Hey, I’m far too tired to post photos or give you more detail than the following. But I’ll write more later, if you have any questions let me know.

In Saskatoon I hit up the Western Development Museum. It was groovy, man! We could check out a whole bunch of old cars and see how Saskatchewan developed. It’s a museum. I won’t go into detail about a museum.

Then I hit up Edmonton. Edmonton is a cool. It’s a big city and it’s cool to get away from the more prairiish of prairie lands. There’s a groovy little “bohemian” section of Edmonton that’s pretty awesome to check out. It’s on Whyte Ave. There’s not really a whole lot there, but it’s got nice trees. What am I supposed to say, it’s Edmonton. It’s cool, but not that cool cause I decided not to stay another night there. I had planned two days there.

When I got into Edmonton, I dropped my dad off at the airport and now I’m rolling around alone.

It was cool rolling into Alberta though, it’s a drastic change from Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan was interesting. Nothing prepared me for what happened next.

Stay tuned.

N.

Lates Winnipeg, I have things to do and places to see. So I’m off, we took a route through the town of Brandon, Manitoba. Brandon is the second largest city in Manitoba. People, it’s very small. It was about a thirty minute detour off the Trans Canada Highway. It was worth it. I guess. We didn’t really do anything there. I just looked at it. The houses in Brandon are pretty and old.

From there, we were off to Saskatchewan. I didn’t know if it was worth it to stay in Regina. I did some research on Regina in my trusty Canada, Lonely Planet (which by the way, is kind of crappy compared to other lonely planets I’ve read). Regina didn’t really seem to have a lot to offer, so we decided to play it by ear.

About an hour outside of Regina there is this detour. Now, so far, in Saskatchewan and Manitoba the land is flat. When I say flat I mean it. You can see really really far. Like wow, far. Like wow, there’s nothing, far. But this detour was supposed to be a change. It’s called the Qu’Appelle Valley. Wow. It was so freaking cool. It’s this huge valley in the middle of Saskatchewan. It goes down to this beautiful big blue lake. Along the shorelines there are little towns and settlements. There’s rolling hills all around it. It’s very very pretty. It was the coolest thing I saw in Saskatchewan for sure. If I lost my mind and decided to move to Regina, I’d for sure have a cottage in Qu’Appelle Valley. Check some of the photos.

There is a town called Lebret in the Valley that was also really pretty. I’m ecstatic have seen it. It’s things like this that make the cross Canada tour totally worth it. Who knew, right?

Then there was Regina. First of all, I don’t like saying the word Regina. It makes me uncomfortable. Regardless, we rolled into town. There is a huge manmade lake there. It’s pretty nice. Saskatchewan, and Regina especially is far colder than Winnipeg or other parts of the country. There’s not really a whole lot there. The skyline is pretty weak. The highway takes you right through the center of town and there was a lot of traffic due to construction. After checking out the cool lake and parliament building we decided we might as well make another move to Saskatoon. Saskatoon is only another 2.5 hours from Regina. We were strongly considering rolling through Moose Jaw which would’ve added another hour to the trip, but it was getting dark and we decided against it.

We rolled into Saskatoon. I really liked it there. For some reason there was four conventions and a Pow Wow going on. We couldn’t really find an affordable hotel, so we had to bite the bullet and pay double what we were used to paying. Oh well. I went to the liquor store in town. I was blown away that a six pack of beer costs $15, and they sell it for different prices at different times. It’s cheaper if you buy booze earlier in the night. I don’t know what that is about. I also heard a guy buy a small pack of cigarettes for $14. That’s absurd. Whatever, I guess they really need to tax people hard.

The people in Saskatchewan are really really really nice. At first I thought I had something on my face, then I thought that everyone knew me, then I thought everyone was hitting on me, then I thought I had something on my face again, then I just realized people are really nice. Very cool.

So far I’ve travelled about 3200km. I’m really digging this trip.
So yeah, that’s my word. Thanks for reading. Anything you want to know?

N.

Well, the drive out of Thunder Bay is relieving. No disrespect to Thunder Bay, but it like… This is it? This is my cross Canada tour I’ve been waiting for? But it does get better.

We passed through tonnes of small towns. We actually were extremely close to running out of gas between Thunder Bay and Kenora. That really would have sucked, but we managed to find some random dude who had a gas pump in a ghost town.

Ghost towns are interesting.

I was so surprised when I got into Kenora. Kenora is about fifty clicks from the Manitoba border in Ontario. When going through that town, I really liked Kenora. It’s a small town of about 16000 people, but it was such a drastic change from the industrial towns that I’ve seen on the way through Ontario. There was some sort of factory in Kenora that likely employed most of the population, but at least the town was clean. It had a cute little lake and deer running around. Very nice.

It was pretty cool driving into Manitoba. It was an immediate change in scenery. The sky opened up and took up all of your sight. Clouds were far higher and it felt like you were on a different planet. The land flattened out and the weather got way better.

Rolling into Winnipeg, I was pretty excited. It’s a big city and once again it’s nice! No real grime anywhere. It totally felt like a city. Me being a pretentious Torontonian it was a nice relief from butt town Ontario.

We checked out the Forks in Winnipeg. That’s the spot where the Red River and Assiniboine River meet. It’s sweet. We went to a wine tasting place. I spoke to a lot of people around town for various reasons and they’re very cool. I’d for sure go back to party in Winnipeg. Without hesitation. It seems pretty badass.

For the record. There’s rumours that Winnipeg girls are hot. It’s true. They really are. Go Winnipeg.

So that’s the word. I’m off to Regina and Saskatoon next.

Drop me a line.

N.