Hello folks. Today is Friday and we're on our way for 5 days now. We got up this morning at what we thought was 7 o'clock. According to our trusty road map, the time wasn't going to change again until we crossed into Alberta. However, much to our surprise we were told at a tourist information place, before we crossed into Alberta, that Saskatchewan had switched over to Alberta time recently. So...in reality we got up at 6 o'clock. Anyway, it didn't make too much difference, except that we arrived at our destination today one hour sooner.
Unfortunately, our prediction vis-a-vis the weather, from yesterday proved to be true. We had heavy overcast all day with showers off and on. The temperature never got above 10 deg C. One benefit of the cold wet weather is that there are no bugs to splatter on our windshield. As a matter of fact, almost all the dead bugs have soaked off the Honda's grill and bumper as well.
What was unexpected, was that at one point we saw a bunch of SNOW laying in a depression along the road.
We came across an interesting hamlet, called Enfold, along the road. This hamlet was situated between the East and West bound lanes of Hwy 1. At this point the lanes were separated by about 500 yards. Just out of Regina we came across a potash mine/operation. The tailings were piled about 500ft high (150m). That was quite an impressive sight. Potash is an important ingredient for farm fertilizers (and terrorist bombs).
A little later, we decided to get off the highway to visit a typical rural prairie town. This one happened to be called Herbert. This reminded us of our late dear friend and b
rother-in-law Herb. I think he would have liked this town. The town seal included a tractor albeit it didn't depict a John Deere. I guesstimate the population to be somewhere around 500-750 people. There were at least 5 churches, a library, a curling rink, a Co-op, a school and a large number of small businesses. These small towns are almost totally self sufficient with the exception of medical services. We were quite impressed with how these towns manage to survive and serve their often large rural populations. Of course the railroad goes right through or along the towns. Each town has it's grain elevator to store and offload the farmers crops onto the trains to the west coast and Thunder Bay. All under the auspices of the Canadian Wheat Board.
rother-in-law Herb. I think he would have liked this town. The town seal included a tractor albeit it didn't depict a John Deere. I guesstimate the population to be somewhere around 500-750 people. There were at least 5 churches, a library, a curling rink, a Co-op, a school and a large number of small businesses. These small towns are almost totally self sufficient with the exception of medical services. We were quite impressed with how these towns manage to survive and serve their often large rural populations. Of course the railroad goes right through or along the towns. Each town has it's grain elevator to store and offload the farmers crops onto the trains to the west coast and Thunder Bay. All under the auspices of the Canadian Wheat Board. The scenery is very flat from Winnipeg to Moose Jaw as I mentioned yesterday. However, from Moose Jaw to Medicine Hat, the landscape is a bit different. It changes to rolling low hills and consists basically of grassland sprinkled with a bit of sage. This is the open range we often see in cowboy movies and is occupied by cattle. The are no trees here at all, very strange but true. Also, there is almost no sign of human habitation. Every 20 - 30 km you may see a farm building complex and that's it. We never saw one farmer in the fields. Right now everything is soaking wet with water everywhere on the fields. Apparently, spring 2010 is one of the coldest and wettest on record here in the prairie provinces. We also saw a number of deer herds in fields.
One of the things tha
t you'll see everywhere are the prairie sloughs . These are large ponds, often surrounded by willow trees or shrubs. These sloughs are often preserved by "Ducks Unlimited", an wildlife preservation organization that promotes the maintenance of duck flocks in the prairies. They pay the farmers a certain amount of money to not drain the sloughs and plant crop in them. This is one organization that was set up by hunters by the way to preserve the ducks not just for hunters but to keep the flocks healthy and large.
t you'll see everywhere are the prairie sloughs . These are large ponds, often surrounded by willow trees or shrubs. These sloughs are often preserved by "Ducks Unlimited", an wildlife preservation organization that promotes the maintenance of duck flocks in the prairies. They pay the farmers a certain amount of money to not drain the sloughs and plant crop in them. This is one organization that was set up by hunters by the way to preserve the ducks not just for hunters but to keep the flocks healthy and large.In Medicine Hat we left Hwy 1 (which goes on to Calgary) and got on Hwy 3 to Taber. We will continue tomorrow on Hwy 3 until Fort Steele, BC. The scenery again changes after Medicine Hat. The land is not quite as flat as in Manitoba and the eastern part of Saskatchewan. It is gently rolling and planted with cash crops rather than roaming cattle. The thing that we noticed was that northern Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan don't look too prosperous. Everything looks kinda old and dilapidated (uhh, another big word). Ho
wever Alberta looks very prosperous. Everything seems to be newer and much better maintained.
wever Alberta looks very prosperous. Everything seems to be newer and much better maintained. Oh yeah, in Saskatchewan, we saw a lot of working oil derricks along the road. We noticed this also on our last trip in South Dakota. Makes you wonder how much oil there still is after all this time of pumping.
We arrived in good time at our hotel in Taber. Partly because of the time change but also because we didn't want to drive too much today, we arrived at our destination before 2
o'clock. We plan a nice relaxing afternoon and evening for today.
o'clock. We plan a nice relaxing afternoon and evening for today. Well, that's about it for today again. Tomorrow we hope to see the Rockies and stop in Golden, BC for the weekend for the R&R.
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