Single Older Woman – Cdn Vaca – Outings #5 – Cdn Mint, Gimli

July 31, 2017

Today I would travel from Selkirk to Winnipeg for a visit to Manitoba’s Canadian Mint. This location produces all coins for circulation. Our Mint in Ottawa produces those strictly for commemorative purposes.

Now I have a funny story about this Mint. A few days before my trip, I had dinner with my parents and my children. I told them about my plans to visit the Mint and highlighted for them some interesting facts. Well to my disbelief, both my dad and my kids challenged me on some of these facts – primarily that the Mint produces many of the coins used around the world??? No that can’t be true – “how is that possible” chimed in my eldest……

See below – wherein I brought back proof of such claim…

Once satisfied that I would win this argument, I took leave of the Mint with much of their secrets still intact…I almost expected them to “zap” each of us as we exited – you know with that device from “Men in Black”……lol…

My next outing would be to visit the “Gimli Glider” Museum in Gimli. Home also to the plant where our famous Crown Royal Canadian Whisky is produced.

The Gimli Glider refers to an Air Canada flight # 604 that on July 23, 1983, ran out of fuel and had to make an emergency landing on an abandoned air strip in Gimli. In 1983, we switched from the Imperial method of measuring fuel to the metric system. As such, the ground crew for that flight miscalculated how much fuel to load onto the plane.

The plane, en route to Montreal, knew they would not make it to their ultimate destination. The pilot and co-pilot, were successfully able to glide the plane onto this airstrip and with minimal damage landed the plane.

The plane continued in service for another 25 years and was finally retired to the Mojave Dessert in California.

I’ve always been fascinated with planes and their history. I have a morbid interest watching all episodes of “Mayday” and I worked for many years at our major Toronto airport…..Other than the Air France flight that skidded off the south runway during a major rain storm, YYZ can still boast as a very safe airport to fly out of.

August 1 – I finish off this vacation with a day of sightseeing in downtown Winnipeg before boarding VIA RAIL for my inaugural train trip home.

Thank you for reading and letting me share.

Joye