It was great to meet up with my sisters in Winnipeg. We stayed, 5 of us, in a great AirBNB right in the middle of town. We had a rental car and attended all the ceremonies organised by the early settlers organisation. We were interviewed by the local paper and had an article written about us.
We visited the cemetery holding the bones of some of our ancestors and a friend of my sisters played the bagpipes as we stood by the graves - stirring stuff.
We were invited to the farm of a Matheson family member. Our ancestors traveled together to Red River (Winnipeg) from Scotland. We had an absolutely wonderful evening looking around their farm and then having supper and talking.
The trip south to Scotch Grove, Iowa was interesting and enjoyable but with a few surprises! We had booked to stay at a small town called McGregor south East of Minneapolis on the Mississippi river. However we received a call in the morning to say the town had been decimated by a tornado and though our accommodations hadn't been damaged there was no power. We visited the town and viewed the destruction, pretty amazing, and carried on to another town further south called Guttenberg. The accommodations were full but a lovely old man persuaded his son to fit us into a 2 Bedroom apartment at his hotel which is a restored old button factory. We were right by a dam and lock on the Mississippi and watched a huge barge work is way up the river.
Next day we carried on to Scotch Grove and visited the graves of more ancestors who travelled to this place after giving up living in red river for 20 years. We also got to visit the old homestead which has been added and added to over the years but no longer belongs to family. Huge thanks to local Historical advisor Steve and his sister-in-law Shirley who showed us around everywhere and were great company.
After traveling on and staying the night in Marion we found out that Guttenberg got destroyed by a storrn the night after we left! !!
