Storming along

Though I had planned this trip to Winnipeg for some time the actual details were left until the last minute simply because at this time of the year everything depends upon the weather. A fairly energetic storm was on its way across the prairies last Monday and I figured that it might even be worse during the day Tuesday so at 8:00 Monday night I set out on my journey. It wasn't bad from Tisdale to Elfros but the Yellowhead into Yorkton was difficult.

Most traffic was moving along but drivers clearly in utter terror were a menac slowing traffic to dangerously slow speeds as the semis were on

the go. It took about twice the normal time to get from Elfros to Yorkton and by then the accumulation of snow on the road surface exceeded safe limits and I decided to spend the night in Yorkton.

I parked the van in the parking lot at midnight and you can see the amount of snow on it the following morning (above). Yorkton was busy digging out of the downfall and it was still snowing when I headed off down the Yellowhead around ten in the morning (above). Most of the road was clear like this though visibility was often limited. Traffic however, moved along nicely and it was a safe trip over to Neepawa for lunch and I was in Winnipeg at 4:00.

I was impressed with Winnipeg's ability to handle heavy snow conditions. As the evening progressed that heavy snow fall continued and the city work drews were out on the job and the streets were in good shape the following day.

If Winnipeg could only have as good a response to police emergencies as it does to snowfall the place would be a much more civilised community. During the week driving around the city I saw three wrecks and of those only one was being attended to by police in most cases the wreckage just stayed strewn over the road and the victims to fend for themselves.

The objective of this adventure was to help one of my sons move from his apartment to his newly acquired house. We began loading a truck at ten in the morning got it loaded up by ten that night and had it emptied into the house at 3:00 in the morning.

The task completed and the house liveable and I was able to mount up and head home yesterday. The trip back home was uneventful as only some light snow marred the trip and I was home by six thirty.