The day kicked off with the toilet refusing to flush properly. A quick Google search informed us that the likely culprit was a small pyramid of toilet paper and… well, you know… lodged at the bottom of the pipe. Some strategic poking and a few hopeful flushes took the top off the pyramid, but the rest wasn’t budging.
We hatched a plan: save the washing-up water and send it down the toilet to help clear the tank. In theory, brilliant. In practice, less so—because we somehow managed to leave a teaspoon in the washing-up bowl and promptly launched it straight into the toilet. More fishing around in the bowl (guess who got nominated thanks to having the smallest hands – hint: not me!!) made it clear we needed a more creative solution.
The spoon was eventually retrieved using a magnet from a flashlight, some string, and a level of determination usually reserved for escape rooms. After all that, I think we can officially say we’ve passed RV Toilets 101, with several lessons learned the hard way.
Once we finally got underway—after a supply stop in Yorkton—we carried on through Saskatchewan along Highway 16 toward Wasagaming. My phone kept chiming with Yellow Tornado warnings for western Manitoba and Orange Severe Thunderstorm warnings for Calgary, which added a certain ambience to the drive. The scenery shifted from flat prairie to rolling, tree-covered hills as we crossed into Manitoba and headed toward Riding Mountain National Park.
We hadn’t been in the province long before spotting a young black bear at the roadside. Luckily the bear wisely decided not to make a dash for it, turning back into the trees.
Our campsite in Riding Mountain is steep, treed, and genuinely lovely. Wasagaming itself is touristy but charming, perched right on Clear Lake. We’ll explore more tomorrow on the bikes, but tonight’s sunset was spectacular—an ever-changing sky hinting at rain or maybe a storm.
We grabbed a pizza in town, wandered along the lake, then took a drive up Highway 10. Riding Mountain has one of the highest densities of black bears in Canada, and the evening did not disappoint—we spotted three more bears before calling it a night.
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