. When he gave me the sweetgrass I gave him my tin of Skoal. He was quite impressed that I knew that when someone gave you sweetgrass you had to give them tobacco in return as a sign of respect and gratitude for the sweetgrass. Sweetgrass has great spiritual meaning for First Nations people and they make smudge with it in their religious ceremonies. I was very honored to be given some by a Chief. His daughter is taking her Nursing degree in Calgary and he is going to stop in for a visit with us when he comes out to visit his daughter later this fall.
My brother Gene called me from Arcola just as we were leaving Headingly at 15:00. He was finished work and said he would ride east and meet up with us near Whitewood. We headed west and made good time. We stopped for fuel and a bowl of soup in Brandon because it was starting to get cold and windy. We continued west and finally saw Gene sitting on a pull-out just east of Virden MB. We rode into Virden and had coffee. I introduced Len to Gene and after coffee Gene and I headed for Arcola and Len headed west on #1 with hopes of making it to his friends place in Dysart SK.
Gene and I headed south from Virden for about 30 miles where we got on to #2 highway that heads west to Arcola through Redvers and Carlyle. We got to Arcola about 21:30 but it was a cold windy ride. We had to be very watchful for deer on the road. We stayed up and had a visit for a while and then went to bed. Gene and Joanne both had to work the next day.....