Manitou Beach, flat tire and Moose Jaw!

June 25, 2019

We woke up early. Danny was travelling to Ottawa this morning and I was driving him to the airport.   We left Saskatoon as soon as I returned from the airport and headed down another highway, this time our destination was Moose Jaw, however, we were going by way of Watrous and Manitou Beach. 

We travelled east on Hwy #16, then south on Hwy#2, a secondary highway that would bring us right to Watrous, and Manitou Beach.  This area is well known for its Potash mines, another valuable resource for Saskatchewan. 

The town of Watrous and its neighbor Manitou Beach is known for the Manitou Springs Mineral Spa.  The resort was built in the early 1900’s.  It was the most popular summer resort on the prairies and rivaled Banff Hot Springs.  Little Manitou Lake is called the Dead Sea of Canada.  It is 14 miles long and a mile wide.  The water in the lake is the unique feature.  The minerals in the water possess natural therapeutic skin and body care properties only a few places in the world have, such as Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic and the Dead Sea of Israel. 

Mineral Springs Spa is an upscale Hotel and Spa with a large pool. Tourists from all over the world have and still travel to this Spa to take in the benefits of the water.  I spoke to one of the workers who told me that often ten or more tour buses arrive each day in the summer. 

The specific gravity of the water is 1.06, and you become so buoyant that you can literally float around.  The water temperature is around 103 degrees.  We spent two hours relaxing in the therapeutic water.

The other well kept secret is the Danceland Ballroom also in Manitou Beach.  This huge building is built on the banks of the lake.  It is the size of a huge airport hangar, and was built in 1928.  The uniqueness of this structure is that the hardwood floor is built on large cords of horsetail hair between the floor joists and the floor.  It took a boxcar of horsetail hair to cushion the floor. This design makes the floor flexible and takes the stiffness out of the floor making it easier to dance on. There are only three such dance floors in existence in North America. 

Debbie recalls her mother and her aunt often talking about going to dances at the Danceland Ballroom as they were growing up.  They were born and raised in Seimens, and made the trek to Danceland and to the spa.  Debbie’s mother, later in life, visited her sister annually in Seimens and they would travel to Danceland to go dancing, and to the spa to enjoy the therapeutic waters.   

We entered the building because the doors were open and some workers were setting up the ballroom for a dance tonight.  We were able to take some photos and take in the wonders of this famous ballroom.  We saw the agenda, and each weekend for the year there is a dance or a function taking place. Dances are advertised and busloads of dancers come to dance each weekend. It was now time to hit the road again.

Hwy #2 is a secondary road that takes us south through rich farmland.  Things were going along nicely, we were enjoying the scenery and watching the storm clouds gathering in the distance when all of a sudden the trailer started to vibrate and I knew immediately that I had a flat tire on the trailer!  We had made a conscious decision not to take a spare tire for the trailer, as we had limited space and the odds of having a flat tire on the trailer were low…..  . 

Lucky for us we were entering the hamlet of Simpson, (can’t find that on the map!) and were directly across from a Co-Op service station!  We limped into the garage and again our luck held as they actually had trailer tires to fit our Armadillo!  The cause of the flat is that the tires were worn to the cords!  We had only travelled 5600 kms.  The garage owner looked at the treads of the flat tire and the other tire, which had a similar wear pattern.  He feels that the tires were a poor quality and were underinflated.  I had checked the tire pressure the day before when we reloaded in Saskatoon and they were at the recommended pressure.  We replaced both tires, with six ply radial trailer tires and were on the road within the hour.  (I later called Armadillo and explained the situation. Mike was surprised about the tires however, he honored the warranty and e-mailed me the restitution for the cost of the tires.  That is customer service!  Mike is chalking that up to product development.) 

We were on the road again and it was now getting late in the afternoon, and we were now driving towards the storm clouds!

Lightning flashed constantly and a wall of water was coming down towards us.  We turned onto Hwy#1 for a short distance before we turned south again on Hwy#2 when the storm hit us with a vengeance.  The rain was mixed with hail and the wipers could not keep up.  We pulled to the side of the road, as did the truckers and others. We sat it out for about 30 minutes until the storm abated and we could see again.  Because of the storm, we actually missed our turn to go south and we had to backtrack a short distance.  About 3 kms later we drove into an area of about one kilometer where the ground was still white with hail.   Another unique experience!! We arrived in Moose Jaw around 6:00.pm  Riverside Campground is a municipal campground and was recommended by Danny. Our site backed right on to the river. We found that we were surrounded by RVs who were having a rendezvous.  They were having a meeting in the campsite next to us.  It was too late for us to change sites, but the campers were fairly quiet and were later sent to their rigs as it started to rain again!   It was time for us to go to bed.  We are looking forward to exploring Moose Jaw.