The Road to Regina

We woke up early this morning to the sound of very large rain drops on the tent. That is the last thing you want to hear when you are camping. It was still dark, so I decided to just lay there hoping that the rain would stop, and wouldn't you know it - it did. By 6am the sun was shining and we were off to a good start for Day 3.
Ed and I de-camped, packed the car and headed out. Before leaving Fort MacLeod, we thought that we had better refuel. Who would have thought that a gas station in Alberta would have run out of Supreme gas?
Heading east thru Alberta we put Asleep at the Wheel on the IPOD. This was the perfect background music to travel through cowboy country.
Our destination today was Regina. Due to heavy rain and flooding along the TransCanada Hwy, we knew we would have to detour after Medicine Hat. The detour took us 130 km out of our way, but it gave us an opportunity to visit a small Saskatchewan town we would not have gone to. Think of the tv show, Corner Gas, and you can picture Burstal. Only not so Hollywood pretty. They too have suffered from the recent rains and have only been dry since this past Sunday.
Both of my parents grew up in the prairies during the depression and visiting Burstal gave me an idea of what life may have been like during the dirty 30's. It has not been beautified in anyway and if you changed the year of the trucks, you might think it still was the dirty 30's. It has a couple of motels for construction/farm workers, a Chinese restaurant, a hotel with a beer parlor, a gas station/general store and a post office.
Dad always referred to Saskatchewan as the "bald headed prairies". He joined the army at 17 and couldn't get out of Moose Jaw fast enough. I don't think I ever heard him say a kind word about the province.
I don't understand what he was talking about. Prairie landscape is anything but dull. It is always changing, undulating, rolling and curving. It is dotted with giant grain elevators and concrete storage towers. Fields of new green wheat, and fields of vibrant yellow mustard. Cattle, horses, llamas, elk. Prairie dogs darting across the highway, some making it, some not. Road kill, and lots of it - foxes, badgers, porcupine, skunk and of course, gophers.
I became somewhat nostalgic driving through Saskatchewan. Not from my time spent here, but thinking about my parents and what it may have been like for them. As I was waxing on, Ed said that it was like driving along with Stuart McLean on the Vinyl Cafe and all we needed was every once in a while to have someone singing from the backseat.
Finally, after 9 hours on the road we arrived in Regina. First on stop, 3222 Rae Street. This is the house my grandparents moved to after leaving the farm. It is strange to feel so connected to a place so far from home.
We are spending the night at the Turgeon International Hostel. It is a historic house converted into a guest house. It is another new experience for us. It is clean and quiet and centrally located. What more could we ask. Dinner tonight was Thai food, followed by a walk on a warm evening by the beautiful Wasacana Lake in front of the parliament buildings, along with a few hundred other strollers, joggers and skaters.
For those of you wondering - where's the pictures? They are on the way.
Tomorrow, Winnipeg.