Day 102 – July 14

Another relaxing wake up this morning followed by a breakfast with Ken and Renee in their sun filled cottage. Diane and I took a walk on the lake beach with Renee and the dogs, including a few joiners-on from the neighbourhood as the walk progressed. Red Deer Lake is a naturally occurring alkaline lake, to the extent that there is very little life in the lake at all so it was surprising to see and hear the large number of seagulls and terns that inhabit the shore. You would swear that you were on an ocean front judging from the continuous cacophony of bird calls and their activity at the waters edge.

Red Deer Lake

The morning passed uneventfully, it felt a little unusual not to be planning our next route or picking a place to stay for the night. I feel like we are just catching our breath before the final leg home. We are trying our best to not allow this to become a sprint as the drive across Canada was a key part of what we wanted to do on this trip, really get a feeling for the expanse of this country.

It also was nice to be spoiled by Ken and Renee’s awesome hospitality. After three months, it felt good to have someone else cook a whole meal for us. We discussed our route for the next day with Ken and have decided to head north and catch the # 16 Yellowhead Highway east which meets up with the #1 Trans Canada Highway outside of Winnipeg, rather than heading south for 2 hours to Calgary to catch the #1 Trans Canada there.

Renee had originally planned to head back to Calgary after supper but in order to spend some more time with us she opted for a 5:30 AM wake up and drive to work in Calgary on Monday morning. Supper was barbecued pork chops, from the BRT’s larder, broccoli, yams and sweet potato. After supper we teamed up boys and girls in some games of Sequence which, with a seemingly unending supply of Jacks the women folk dominated early on until the men began to rally and in a final push for the line the men won the winner take all hand.

Great hospitality

In respect of Renee’s early departure the following morning we headed to bed in advance of the midnight schedule of the previous two nights. It took some persuasion to get Maggie to abandon our room in favour of Ken and Renee’s loft – you know you have stayed too long when….

Day 103 – July 15

Renee kept to her early departure plan and had it not been for the clack of toe nails on the wood floor (Maggie and Skeeter’s, not Renee’s) we would have missed her departure all together. After a pleasant breakfast with Ken I packed up (how we managed to drag that much stuff from the BRT in two days I cannot fathom) while Diane and Ken did dishes.

We headed north on the #21 under darkening skies, which seemed to further accentuate the brilliant yellow fields of canola. Renee had reported that Calgary was wet with temperatures of 7. We hoped that wasn’t headed our way but as we continued north the skies ahead offered little optimism.

Foreboding skies

Saskatoon was within range if we wanted a 6 hour driving day but the Weather Network’s tornado warning for the afternoon helped to tip the balance towards something not quite so far east. As sporadic showers built to steady rain we approached the # 16 and settled in for a day of driving, with little incentive to stop for photos or sight seeing.

Ken and Renee had loaned us some of their extensive audio book library, so many in fact that I suggested we might have to head back to Alaska in order have enough time to finish them all. We picked out a Robert Ludlum, always a reliable source of fast action, to help the rain drenched miles pass. Fortunately and in no way a diminishment of our enjoyment of the novel, the rain abated as we progressed east, although the continuing dark grey skies provided a threat of its possible imminent return.

We stopped at Lloydminster for lunch and to buy some groceries. Our stop allowed the showers to catch up with us as we headed back to the highway. Lloydminster marks the border with Alberta/Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan is the only province neither of us has been in so we finally have stitched the two sides of Canada together. Very soon after entering Saskatchewan we noted how the land had seemingly instantly flattened. Although still not the endless fields we are expecting to eventually encounter, there is little geology poking its head above ground, just the odd clumps of trees interrupting an otherwise seamless horizon.

Originally, tornado warnings in Saskatoon, dampened our desire to visit it that day. North Battleford appeared to be a good compromise but when we arrived there at an early-ish 4:30 and checked the Saskatoon weather, the tornado warning had been cancelled so, the risk of ending up on an unscheduled side trip to Kansas having been lifted, we continued on towards Saskatoon.

The weather cleared as we continued east and we arrived at Saskatoon around 7:00. We quickly found an RV park along the Trans Canada. As our Milepost guide doesn’t cover Canada beyond Alberta we used our Woodalls guide and the internet to find campgrounds and their related reviews. The park was close to downtown and had treed lots, not something we expected in an urban setting. It was an empty the fridge night so supper was fast and we watched with interest on the local TV channel the funnel clouds and golf ball sized hail storms that had been happening all around us during the day. Having seen the damage done to Renee’s car by a hailstorm in Calgary I have no desire to encounter one of these prairie weather events.