Greetings from the prairies!
Yesterday was a good day. I fell asleep super early the night before, had a great sleep, then another amazing breakfast, this one at Smitty's, next door to the hotel. Then we hopped in the car, put it in cruise control, and went back to the Donald Westlake book. In northern Ontario I couldn't listen to a book while driving, but in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, it's a breeze.
Allan and I both find the landscape fascinating. The highway is a straight black ribbon in the middle of a vast expanse of land, stretching to the horizon in all directions. The sky is huge. For long stretches of time, the only buildings you see are grain elevators, and the occasional clumps of trees planted as a windbreak around a farmhouse.
The fields are mostly covered in snow, although it doesn't seem deep. Sometimes on first impression, we couldn't tell if an area was a snow-covered field or a frozen lake, that's how flat everything is. It looks like we won't catch one of the legendary sunsets, but driving west on a cloudless day, I end up cursing at the sun.
While Allan was driving, I took care of some business: confirmed with our move-in help, checked in with the house agent, and fixed a motel reservation in Calgary.
Other than Dortmunder, the event of the day was a food search. A&Ws are very common out here, and seeing so many of them, I wanted to have a (for me) very rare fast-food lunch. Does Tim's or Subway count as fast-food? I eat those. But I don't eat McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, or KFC. But once a year or so, I give in to a craving and eat A&W, which is an improvement over the others. There was an A&W at a gas stop in Ye Olde Middle of Nowhere, but we weren't hungry yet. And then, nothing.
We passed billboards advertising the tunnels of Moose Jaw. The show sounds like a cheesy tourist trap, but the tunnels themselves sound strange and interesting. Allan likes anything underground, so we'll make a note of that for a future visit. But no A&Ws, and practically no rest stops on the road.
Around Regina we were getting really hungry, so I searched online for an A&W off but near the highway. We had plenty of time, and the driving is so easy here, we figured an extra 10 or 15 minutes won't hurt. So outside Regina somewhere, we took an exit, found the restaurant, ate, and got back on the road. And about 500 metres down the highway: a rest stop with an A&W.
Then more Dortmunder, to which I fell asleep and missed a chunk of story, then we pulled into Swift Current, meeting M at the Comfort Inn.
None of us felt like going out, so A and M went out to forage, and I relaxed with Diego. Last night we all hung out in our room, listening to music, drinking beer, wine, and vodka (I'll let you guess who was drinking what). They had picked up food for dinner, but apparently eating burgers and onion rings at 3:00 is enough dinner for me. Good to know.
A couple of days ago, I thought Diego might be a little depressed. It's understandable -- many dogs would be upset by long days of driving without much pay-off at the end, night after night in strange surroundings. (That's why we brought his bed and a crate.) But our happy boy can't stay down for long. Yesterday he came roaring back, thrilled to jump in the car, bouncing all over with happiness and affection.
Diego also might have been reacting to the general stress levels, now greatly reduced. Our final week in Mississauga was pretty stressful, and we brought that with us for the first couple of days of the trip. But we're much more relaxed now, and have the car-truck-hotel thing down to a science. Allan hates the daily loading and unloading -- there are a lot of bags going in and out -- but at least we know what we need, and it goes quickly every day.
Leading up to this trip, so many people -- both online and in person -- acted like we were insane to even attempt this drive in late November. I am not exaggerating: they acted like we were crazy daredevils, as if there are white-out conditions every day, that we would be risking our lives daily.
It's quite ridiculous. Even in the deepest winter, it doesn't snow every day, and after a big snow, the roads get cleared, and people go about their lives. All of Canada doesn't shut down from snowstorms every day.
We bought snow tires, we packed emergency gear, and I am checking weather and road conditions frequently. But we're driving on roads that thousands of people drive on, without incident, every day.
Allan and I have talked about this a lot, in many different contexts. I find Canadian culture values what I consider an excess of caution.
Today we head to Calgary, where SIL will join our little caravan. We're all very excited about that. The mountains await, and then we're almost there.
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