Day One, Trip Three
So I guess this is the third time I'm driving most of the way across Canada. I'm so blase about it by this point that it phases me a lot less than it should that over the next 9 days or so (yes, I'm stretching it out his year) I'll be driving around 5200 kilometers. Plus a digression down to Halifax. Oh, minus the 700 kilometers I drove today. So more like 4500. Yeesh. You'd think I'd - I don't know - plan for contingencies or something. Ah, well.
So I made it to Regina. Their wireless Internet is working this time around; I don't believe it was last year, although since last year I got here as the sun was setting and then went walking to find a grocery store, came back, made food, watched a news story about escaped convicts and then went contentedly to bed, I don't think I would have had a lot of time to write. This year, I got here around five, which gives me time to type a little somethin' somethin' to you all, grab a shower (long hot days in a non-air conditioned car make you icky), and then go find the legislature buildings and pretty parks that are all within a few blocks from here. And maybe some food.
Drive was good. You always notice different things on the road - even one you've travelled before, and maybe even more so on roads that you are very familiar with, if you're bothering to pay any attention at all. For example. last year, possibly on both legs of the trip, I found Swift Current to be a very cute little town, nestled in a clutch of little hills, very green, very non-Saskatchewan. This time around it looked substantially beige-er than before, and even the questionably-named Swift Current Creek looked rather small.
Throughout the trip I was fascinated by the flowers along the sides of the road and in the median. There were clumps of them, butter yellow and various purples, among the prairie grasses that ranged from a vibrant kelly green to a more sagey, powdered-sugar-dusted green, to gold and silvers. I think I may one day like to have a sitting room or bedroom in green and yellow and purple; it was just lovely. I must agree with Elanor: the prairies are anything but boring.
What else can I tell you? Maybe more tomorrow; the walking around, pretty building picture taking part of the day has yet to come...I'm spending two days (well, a day and a bit, depending on how early I get there tomorrow) in Winnipeg, and I want to wander around there too, but I'll tell you guys all about it.
Off I go! Provincial government buildings beware!
So I made it to Regina. Their wireless Internet is working this time around; I don't believe it was last year, although since last year I got here as the sun was setting and then went walking to find a grocery store, came back, made food, watched a news story about escaped convicts and then went contentedly to bed, I don't think I would have had a lot of time to write. This year, I got here around five, which gives me time to type a little somethin' somethin' to you all, grab a shower (long hot days in a non-air conditioned car make you icky), and then go find the legislature buildings and pretty parks that are all within a few blocks from here. And maybe some food.
Drive was good. You always notice different things on the road - even one you've travelled before, and maybe even more so on roads that you are very familiar with, if you're bothering to pay any attention at all. For example. last year, possibly on both legs of the trip, I found Swift Current to be a very cute little town, nestled in a clutch of little hills, very green, very non-Saskatchewan. This time around it looked substantially beige-er than before, and even the questionably-named Swift Current Creek looked rather small.
Throughout the trip I was fascinated by the flowers along the sides of the road and in the median. There were clumps of them, butter yellow and various purples, among the prairie grasses that ranged from a vibrant kelly green to a more sagey, powdered-sugar-dusted green, to gold and silvers. I think I may one day like to have a sitting room or bedroom in green and yellow and purple; it was just lovely. I must agree with Elanor: the prairies are anything but boring.
What else can I tell you? Maybe more tomorrow; the walking around, pretty building picture taking part of the day has yet to come...I'm spending two days (well, a day and a bit, depending on how early I get there tomorrow) in Winnipeg, and I want to wander around there too, but I'll tell you guys all about it.
Off I go! Provincial government buildings beware!