A Short, But Sweet, Visit To A Neighbor Our The North, Boissevain, Manitoba Canada.

I have decided, no matter how i try, there is no way I can relate all of my activities form a day of exploring in one blog, not without a lot of editing and I just don’t have the time.

Briefly and without photos today was another great day with many adventures, form seeing flocks of snow geese to finding a haunted, well at least abandoned house. I am now in Grand Forks  North Dakota, full after an excellent and tired form driving and hiking. More on today later but now i will tell, and show, a little about the charming town of Boissevain in Manitoba, Canada.

Located near Turtle Mountain this town, this town is about 15 miles north of the border at the International Peace Garden crossing point.  I drove in last night and checked in at the Wilderness Hotel. It was a nice little place, clean rooms and a friendly woman on staff. \

After getting situated in my room I took a walk into town. it was sunny but cool and windy. I walked down the main street and, as I have found everywhere up here, I came to an seemingly abandoned grain elevator situated along a railroad track. 

i walked into the town and stooped in a quaint little restaurant to ask about dinner and found a college like atmosphere with books, games and a wall full of witty and inspiring quotations. The staff and customers were very friendly as we talked about the town. 

I left and walked through the clean and well maintained streets past the library, banks and businesses. It is always nice to see a town make the effort to paint murals on it’s buildings and there were many in this town , depicting local scenes and history. Here is a link to some of the murals I found on my hike. https://keepyoureyespeeled.net/north-dakota-trip-photographs/nggallery/north-dakota-october-2015/boissevain-manitoba-murals-october-15-2015

The eastern side of town was dominated by another large mill  grain elevator along the tracks. 

And there were a lot of old buildings from an era when I believe this town had a prominent role in the settlement of the Manitoba and western Canada. 

I loved walking the allies of small towns. You learn so much. It was too late in the season to see what was planted but most houses had flower and vegetable gardens. And most folks also had pet dogs and cats, a few of the dogs having chased this Yankee stranger. 

One of my favorite discoveries was an ancient oak tree that reminded me of the one in the old forest in the Lord of the Rings or the whomping willow from the Harry Potter series. It was gigantic. 

Again I walked through the streets looking at the homes, wondering who grew up, lived their lives and died here. i always wonder what folks in different town thought as they went through life in a place so different than where I grew up. 

And my thoughts  were even more reflective when i found this abandoned home on a main street in a nice neighborhood. Why was it abandoned? Who lived there? What secrets did it hold? I love exploring towns and cities. 

i made it to the end of town, near the usual water towers. The fire station was at the end of town and beyond some ponds were I heard the honking of flocks of snow geese. I walked through some thick brush to find them and the took to the sky. What a beautiful sight.

I watched them fly over me a few time until they felt it was safe and again landed on the water. here is a link to some more photos of the snow geese. https://keepyoureyespeeled.net/north-dakota-trip-photographs/nggallery/north-dakota-october-2015/boissevain-manitoba-snow-geese-october-15-2015

I made it back to the hotel after passing a church and some more houses. It was a pleasant walk in a town that i have never even heard of just a few days ago. I am sure there are millions of towns just as pleasant with their history, beauty and secrets all over the world. I  hope to see many more. Here is a link to some more photographs from my walk through the streets of Boissevain. https://keepyoureyespeeled.net/north-dakota-trip-photographs/nggallery/north-dakota-october-2015/boissevain-manitoba-canada-october-15-2015

“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” – Ibn Battuta