Travels With Miranda

Monday had me at Wascana Lake, in the heart of Regina. It’s surrounded by greenery and has paths along its banks for running, biking, walking, etc. There are a lot of tourist attractions in this area.

Then, the Regina Cemetery. There was a whole section devoted to the graves of children.

This is a native prairie grass garden growing right outside the Royal Saskatchewan Museum. Most of these plants no longer grow naturally as the prairie ecology has been changed to accommodate agriculture.

Now on to Wednesday, which was devoted to touring the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Heritage Centre located right on the site of Depot, where all Mounties get their training. The site has a museum that is well worth the visit and visitors are also allowed to wander the grounds of Depot provided they follow the blue Mountie road.

All the buildings at Depot are in the same style of red brick and sandstone.

Finally, if there’s one nice thing I can say about the RCMP it’s that they sure do know how to put on a show.

I was surprised that I was allowed to take the pictures and videos that I did. Must have something to do with the RCMP’s desperate need to improve their public image and seem more transparent.

I’m in Saskatoon!

The exclamation point is because I was certain I’d be camping out at the Regina Walmart tonight as there was absolutely no way my mail could have arrived. I mean, it would be way too convenient. But it did!

It turned out to be a good thing that I had to spend that extra day in the Regina area seeing as I woke up with a cold yesterday and felt like doing nothing but lounging around at home. I’m still stuffed up today, but at least I had enough energy to pack up and drive the 300 klicks to Saskatoon and to deal with the issues that needed dealing with this morning.

One of them was having my new wheel retorqued at a Regina Kal Tire (amazing backing up manoeuvres were required there). The other is such a classic Rae moment that those who know me are going to burst out laughing when they read about it. After Kal Tire, I parked at a nearby Walmart to have lunch, scope out the parking lot, and call the post office. I did what I needed to do, got hold of the post office who gave me the good news, and stepped out of the coach to check on the toad, ecstatic that I was going to be on the road to Saskatoon within the half hour.

Which is when I discovered that I’d locked myself out of the coach. All my spare keys were in Miranda. All the windows were shut. My cats can’t open a door. I just stared at the rig for a moment dumbfounded and in complete disbelief of just how absent minded I can be sometimes. Then, I realised that I wasn’t really locked out after all!

When I park somewhere like a Walmart, I crack open a roof vent instead of a window. This afternoon, I just happened to open the one above the kitchen sink. It’s the only one I can fit through! So, I climbed up onto the roof, opened the hatch all the way, and lowered myself down to the counter (discovering at the same time that I’m definitely getting back into shape!).

That was the extent of the excitement for today, thankfully. I do want to say that I am in the market for a device that will activate at the same time as my turn signals and which will scream out: “This coach is moving into the left/right lane! Get the *beep* out of the way!” I cannot believe the number of people today who blatantly ignored my turn signals and purposely sped up to close gaps that I was about to merge into.

Today was a good day on the road. I love waking up not knowing where I’m going to sleep that night.

Please stay tuned for posts about Moose Jaw and the RCMP Heritage Centre!

I was supposed to be heading Saskatoon way tomorrow, but my mail hasn’t arrived yet, so I’m staying at this park until Friday. If the mail isn’t in by then, I’ll move to a fancier park for the weekend, one with internet and laundry facilities. At least, there are worst places to be stuck!

The park where I’m staying does have wi-fi, but only at the owners’ home, where I’m sitting outside freezing my butt off watching an amazing prairie sunset. Unfortunately, my laptop is much to slow to do any real surfing, so replies to comments and updates with photos will have to wait until I can get online with my iMac.

I had a great time in Moose Jaw yesterday and an equally good one today at the RCMP heritage centre, but write ups will wait until I can provide pictures.

Being out here on the prairie fills me with such peace. There is something about the plains that has always made sense to me. When I first encountered them in North Dakota back in 2005 I found myself wondering if it’s possible to come home to a place you’ve never been before. Everything out here is amplified: the blue of the sky, the warmth of the sun, the sound of the wind… Mornings and evenings are bitterly cold in the fall, but the days are hot. Yesterday in Moose Jaw, I could have have closed my eyes and sworn I was in Las Vegas in June, it was that dryly hot out.

Regina is a nice little city, comparable to Winnipeg. It confirmed to me what it is exactly that makes Winnipeg so special to me as Regina has all the same criteria but one, no strong French community.

The ideal year, it would seem, would be a summer spent in the Prairies, an early fall spent on the Shield, and then a winter somewhere warm and dry.

I cannot believe that I am already a full two weeks into my adventure and that I need to be in British Columbia no more than three weeks from now! I want to spend two nights in Saskatoon and two each in Edmonton and Calgary, so that’s another week eaten up, not counting travel time between the cities. And I thought I’d have time to go to Yellowknife! *laughs* I don’t mind being ‘stuck’ in Regina an extra night or two, but I really hope to be gone by Saturday just because I’m getting to be a little too comfortable here! But after the last two weeks of learning and driving so much, it’s nice to be parked somewhere for a spell and take some much needed time to breathe.

But the road beckons and I know that within the next day or so, I’ll be itching to leave. It’s lovely to know I can, and helps me to enjoy these peaceful moments even more.