There we were, sitting in the parking lot of the Mint, planning our next step, a visit to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police museum. It’s also the location of an RCMP training academy. My searches kept turning up addresses in Regina for some reason. All I could find in Winnipeg was a detachment. After puzzling over it for several minutes, I realised what you already know: the museum and academy are in Regina. Face palm.
That left us with some time to fill. We were torn between trains and planes, but settled on the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada. I’m not sure what you have to do to get a ‘Royal’ sobriquet, but it sounded fancy. Getting from anywhere to anywhere in Winnipeg was a challenge because they’re currently rebuilding every damn road in the city. I exaggerate, but it felt that way. It’s really only major arteries, connecting streets, parking lots on those streets, any avenues connected to those streets, plus any streets that have names containing the letters E, S, or T. We were thrilled to get to the airport and find a half-block of open road where I could really open her up.
The two museum staff were both genial and prickly, which I thought was a pretty neat trick, normally only found in European wait staff. We were literally the only visitors in the place so it can’t be because they were too busy to deal with us. I think I was because we showed up with an hour to closing time and they had been hoping to duck out early.
The museum is a hangar at the Winnipeg airport, literally packed with aircraft and parts. To make the best use of space, smaller planes are tucked under the wings of larger planes. Tiny craft are crammed into the cargo holds of carriers. There are engines, both rotary and jet, everywhere. I thought the content was pretty fascinating, but Those Johnston Kids were more excited by playing tag in and around the displays. When you think about it though, games in a hangar full of abandoned aircraft is actually pretty cool. The RAMW should be hosting club nights and zombie scenarios.
A major disappointment with the museum, for me as a maker and Those Johnston Kids as, well, kids, is the lack of interaction. It’s like an airplane hobbyist’s display of models that are meant to be appreciated by sight only, except the models are all giant. We wanted to touch things and climb inside the aircraft to have a look around, but sadly little of that is allowed.