Canada, our vast wonderland

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Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to Brandon, MB I go.

You may be asking yourself; for a 'world' traveler like Ned, why on earth is she going to Brandon, MB. and more importantly why is she driving? Yup - you read correctly; I am getting into my little black beauty with the slightly dented rear end, and we are driving over 1150km to visit my best friend and her 7 year old daughter. Yikes. even that sounds weird coming from me. Driving, domestic and minors? Oh boy, she truly has lost her mind.

Alas, as I get a bit older and my friends grow with me, so do their family dynamics and I am still the single, ahem, solo traveler and it is much easier for me to come to people vs the other way around. I love my dear friend, and have known her since 1997 if memory serves me correctly and has been there through thick and thin, good and bad, boys and many, many bottles of wine. So I figure the least I can do is suck it up and drive to Brandon to visit for 5 or 6 days, child and all!

I left Edmonton at 07:00 and hit the Yellowhead fairly quickly. I had decided I would drive across AB, SK and MB, one Starbucks at a time (after all I do have the Starbucks app which works better than the 'around me' app I found). That was until about 40 minutes outside of Lloydminster I realized how quickly coffee works its way through me and had to literally pull over on the side of the highway for an emergency pee. Ah, takes me back to Nepal. Except with more oxygen, and moving motorized vehicles vs. yaks and much lower speeds!

Starbucks theory blown to crap I turned my music on 'random, and with over 1000 songs in my playlist this would get interesting. I only hit the "C"'s by the time I got to Brandon, looking forward to the return trip! I sang, hummed and danced my way across the flat, long, boring land of SK determined to stop only if nature deemed it necessary and the gas tank was sloshing empty. I made it in 10.5 hours, which was good time, but still long, long, long drive. Canola fields, double lane divide highway with a random car to pass every few minutes makes for a slightly mind numbing drive. Hell I almost missed the chaos that is Highway 2 between Edmonton and Calgary just to keep me entertained swearing at people and stupid drivers!

What I found ironic was the "Findlater" town that I drove past (my friend texted I should ha ha find it later ha ha....), the motel in Broadview SK that's biggest selling feature was that it was "Open 24 hours!", and the signs all across SK that were 'caution, curve coming up'. Um, I've seen it for 5km so *think* I got it! Oh and discovering after about 45 minutes that the speed limit in MB drops down to 100 kph consistently (not that it made a difference to me) but despite driving for almost 11 hours I only saw 2 cops in 1150 km, one was driving the opposite direction, the other had pulled over a farmer on a side road. Not that I'm complaining, but it isn't exactly an enticement to follow the 'rules' exactly......

Oh and the other irony? Stopping in Waverly; SK to get gas, paying $1.28/litre for it, $4.00 for a bag of chips but the individual behind the counter barely spoke English. Sure we get lots of immigrants from many countries, but generally they end up in major cities (or at least cities with 5 or 6 digit population). So, um, WTF are you doing in Waverly, SK, population, wait for it (I had to google) 422 people (as of 2006) so now it's probably 421 since someone must have died by now! Ah, I heart Canada:-)

But the trip gets better:

Go to Souris to see the famous swinging bridge that just reopened, and the 500 year old Oak Tree - couldn't find it. The tree. Bridge; check. Tree? Missing in Action. Which is impressive for a 500 year old tree.

And then there was the creepy guy in the Rock Shop. My niece likes to collect so her mom promised we would stop in. As we entered his response was 'good thing you came when I did; I was leaving for tea' implying we were imposing? The shop was dirty, dusty, cluttered, full of literal crap. Dude was poorly dressed, disheveled pony tail circa 1967, dirty tee shirt, Bermuda styled shorts with, wait for it...... calf high cheap white sports socks. At least he had the decency to not wear sandals; he was wearing any shoes! Best part? When another group came in and he invited the kids to go into the back to see some other rocks, and he said 'well I wouldn't normally do this without my girls here as it can come across as a little creepy...' Um, you think? He came out, asked my niece if she wanted to join them and she was 'um, NO thanks!' Her Mamma taught her well!

In Brandon go to the Brandon Hills for a hike and the path is not groomed, so impossible to walk on (but full of directional signage), but the mosquitoes are so bad there are swarms around your head making any pleasantries impossible, so we turned around.

The weather sucks so its too cold to go to the lake.

And the best part of all? My best friend now has the stomach flu (or as my microbiologist friend is saying norovirus) and has been throwing up all day in bed! wootwoot! Welcome to Brandon. Perhaps I should stick with international jet lag and third world countries instead; seem to be safer.....

I'm just thankful that I brought my computer to show them photos - otherwise I'd be drinking even more wine!

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