Kenora to Regina

Lots of time was spent in the car today, for we did about 800 km.  As we left Kenora we travelled up and down through twisty bits at 90 km per hour on a two lane road until we reached Manitoba.  Ten kilometers later, the land started flattening, the road expanded into a big 4 lane divided highway, and the speed limit went to 110 km per hour.  Gas prices dropped from 111.9 per liter to 86.9 per liter.  We were in the prairies!

It was amazing how the land flattened out so quickly, and I was thrilled to find canola fields in bloom.  When the sun shines on a field it almost glows with the colour.  What I didn’t expect were flax fields in bloom, looking almost like a field of blue water—beautiful.  The fields were bigger, 50-100 acres in size, and had some lines of trees between them.

I can’t say there were a lot of pictures today (note to self—put high speed camera on front of car).  (Note to self—put big bug screen on camera).  We did stop at a tiny little diner in beautiful downtown Austin Manitoba (population 442) and it turned out to have excellent food and service.

As we travelled through the day, the wildflowers in the ditch changed to yellow sweet clover and a different variety of vetch.  When I went out of the car to take a picture, the sweet fragrance was overwhelming.

Trees have changed so that poplars are now predominant, and the further west we get the shorter the trees.

I continue my thesis that the further west explorers got, the less imagination they had for road names.  Manitoba featured Road 21 West, followed by Road 22 West, followed by Road 23 West……you get the picture.  Apparently someone stopped and found firewater, for they waxed lyrical and named ……. Squirrel River!  And Bison Road!  That giddiness passed quickly and we were now at Road 40 West, etc etc.

Instead of car dealerships in small towns, they have farm equipment dealerships.  The inventory must cost millions, for there are a lot of BIG machines.

As we progressed into Saskatchewan, the road names merely changed to that of Range Road #2203, Range Road #2204………  However, to pass time during the last part of the long haul, I started measuring the length of fields along the highway.  To summarize, short fields were only .5 km long, but most of them were .9 to 1.2 km long.  No trees.   Sometimes a road intersected the highway, but it was inevitably gravel, and any vehicle on it would leave a long line of dust far after it had passed.

Here is a picture of a common Saskatchewan field.

Here is a picture of a common Saskatchewan highway.  (If there are any deviations from absolutely straight, they put up curve markers to warn you.)

And here is how you forecast weather in Saskatchewan.  We could see this cloud 80 km off before we ran into a little bit of precipitation from it.

Days are long here--the sun rises about 5 am and sets around 9 pm.  This takes a little acclimatization because it is still light when we are ready for bed, and we can't figure out what is wrong.

Brian’s brother and sister-in-law live in Regina, so we will spend a couple of days here before getting back in the saddles.