Linda on a bad hair day
Don before first coffee in the morning
We woke up to a cloudy, windy, cold day (almost freezing). So following our showers and breakfast, we waited in the car for awhile, planning where in Saskatchewan we needed to find our buried relatives - much warmer in the car than outside, and the museum didn't open until 0900. Then into town for a photo opportunity with a very large dinosaur, as Drumheller has the world's largest T. Rex just outside the tourist bureau. Sometimes I think we should be seeing how many of the " World's Largest " whatevers we can find, as I see that there is a town in Saskatchewan with the world's largest coffee pot - hmmmmmmm. At any rate, we made it into the museum about 0930. Many of the exhibited fossils/bones/dinosaurs all came from Dinosaur Park area, where we were yesterday, so it was quite rewarding to see the completed works, along with an overview of the world since life began. Actually that sounds a bit facetious, but it really was an extremely good exhibit! We spent over 3 hours there, and then set out to find Saskatchewan.
Albertasaurus running from Dinosaur Park
We had dawdled a bit in Alberta with north/south/north/south/north trips, but by 1400 we were eastbound on Highway #1. We stopped in Medicine Hat, Alberta to get those pesky hard-to-find butane cylinders, and finally got a few, as well as some more groceries. That now puts our daily total to over our allowed limit, but we've managed to save a bit the past few days, so hopefully on our day of reckoning (tomorrow) we can still be on or under budget.
This is a common sign in Alberta (put in just for you, Janet!)
This was our last chance to get some cheap (relatively) gas from Alberta, so we filled up. Alberta seems to be much more Capitalistic and competetive, at least with gas stations. BC prices tend to be very uniform in price in any given area, with no-one bucking the trend to competetive pricing. Alberta, however, was all over with prices. The cheapest we saw was at 82.9/liter, the highest at 98.9, and average around Calgary and the highways was around 93.4, but still lots of diversity.....stilll a lot less than BC, and likely most of the rest of the country - we shall see!
We finally crossed into Saskatchewan around 1700 (by my watch, on Mountain Daylight Time) which might have been 1800 Central Time, if Sask. is on daylight time - I'm not sure.....maybe it's still 1700 CST. I'll find out tomorrow. There is a lovely little campsite just into the province, called Eagle Valley, which we pulled into for the evening. There is only one RV here, and we are the only tent - room for about 100 more. They have wifi, but it's too weak and erratic to do much with. Free showers, though.....that's gotta be a bonus. As I sit typing this at the picnic table, Linda is shivering off to bed - it hasn't warmed up much, and looks like we're headed for another cold night. So off to warm things up, and do some more exploring and blogging tomorrow.
Sure enough, it turned out cold and frosty overnight - but we managed to remain comfortable in our little tent. We had a warm-up breakfast with porridge and hot coffee, and then set off toward the Heartland of North America, and mid-Saskatchewan. We left at 1030 (which, I have found, is Central Standard Time - no Daylight Savings here), and cruised along Hwy#1, stopping at various historic points of interest along the way. At one of them, lined with windmills, we had a bit of lunch, and then continued, keeping the speed down to below 90 kph (even though the speed limit is 110). Swift Current is named for the relatively fast flow of the only big river around, the South Saskatchewan River, but we didn't find anything worth staying here for, so contined eastbound. Linda has a cousin from the village/hamlet of Herbert, so we stopped for a photo of the place, and then continued, until we'd reached Moose Jaw. They lay claim to the largest moose in the world, so we had to stop to look at that. Our good friends, Dan and Laura, live in our backyard, and their mom lives in Moose Jaw, so we will have to look her up for a visit. Dan had previously told me about a tour of the "Tunnels of Moose Jaw", which has a theatrical representation of the old days of prohibition, when Al Capone and his boys had set up shop here to provide whiskey for back-home Chicago. We were led into an old saloon by Fanny, the saloon-keeper, and then by Gus, one of Mr. Capone's boys, through the tunnels, with a somewhat comical but seemingly realistic representation of the good old days. Very enjoyable - thanks, Dan! (We can see how these two neighbours have developed an affinity to murder mysteries!). After a short walk around the town, we drove into the south end of town to a campground by the river, and set up camp. Too late to spring ourselves on Helen, Dan & Laura's mom, so close to suppertime - but we'll connect this evening, and maybe get in a visit tomorrow.
Nice Moose! Big Moose!
Today is another day of reckoning - two weeks on the road. How did we do with the budget? We travelled 1774 km this last week, spent 169.52 on gas, 245.63 on food, 73.00 on accommodation, and 117.98 on "other" stuff, for a total of 606.13, almost 94.00 under budget!!!! We will need that extra cash later, though.....the price of gas has now jumped almost 10 cents, to 104.9/liter......and I doubt we will find many bargains in the rest of the country.
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