North to Canada

Sunday, May 15, 2011
Minot, North Dakota, United States
Woke early for breakfast at the Country Pride Truck stop, not knowing where we would be the rest of the day. Susan and I split the country fried steak platter. Left the restaurant about 8:15, 39 degrees, sunny. Terrain much hillier, more like the badlands as we go north on Rt 52 to the border into Saskatchewan. Near Bowbells we saw snow in the crevices of the hills. ALL along the road on the hills there are huge    formations of rocks laid out in numbers for the graduation year. We saw number from 66 on to present. This went on for miles and these are some hills! We saw lots of nesting birds today. AND LOTS OF OIL WELLS. The land is dotted with them. Topped off the gas tank in Portal, ND at $4.10 a gallon. Arrived at the border at 10:25 in a line of about 5 trucks and RVs. The officer asked for our passports, why we were there, how long, when we were there last and did we have a list of weapons, alcohol, cigarettes, etc. and off we went. Out by 10:35. Ed had worried SO much about the crossing. It was almost anticlimatic, but such a relief. Just inside Canada there is mining. LOTS of piles of dirt that is moved about. We do not know what they are mining for. Speed limit is 100 kilometers, about 65.
We think they have imported the roads from Minn .----washboards. The scenery at the beginning is exactly like ND. Planting has started here yet. Pulled over in Lang and had PBJs. Now using bottled water to drink. Now it is around 70 degrees. We stopped in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan to see the 30 foot statue of a moose, the largest in the world! Across from this is Tim Horton, the Dunkin Donuts of Canada. We had Canadian Maple with Venetian cream and French Vanilla coffee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh my but we will be stopping at other Tim Hortons. We got to Hwy 1, the TransCanadian Highway. The wind has picked up. In Chaplin we saw SALT. They were mining it or what ever you call it. Hillside was white and it was blowing in the wind, looking like smoke or water vapor. DID I MENTION WIND!!!!!!! It was literally SCARY. Ed had to work so hard to keep the RV in our lane and not off the road. This went on for hours.    Filled up with gas at the Co-op for $1.29 a liter=expensive. There don't seem to be any guard rails in Canada. We see antelope, prairie dogs, lots of horses and cows . We had a difficult time finding an RV park for the night. We had to stop and ask twice. We are at Eagle Valley RV park in Maple Creek. It has a tropical theme, very funny in this far north area. The owners have 3 little girls. Ed asked them how they keep them on the ground in all this WIND. Owner said this was extremely unusual for this to last this long. Wind warning on the highway.....TELL US ABOUT IT! We are glad we went this way, but never again do we want to drive this way: been there, done that.   Here we pulled up beside the electricity and water. NO CABLE, NO INTERNET, ONE TV STATION. No weather report so tomorrow will be a surprise.   I am typing in bed and the wind is rocking the RV. It will rock me to sleep. Ed is long gone.
I am writing tonight will have to copy and past when we get a signal again.
Other Entries

Comments

Frank & MA
2011-05-17

We certainly are enjoying your reports. You have a new adventure every day. Love the pictures.

John and Pat
2011-05-18

We have driven in wind like that before and it is NO FUN! The 70 temps sound great...we are having blackberry winter (or some kind of weather) here the last couple of days and the rabbits have eaten all of our flowers! Enjoy the frost heaves in the road and stay safe!

2025-02-08

Comment code: Ask author if the code is blank