Greetings From Cranbrook, BC and the Levang Motor Inn!
Hours Door to Door: 15
kms travelled: 1525.3
Money Spent: $124.56
We had a plan – we were going to sleep in, enjoy the gym at our fancy hotel, eat breakfast, then hit the road for day 3. That all changed when Emile woke up early feeling refreshed – and with a thin wallet – and said “I think we can make it all the way today”. It wasn’t a bad idea, we had about 1.5 days of driving left and it felt silly to stay the night 4 hours away from our destination. So, plans changed – out of bed, in the shower, stop at McDonald’s, fuel up and head out of Winnipeg with a song in our heart.
Just a note here – for anyone who hasn’t had a McGriddle in a long time (like me) – they are as wonderfully terrible as you can remember a sandwich made with syrup pitted pancakes to be. And the Higgins and Burke Earl Grey tea was excellent.
There are those that will tell you driving the prairies is boring, but for me, I love it. The vast expanses, the fields of yellow and purple, the multiple tiny towns gathered on the highway’s edge and the land filled with grain elevators, silos and even small oil pumps. I also love that as a province, Saskatchewan refuses to change their time for Daylight savings – if it is 11:00 am in January, it’s good enough to be 11:00 am in July. They just opted out. I didn’t know you could opt out of Daylight Savings time. – I should try it in the Spring ahead and get my extra hour of sleep. Just like the city of Creston, BC who as a town refused to change their clocks – they are right on the timezone line, otherwise that could be problematic.
I also love that Western Canada seems to have an end to their cities. There isn’t outskirts for even most of the major cities – suddenly its upon you and just a quickly you are through. In Ontario, we stretch and spread beyond the city limits, and now it seems that Barrie to Niagara Falls is one unending path of human construction.
We stopped at a little bakery in Indian Head outside of Regina. I ordered 3 “jam jam” cookies and savoured them as we continued our drive. Actually, I didn’t savour them at all, I ate them as quickly as I could. Emile’s Long John – and I am talking about his chocolate covered pastry – disappeared pretty quickly also.
We missed any restaurant that appealed to us in Lethbridge, so ended up at Jimmy’s Drive Thru in Bow River about 40 kms past. Type of place that really doesn’t care about the service levels – just takes care of business. We ate our burgers on the go as we continued our trip through Alberta.
Do you know the speed limit in Saskatchewan and much of Manitoba is 110 km/hour? You’ve got a four lane divided highway with 5 km visibility. I wonder if they ever have accidents there? In BC a twisting mountain narrow 2 lane highway speed limit is 100 km/hour. I think one of these provinces need to consider adjusting. As Emile was passed several times by the locals, we enjoyed the reemergence of the mountain ranges, and I felt the familiarity of home.
This is where we’ll stick for some time now before carrying on to Vancouver and returning to Huntsville via the United States. It’s not very often that you take a picture of the welcome sign for three provinces in one day – it’s nice to have a break from driving.
July 13th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary: Photo Credit Susan – that’s right! Not Emile!
The Daily EO 