Day 4: April 20, 2018 Dirty in Two Countries Comment via blog

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Today it got real. No more preamble, staging, and getting in position. Today I started south on the Jefferson/Pine to Palm Highway. I'd hoped to get a shot of the car in front of the Bank of Montreal where the highway originally started but I was quickly convinced me that Friday morning traffic wasn't going to permit that. So I settled for a drive-by and also snapped a drive-by of the Manitoba capitol as I passed it on Broadway. I was able to actually stop for a picture of the Pine to Palm Highway Plaque on Pembina Highway. Thomas Jefferson didn't have a big following in Canada and there the route named for him was more commonly referred to as the Pine to Palm Highway and this location is considered its northern terminus.

About ten miles further south, this marker commemorates the Pembina Trail which was used by ox carts traveling between Fort Garry and Fort Daer in the late nineteenth century. The plaque can be read here.

I paused a short distance later to take one last picture of my clean car before driving my first unpaved segment of Jefferson Highway. Well, I've got that behind me.

Not surprisingly, some portions of the Jefferson Highway have been overlaid by newer routes and that includes some of the path I followed north. I knew about this church and thought of stopping as I drove by yesterday but decided to wait a do it in the proper sequence. That looked like a real goof when I realized there was no access to the church from the southbound lanes of PTH-75 (Provincial Trunk Highway) but crossovers were available fairly close by. The 1887 church is all that is left of the small town of Union Point and it would have fallen to the highway had it not been for its cemetery.

As soon as I reached the next stretch of unpaved road, I could see it was undergoing maintenance. I didn't stop since three abandoned bridges can be seen from this road, plus I thought I might be able to get by the grader. I reached the first bridge with no problem but soon realized that getting around the big machine wasn't going to be possible. I resigned myself to a 7 MPH pace. That's not as grim as it might sound. Staying under 20 MPH on unpaved roads is not uncommon for me and I've covered rougher bits, like Route 66's heavily washboarded "sidewalk highway", at 10 MPH. Nonetheless, I still found it more comfortable to simply pause from time to time instead of shadowing the operator. At the second bridge, I passed some time by photographing the other three bridges at that spot. The railing of the bridge I'm on can be seen at the bottom of the picture. The railroad bridge is next and beyond that is PTH-75's concrete bridge. All three of the abandoned Jefferson Highway bridges are from 1924 but I could only make out the date clearly on the third one. I got a picture of the grader on one of the turns so you can see what I was following.

This cross really does seem to be in the middle of nowhere It's in an empty field and some distance from the passing road which is unpaved. It marks the spot where the Church of Saint Pie once stood. I know that only from the plaque on the cross.

In the late 1800s, Fort Dufferin was home to the North American Boundary Commission and the North-West Mounted Police. Its final use was as an immigration station. I had intended to photograph some pine trees on the way out of Winnipeg but got distracted. Instead, I designate this fine pair at the entrance to Fort Dufferin as the official pines I'm going to palms from.

Cars were lined up at the US border but they moved quickly and I was soon repatriated.

It wasn't long before I was traveling without pavement in the US. This stretch south of Saint Vincent, Minnesota, was actually the most worrisome of the day. There was almost no gravel and the wet conditions turned things somewhat to the muddy side.

This isn't exactly on the Jefferson Highway but it's close enough (< 0.5 mile) and interesting enough (just look) to be worth the tiny detour. I learned about the Gateway Motel and Museum too late to work in a stay on this trip but I'll sure give it a try next time.

Karlstad, Minnesota, calls itself the "Moose Capital of the North" and greets visitors with a not-exactly-on-the-JH big moose statue. There's a smaller one atop the local grocery and the water tower has its own version of a smiley face.

I encountered more road maintenance in Minnesota but this time I was able to slip by the grader. Knowing that most roads like this receive minimum maintenance even when it doesn't advertise the fact, I've encountered graders on unpaved roads a surprising -- and reassuring -- number of times over the years.

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