The Prairies.

Saskatchewan and Manitoba

First of all, Jon is thrilled with how the van is driving now. Turns out it was the catalytic converter. Not cheap, but less expensive than the transmission. We go north out of the city and east at Aidrie through Drumheller. It's a beautiful day, and the scenery is equally enjoyable.

We make our way through Drumheller and the valley, and once we're out I the landscape changes quite quickly. The land and sky open up in front of us, and it feels nostalgic to me. There is a quiet beauty about the prairies and it's vastness. 

We turn north on a smaller highway, headed for Tisdale. Right before the Saskatchewan border we pass a own called Alsask, (Alberta/Saskatchewan) and immediately after the border another called Manitario (Manitoba/Ontario). Jon takes a picture for a friend who used to play in a band called Manitario. 

Delisle!!

The quality of the highway we are on also changes as soon as we cross the border. Juniper and I are napping in the back, and we're in for a bit of a wild ride! Juni manages to stay asleep but I wake up and enjoy the view from our high bed. We decide to stop in Kindersley. My grandmother on my dad's side was born and raised here, and there are apparently still cousins in the area, but no one that I know. We have dinner at a Western Pizza, it's as good as can be expected, and then start the hunt for a place to camp. We saw a campground sign on our way into town so we head that way. It's a golf course, campground and RV Park, or so the sign says. What it really is is a trailer park partially populated by permanent RV's. We pull up to the trailer marked "Office". Jon knocks on the door and the woman inside is defensive. She asks where our RV is, and Jon points to the van, she tells us no way, not for vans. Jon comes back to the vehicle and is incredulous. He had no response for her, the sign claims campground, but it's obviously not what we thought. We head back towards the town and spy a Walmart sign. Huzzah! Never did we imagine we would be so happy to find a Walmart. We pull in and park and decide to kill an hour wandering through it, so we do. It's a chilly sleep. The prairie winds whip around the van all night, so much that when I wake up to pee in the wee hours I unintentionally pee on my foot. Good thing I was wearing Jon's shoes. We wake and make a coffee at the gas station and drive through Tim Hortons for breakfast and hit the road again. We drive all day, stopping in an obscure town for a late lunch/supper. We burn so few calories driving all day so we're really only eating 2 meals a day. We finally arrive in Tisdale around 9pm. It's dark and stormy. We have no service so we call Sydney, my 18 year old biological sister, from the gas station for directions to their farm. We pull in and are greeted by 3 dogs and Syd trying to wrestle the little one into submission. 

I've been struggling to finish, or even work on this part of the blog, so I'm going to take that as an indication that I should just move on. I'll sum it up in a few short sentences. It was cold. Hella cold. 

Juniper met one grandpa, two grandma's, one great grandma, two aunts, three uncles, two great aunts and one great uncle, several first and second cousins (the youngest being baby Olivia at 3 months!) some cats, some dogs, and a lot of friends. Jon shot a rifle, a dog killed a beaver. We ate the best pizza pie of my youth (still really good), cooked several meals for several different folks. Had a lovely surprise running into my friend Sarah Jane and her husband Robert in front of their house in Canora (my old home town) and had ours portraits painted by her, probably the highlight of the whole trip week! The women in Manitoba honoured us with a shower and I had an excellent time catching up with my closest cousin Genie (Olivia's mom). Juniper turned 8 months (8 months in, 8 months out!) and we each bought a pair of cow hide moccasins. 

The prairies. Windy, snowy, cold. Beautiful in its own way. Glad I don't live there anymore.