 WINNIPEG - A lovestruck American who tried to walk from North Dakota to Winnipeg is recovering from severe frostbite in a Manitoba hospital. The Los Angeles man was on his way to meet his internet sweetheart, but didn't count on the Prairie winter. | "No one expects the Dread Prairie Winter!" |
Charles Gonsoulin got lost after setting out from Pembina, N.D., last Saturday with the intent to sneak across the border to Winnipeg, more than 100 kilometres away. | He was going to walk over 100 clicks, across the frozen tundra of North Dakota, in February? Quick, call the Darwin Awards! He at least deserves a Honorable Mention |
The 41-year-old self-employed mechanic has a robbery conviction that means he can't legally enter Canada. Gonsoulin said he planned to take a bus from Winnipeg to Quebec to be with a woman he met in a chat room for people suffering from depression. | Oh, now there's a great place to pick up chicks |
An RCMP officer rescued him Wednesday after following his footprints in the snow at a golf course just outside the border town of Emerson, Man. "When I found him, he was babbling and incoherent," Cpl. Don McKenna of the Emerson RCMP told the Winnipeg Free Press. | Sounds like a pre-exsisting condition |
"His hands were black and frozen solid. He didn't know who he was or where he was." Gonsoulin, who may lose some fingers, has been charged with entering the country illegally. |