Day 78 Miles 266 Prairie Oasis Motel and Campground, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan I had an early start at 8:15. Yesterday I telephoned the Roadtrek dealer in Winnipeg and my “donut” is there. I decided to push on rather than staying at Cypress Hills. I am happy though that I made the 40 mile round trip. The terrain in the area is fascinating with high rolling hills, primarily grazing land for cattle. Bright yellow fields stand out. I later confirmed this is canola being grown. It makes a colorful landscape sometimes paired with purple flax. I didn’t mention that both yesterday and today there are oil wells pumping in the area and also I think gas pipelines. At the information center when I entered the province I was told all of the southeast area is booming with gas and oil exploration. The landscape both days has been much more interesting than I expected. One anomaly today was piles of white material looking like snow but is some form of salt. Dinosaur bones are a frequent find in the area which has an ancient and fascinating story.
Moose Jaw itself is not what I expected. A thriving town less than an hour from larger Regina, one of it’s claims to fame is Al Capone. The Chicago gangster ran a bootleg operation here and I took the “Tunnels” tour, a type of moving “theatre” telling the story of those years. Capone would take the train from Chicago and live quite royally in Moose Jaw. A web of tunnels under the building and secret doors hid the comings and goings of the operation. All furnished in the period of the times, it was entertaining. I was with a group of 15 traveling together. 2 were young boys who became somewhat part of the show to the amusement of the rest of us and added to the improvising of the actors. An annual four day event in which I’d hoped to sample is Moose Jaw’s “Festival of Words” with authors and playwrights putting on workshops and presentations. It looked like a great program but none of the times worked with my hours in town. The program’s website for future reference http://www.festivalofwords.com/ I learned this at a wonderful bookstore, Post Horizon Booksellers where I stopped to check on some titles that Judy recommended. Neither were available but I still walked out with 2 books. They sell online through http://www.abebooks.com/
I was disappointed in the laundry facilities at Prairie Oasis. There really is only one working washing machine and most of the room is taken up by machines designated for the motel operation. It is a very large park with a number of permanent installations as well as transients. I’m again in a type of “overflow” but do have electric and water for the first time in almost a week. I’ve been pleased at how well my battery has performed with the dry camping. I have yet to run the generator though with the warmer days I may need to if no electricity is available for the AC. Today was as high as 87 but fortunately a nice breeze. The name Moose Jaw is said to come from the Cree word Moosegaw meaning “Warm Breezes” which perfectly describes today.
Day 79 Miles 272 Meadowlark Campground, Brandon, Manitoba I decided to hold off on the laundry and the facilities here are great and the most reasonable I’ve found. I had an early start even allowing for time to upload some blog entries before leaving the campground. The terrain flattened considerably east of Moose Jaw but the road was straight with little traffic and I was able to set cruise control at 62 mph and just cruise along for more than 2 hours. CBC broadcasting is great company with good programming that I can usually connect to all along the way. Apparently there have been recent changes to Highway 1 and the GPS frequently thought I was off the road. It has been four lane all the way which is quite a change from the previous weeks.
Moose Jaw itself is not what I expected. A thriving town less than an hour from larger Regina, one of it’s claims to fame is Al Capone. The Chicago gangster ran a bootleg operation here and I took the “Tunnels” tour, a type of moving “theatre” telling the story of those years. Capone would take the train from Chicago and live quite royally in Moose Jaw. A web of tunnels under the building and secret doors hid the comings and goings of the operation. All furnished in the period of the times, it was entertaining. I was with a group of 15 traveling together. 2 were young boys who became somewhat part of the show to the amusement of the rest of us and added to the improvising of the actors. An annual four day event in which I’d hoped to sample is Moose Jaw’s “Festival of Words” with authors and playwrights putting on workshops and presentations. It looked like a great program but none of the times worked with my hours in town. The program’s website for future reference http://www.festivalofwords.com/ I learned this at a wonderful bookstore, Post Horizon Booksellers where I stopped to check on some titles that Judy recommended. Neither were available but I still walked out with 2 books. They sell online through http://www.abebooks.com/
I was disappointed in the laundry facilities at Prairie Oasis. There really is only one working washing machine and most of the room is taken up by machines designated for the motel operation. It is a very large park with a number of permanent installations as well as transients. I’m again in a type of “overflow” but do have electric and water for the first time in almost a week. I’ve been pleased at how well my battery has performed with the dry camping. I have yet to run the generator though with the warmer days I may need to if no electricity is available for the AC. Today was as high as 87 but fortunately a nice breeze. The name Moose Jaw is said to come from the Cree word Moosegaw meaning “Warm Breezes” which perfectly describes today.
Day 79 Miles 272 Meadowlark Campground, Brandon, Manitoba I decided to hold off on the laundry and the facilities here are great and the most reasonable I’ve found. I had an early start even allowing for time to upload some blog entries before leaving the campground. The terrain flattened considerably east of Moose Jaw but the road was straight with little traffic and I was able to set cruise control at 62 mph and just cruise along for more than 2 hours. CBC broadcasting is great company with good programming that I can usually connect to all along the way. Apparently there have been recent changes to Highway 1 and the GPS frequently thought I was off the road. It has been four lane all the way which is quite a change from the previous weeks.
I arrived here at 2 p.m. local time, central daylight. This was a good day to loose the hour. Tomorrow I will head into Winnipeg and then on to Grand Forks, ND. After laundry, I did some reorganizing and repacking of clothes. It should be warm weather from here.
I tried to put a new map together tonight but I still don’t have the hang of charting my path on Google Maps. If anyone has a suggestion, I’d sure appreciate it. Just email me sandy41mail@gmail.com
I tried to put a new map together tonight but I still don’t have the hang of charting my path on Google Maps. If anyone has a suggestion, I’d sure appreciate it. Just email me sandy41mail@gmail.com
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