Is that a tree!!!!!!?!??!?! Nope just another bush........

Ok the prairies are flat long and mostly straight. If you encounter a slight bend in the road they have  a sign for that,  if you encounter a bit of a hill they have a sign for that. The one thing that I have noticed about the prairies is that the weather is super unpredictable. Most of the time you can depend on the fact  that thunderstorms are guaranteed, it just depends on how long they will last.

 Since I left off I left my friends place in Hodgeville Saskatchewan stopping in the little town of Gravelbourg where it seemed every building was made of brick and it seemed to have a very small central town area. This I discovered was nothing compared to Nokomis where my father was born. It felt as though it hadn't changed since he was born (1934). I could picture it as it was back then with the despression and the war beginning. It was a little eerie and a little awesome.

 Here is the rest of the prairies.......

Watch out for the turn!!!!

 Yup for real that's it.....

JUST KIDDING!!!! THERE IS MORE.

OK so I have had a bit of an obsession with cooking and taking pictures of my food. I won't say much about them but I am just proud of my great meals as I am camping. Enjoy and you can be jealous.


Also this campsite was a Last Mountain Lake (no Mountain in sight) was a fully high needs campsite: by that I mean they had a golf course, a swimming pool, lawn bowling and so on. How ever they didn't seem to have  host on duty the entire time I was there.

 This is the town where my aunt was born but I am afraid this day was really really rainy so I didn't' get to enjoy that town or Saskatoon.

 So I headed for Manatoba ASAP to escape the continuous thunderstorms and rain that whited out my windshield. I actually had to pull over as I couldn't see the road or the cars around me due to the rain.

As you can see though the rain did follow me to Manitoba. The cloud above me is absolutely a thunderstorm. Below I have included a shot of it as it picked up sound power :)

It seems so amazing to see where the clouds end so abruptly.

Can you see the electric light within the cloud???

 So I am getting pretty good at setting up my camp, however I learned quickly after a 5 minute soaking from a storm that I needed to angle my tarp down hill not up hill from my tent..... But NOW I am very good at setting up my campsite.

Fire master!!!

 Here I am up in Riding Mountain Park where I was hit by two thunderstorms but where I also met some great people and enjoyed a two day stint and rested from my driving. This is Clear Lake that is in the national park. There was a lot of life in this park from raccoons to hungry raccons to bisons!!!!!

Example A (please excuse my camping shoes that are very holey in the best way )

Example B

And finally

Example

C!!!!!!!!!!

Ok a little hard to tell in this photo but there is a heard there if you look closely.

 After Riding Mountain Park I seemed to be on lakes seeing sunsets on the beach until I hit toronto.

Breakfast!!!

After two nights in Riding Mountain National Park I went to Winnipeg. I stayed at the Backpackers international Hostel which was alright, friendly host named Bill and some good people were there to chat with. The place wasn't super clean or great but it worked for a night in the city.  I liked this picture to the left because it kinda is the best example of how I experienced the city, where there is neat city with awesome buildings surrounded by a slightly flooded river and debris.

 I did the classic stuff like seeing the Forks market though I found it quite Touristy and not all that fun. What I liked the most about the city was the architecture. I loved the houses and the colours. It was much like I imagine San Francisco would look like.

 Here is the the Louis Riel Promenade. Mid way across there was a restaurant but sadly it was closed so I ended up eating out at a restaurant that was once a rail way station. It was nice to have a date for myself. The picture is to follow shortly.

 Speaking of Louis Riel here is his tomb. I was pulling up to the cemetery when I realized I had actually pulled up right next to his resting place. I couldn't believe it.




RIP

This is where he is buried, the St. Bonifice Cathedral

Here is my dinner date with myself.

 In the morning I walked in Assinboine Park. Her are some pictures of the park and the fun. But I enjoyed it a lot since I am getting the feeling of being in an airplane too long and needed to get out and about. They had a large garden with statues and a kids garden that had many statues made of plants and very unique playground within it. Please feel free to look at the pictures that are part of it.

This dog wanted to jump in like nothing else

Classic day at the beach

Winnie the Pooh

Not that I was big in the first place but.....

 Finally I grabbed my Tim's snack and hit the road for Ontario!!! I am about to head to Quebec tomorrow for a couple nights so I should be able to do an Ontario post soon. :) Hope you enjoyed the catch up. Talk soon :)

Rid'em' Cowgirl

 And by Rid'em' I mean I road the road not a horse, which I was very sad about. From where I left you last I was in Calgary. Here is my route until my first night in Saskatchewan. 

In Calgary I got to stay with my friends Stephanie and David. They toured me about their wonderful city and took me on a walk that we didn't realize was going to involve half our day. We ended up walking along Nosehill for more than 2 hours looking for the best look out and enjoying the walk. On my second night there I went to Karaoke night with them and our mutual friend Wolfgang (yes he has the best name ever!) at a place down the street. As you would expect there was a fair bit of country music being played (though not all country music!). I had a great time visiting with them but had to mosy in order to visit my good friends in Edmonton too.

Wolfgang and I

I'm a pirate!! No for reals I am!!

  I visited with my friend Dee and her man Jer. She took me to the Edmonton mall and he took me on the Mind Bender which some people actually haven't survived. I couldn't scream with my mouth open so I hum screamed (it was effective at expressing my feelings and not letting me hurl up everywhere). But for serious now I had a blast on that thing.

Here are some pictures of me at the mall.... 

This made me happy and sad at the same time.

OMG!!

I"M  A PRINCESS.... ok I have a slight Disney thing...

Mindbender.....

Can you find me.....I am wearing blue! Blue jeans bahaha

My friend Dan who I also visited in Edmonton showed me the University of Alberta which reminded me of UVic in a lot of ways but his school has a room dubbed the Harry Potter room. I went in looking for something more than just the room. Turns out that it IS just the room; that it looks grand and like a room at Hogwarts, I was more than slightly disappointed, but didn't show it! He also took me to the river's edge at Hawrelak Park. We had a nice time catching up and taking in the city. The weather was pretty bad there, windy and rainy so I left without seeing Fort Edmonton which I wish I had gotten to do along with maybe a couple of other things but there's no arguing with the weather and I don't have time to wait it out.

After I left Edmonton I headed for Drumheller. It is a place of historical significance because it is a scientific focal point for Palaeontology. I went to the Museum there where I was enthralled for a long period of time with the different fossils that have been dug up in Canada. Here are some for your viewing pleasure...

I am vertically challanged

Eggs!!

I made a friend!!

  After spending nearly two hours in this fascinating place I headed south to Hillcrest but didn't quite make it so I pitched up at 930pm in the rain in Pincher Creek which not fun my tent and I weren't very happy. The sun shone in the morning so Andy and I packed up (well I did most of the work) and we headed for Hillcrest where my great grandparents lived and died.

A memorial to those lost in the mine in 1926

 I also got to see their old house they built. There are a couple pictures of the house below. It is over 100 years old now and the woman who owns it is a mine just as he was. He was a miner when there was the worst mining disaster Canada has ever seen but he wasn't working that day. 

The cemetery my great grandparents are buried in below Turtle Mountain

Along the way I visited these falls then there was nothing but prairie lands for miles (yes Andy is American so he and I have agreed to say miles).

On my way out of town I stopped in at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. This is a cliff in the prairie lands where first nations would heard buffalos off the cliffs to their deaths and would harvest the bodies for that winter. Can you guess why it's called Head-Smashed-In????


Because  young brave thought it would be a good idea to stand against the cliff and watch the buffalo fall in front of him. Karma or whatever you want to call it got him and they found him with the buffalos with, you guessed it, his head smashed in.

Here are pictures of the cliff from far away and from close up. The jump was used for thousands of years and so there are thousands of bones and artifacts that can be found here. So much so that I found one myself just walking around at the kill site (the picture is below).

Above is a picture of where the buffalo would have jumped off (or most of them anyway). One of the first nations there took a small group to look at the plant life there and so I grabbed a photo.

 After checking out the exhibits and the site, which both of which I found interesting so I would recommend it (though I'd go early or late to avoid the crowds as I did), I headed to Saskatchewan....

This is Saskatchewan.




Just kidding... mostly....

I stopped in with my good friends Nancy and Lilly who I knew from my childhood. Lilly was my babysitter and Nancy is her daughter. In the house we had Nancy's four kids husband and hyper dog Chip. It was nice being welcomed as part of their family for the night. But I couldn't stay long I want to make sure I have enough time to experience east coast and get back without rushing too much. So I left... 

My next post (the prairies- Saskatchewan and Manitoba will come soon since I am already on my way to Ontario now and need to play catch up with my blogs).