“What a difference a day makes…” Summer seems to have ended and fall storms are moving in. We woke up to a very windy morning and it didn’t get any better. Dark clouds, strong winds, but no rain.

Our target destination for today was the Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba. Along the way we drove through Dauphin and checked out the local mall. There were lots of empty storefronts and it didn’t seem to be doing all that well. The people were friendly and a group of women had set up a table to sell home baked cookies in support of people with brain injuries. We each selected our favourites – Martin, marshmallows with peanut butter and Ruth, cookies with peanut butter and chocolate chips. Right after buying our cookies, we saw with our own eyes how rewarding our purchase was when a woman with four young people with Down Syndrome came to the table. One of the girls showed her beautiful nail polish and couldn’t resist giving us a big hug. This was the best part of the mall visit.

We continued onward to Riding Mountain National Park and stopped by Moon Lake to see whether we could go for a swim, but there were signs about algae in the water. It didn’t look all that appealing so we continued on to the main campground. This huge campground has over 400 sites including quite a number of cabin-like structures and some that looked like tiny homes.

The nearby village has a beach, restaurants and shopping in addition to what looked like expensive private homes. We went for a walk there in the evening to check it out. The beach was a bit cold for a swim.