I've been looking forward to driving through the Canadian Prairies today. I think most people driving past me on the Trans-Canada Highway too easily overlook these prairies, just like our U.S. coast-to-coast travelers frequently fail to see the true value in what they term 'the flyover states'. I grew up on the Southern end of these same Great Plains, and today I appreciated the view of their Northern tip. A Texas ranch would fit in nicely on the Alberta Plains.
Today was a short drive. Only about a 5.5 hour trip from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to Edmonton, Alberta. Tomorrow I'll put in another short day driving the 6 hours to Dawson Creek, British Columbia, which is the Southern point of the ALCAN.
Steeped in fur trading lineage, and historically policed by Mounties, the Canadian Prairies offer some unique stories. Such as The Battlefords, which is the single name of two towns. The towns of Battleford and North Battleford (located in basically the same location) somehow haven't been able to come to an agreement over the last ~200 years to call themselves one town, so all the maps and road signs refer to them as the 'The Battlefords', like introducing a couple at a Ball ("May I introduce, The Battlefords").
Most of the Canadian Prairies are cultivated for agriculture now, and New Holland seems to be the equipment of choice (many of which are tracked rather than wheeled). But there are still some authentic prairie grasslands to enjoy along the route. Like North Dakota, today's drive also reminded me of Texas.
I suppose it is useless to try to prevent the truck from becoming one thick dirty sheet of ice at this point. At least it's not as dirty as it was when we took it up the Haul Road for caribou (at least not yet).
They say no two snowflakes are identical, but there are at least a couple in this picture out my window that are doing a pretty fair job of imitating each other.
More random thoughts:
#1 - If you're going to blatantly copy the name of your neighbor's currency, you should have the decency to at least tie it to the value of that currency to make the math easy. (I'm looking at you, Canada).
#2 - And why am I charged a fee to change my "dollars" to "dollars" (again, looking at you, Canada).
#3 - I really need to brush up on my metric system. I have no idea how far away anything is, or how fast I'm supposed to be going.
#4 - Dino sniffs at 120 Hz (2 sniffs per second), and listening to that for 6-10 hours a day can really get on your nerves.
#5 - Where are all the Canada Geese?
See you in Dawson Creek.
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