Nine vans arrived at the Pioneer Bay Campground in Pinawa Manitoba on Monday June 12 for our second Western Sunsetter Rally of the year. We had eight vans from Manitoba and one from Saskatchewan
The Pioneer Bay Campground which served as our home base is a big campground filled with annual sites; however the owner had just completed nine small sites in an area close to the beach for use by overnight campers. We crowded our nine vans into those sites and it was quite cozy.
Everyone had pretty much arrived by 4:00 pm and got acquainted with each other. That evening we had a lovely pot luck supper served in a fitness gym that was right next to our campsites. We are grateful to the owner of the gym who allowed us to use her facility in the evenings for meals and games.
After supper a campfire was started and Klaus Trampe and his wife Ghislane entertained us with their beautiful voices and Klaus’s skilled guitar playing.
Tuesday morning we enjoyed a pancake and sausage breakfast prepared by Bill Harder and George Gibson. In the afternoon a foursome of golfers headed to the Pinawa Golf & Country Club for 18 holes of golf on one of the top rated public courses in Manitoba.
In the late afternoon we all trekked down to the pier on the beach where two pontoon boats picked all 18 of us up for a river cruise on the Winnipeg River. The scenery was amazing. The pontoon boats stopped at the golf course on our way home for a lovely supper in the dining room and then returned us to our campground.
Rain was now threatening so we adjourned to the gym were we played “Bill’s Bingo” for a variety of small prizes provided by Triple E. For some reason one table of players seemed to dominate in winning most of the prizes.
On Wednesday we had a tour pre- arranged of Old Pinawa, the Hydro-dam site that was built in 1906 but ceased operation in 1951 but it’s concrete ruins resemble an ancient Roman coliseum; the 54 metre long and one metre wide Suspension Bridge; and modern Pinawa a town built in 1963 to house employees of Atomic Energy of Canada’s Whiteshell Research Laboratories . The forecast called for about an 80% probability of steady rain. Because a lot of this tour would be on uneven rocky ground, we cancelled the vans that were to transport us. Well you can never fully trust the weatherman and shortly after we cancelled the vans the weather cleared. Several of our attendees went out on their own to take in the attractions previously mentioned.
That evening we sat down in the gym again to a wonderful supper of perogies, ham and cabbage rolls arranged for us by our hosts Joan and Dale Lidfors.
Again that evening we were able to enjoy a bonfire but temperatures were cool and you needed a sweater or jacket.
Thursday morning we again awoke to rain and so our outdoor pot luck breakfast had to be cancelled. As the morning progressed the weather cleared a bit and we all said our good byes as we headed out to new adventures.
Our thanks and gratitude go out to Joan and Dale Lidfors who organized this wonderful LTV Rally for us.
Submitted by
Norm Lavoy
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