Day 22: Thoughts From Saskatchewan

July 14, 2012

Tonight is the last of our three nights in Saskatchewan. We are at Good Spirit Lake, about an hour North-East of Melville and are staying in a nice campground amongst a small poplar forest. Tomorrow we head for Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba. I have lots of thoughts about our short time in this province but there is little way to combine them into a cohesive unit. Therefore, I present a collection of musings and happenings from Saskatchewan.

1) There is no flag that better represents the area it stands for than that of Saskatchewan. Today we were driving along a small, and very straight, country highway, to the left was a young wheat field – green as far as the eye could see, and to the right was a canola field – yellow as far as the eye could see. I felt as if we were driving down the centre of the Provincial flag.

2) Regina kind of blows. We went downtown for dinner on Friday night, only to find a deserted city. Most restaurants were closed and the few people we did see seemed to be in a hurry to get out of dodge. After 30 minutes of walking we stumbled upon a greasy Chinese diner that served some very good white-person Chinese food, the restaurant had only 3 of 20 tables full. There were more people, by a factor of 10, at the Superstore this morning than downtown on a Friday night, not a good sign for a city.

Downtown Regina - Friday Night

3)  I have no idea what the term is for someone from Saskatchewan or Regina. Our best guess is that residents of Regina are called “Reggies.”

4) They REALLY like the Roughriders here. They have highway road signs celebrating old football heroes. They have a whole area of Regina cordoned off as the “Green Mile.” Approximately 75% of all people (from babies to old women in wheelchairs) today (when the Roughriders play the BC Lions) were wearing some kind of team paraphernalia. It should be noted that we travelled about 200 KM today and drove through multiple small towns, all Rider obsessed. One of the two official provincial license plates comes adorned with the Roughriders logo and slogan. They REALLY like the Roughriders here.

5) Despite my dislike for Regina, we all found the Royal Saskatchewan Museum to be a hoot. They had a very nice natural history of Saskatchewan gallery that we all loved, as well as a dinosaur and First Nations Gallery. To top it off, Zaid spent 30 minutes playing in the “Paleo Pit” in the basement – a playroom stuffed from wall to wall with Dinosaur toys.

6) There are a tonne of dragonflies here. I picked 15 full ones out of the grill of the car today. They have been circling our campsite since we arrived 7 hours ago, even going so far as to land on books we are carrying, or beside Owen in his carseat.

7) I was out trying to find a garbage can after dinner and decided to go have a second look by the washrooms. I turned the corner from the road to the path towards the washrooms and came face to face with a mama deer and her 2 babies. The quickly passed me by, about 2 feet in front of me. It was quite something to witness. We have seen this deer family 3 times now in the campground.

8) Owen has been drooling a lot recently, and we finally figured out why. His first tooth came in! Despite indications that it would be an incisor, it was the traditional lower front tooth. The one next door is on the verge of popping out as well. Hopefully this explains the slightly less than pleased behaviour he has been showing in the car.

9) Our car is disgustingly filthy. It hasn’t rained more than a couple of drops in over a week and the combined effects of dirt roads and thousands of bug splatters from the top of the carrier to the bottom of the front grill are taking their toll. When we stop the front of our car becomes a feeding ground for all kinds of bugs. I hope automatic car washes can account for the car-top carrier.

10) We stopped for a lunch in Melville today and stumbled upon a garage sale. It was hosted by an older man who needed to empty his late mother’s house after he had sold it - $90,000. We purchased an old school film camera as a toy for Zaid. He has been loving taking pictures from the car.

11) We stopped for lunch in Herbert, just east of Swift Current, on the way to Regina. We stopped at the tourist centre, which happened to double as an old train museum. Zaid, who has developed an obsession for trains as large as his obsession for trucks, was in heaven. We spent about an hour puttering inside the old train cars. A little gem by the side of the highway.

12) We cannot wait for traditional perogies made by old Ukrainian grandmothers in Winnipeg.