AND ON TO MOOSE JAW

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AND ON TO MOOSE JAW

Monday, 18 June ‘07

The last of our travelling days started off rainy & cool. I put in one last exercise ride on the bike, travelling from the motel thru the town streets to a county road, dirt & gravel, and returned via another paved road to the motel, only about 17 km, took about an hour. Meanwhile Bob made sure Panna had some exercise at one of the local parks. We then loaded up Casper & hit the road.

It was very, VERY wet. According to the motel owner, the previous 24 hours when we had arrived had been the only 24-hour period in quite a while where there’d been no rain. There were huge puddles all along the highway and in the fields. Makes you wonder if these farmers will ever get their fields planted this spring, or if they will lose what’s already been planted due to the weather. Saw the “carcass” of a rig carrying “skids” in the median strip, also a red minivan stuck in the median, with the driver on his cell phone, probably trying to arrange a tow, as there’s no way he’d be able to drive out on his own.

And no Tim Hortons early en route this day, had to get a second coffee from a small diner in a small town, Broadview - definitely not Timmy’s. Fortunately there was one in Regina, where we got lunch. Looks like Regina has most of the same chains as does Ottawa, at least in the suburbs - will explore more perhaps on our return.

We made good time to Moose Jaw, and proceeded to get settled into our home for the next few days. Decent enough rooms, with 2 beds, one for my junk & one to sleep in, a mini-fridge, microwave & a two-burner stove-top. There’s a large grassy area in front of our parking lot, where we can walk Panna, although people tent-camp there, so we don’t want to disturb them too much late at night. There’s also an area for people to camp with their bus-type RV’s, and an area with fixed mobile homes, which I believe are not available to rent. There’s a good-sized pond, something like the Beaver Pond in Kanata, maybe not as full of algae, and we may or may not let Panna swim there. And there are prairie dogs. And there are prairie dogs. And Panna thinks they are the neatest thing since sliced bread (or whatever, in dog-thinking). She’s never seen them before & is incredibly interested in their holes.

We got dinner at the diner associated with the resort (Bob picked it up) - and found out there’s no bar there either. I’m thinking that the restaurants which advertise themselves as a “family restaurant” are just saying they do not sell booze. So later, Bob went out to an “off site” beer sales centre & got himself some beer & me some hard cider. While not everything that was in Casper is in the rooms, most of it is - what a bunch of stuff!

Barring anything majorly unexpected, tomorrow will be Day 1. We discussed route alternatives and what I think I will do, as far as the route to take. The highways here are really not that busy, with nice shoulders, not like Manitoba or Ontario, and if things don’t strike me as being different along the roads we’ll take tomorrow to get to the starting point, I just may use the paved highways and forget about the elaborate route I’d plotted to avoid them. Will see at the time.

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