The Gods are with us!! Yesterday evening, as we were feeling really good driving along a snow free highway, Ray asked the question whether we should push it through to Brandon, Manitoba, as opposed to stopping at Winnipeg as we had earlier planned. After some consideration, I suggested that we not do so, because taking the extra two hours at night, would mean leaving later in the morning, and therefore we really wouldn't gain distance, and we would be driving more tired at night. So we stopped in Winnepeg. When I opened my email, Randall was advising that there was a storm moving east through Manitoba. I looked at the Manitoba road information on line and we discovered that the roads past Portage La Praerie were closed, and further the roads past that that were not closed were "ice covered". We were very happy that we had stopped.
We left Winnepeg this morning just before nine o'clock - once again it was a beautiful morning. The sun was out, the skies were blue, and although it was -15C when we left it warmed up to -9C when we arrived at Swift Current. So what happened that was interesting along the way? first, we missed our turn off from the ring route around Winnepeg. We began to wonder why the sun was on our right hand side when we were supposed to be heading West. Mmmmmm, found we had driven about 10 mins past our turn off and were heading back towards the east. Fixed that and had a wonderful drive along the highway. The previous two days we talked about the lake view, the forest lined roads, and today it was the prairies.....flat, flat, flat!! But beautiful! The trees and bushes were frozen white, and on either side of us the white bed of snow stretched far into the horizon. There was one stretch of road before Brandon that was a little ice packed, but the rest were fairly clear. Ray was chatting with some guy in Brandon who told us about the storm last night. He said there were 67 cars in the ditch and so the police decided to close the road. Regina was shrouded in fog and driving conditions were generally dreadful. Even this morning we saw about 10 cars in the ditch and one truck rolled over. There is much more snow past Portage La Prairie than earlier. Our second "interesting" moment occurred as we were about an hour and a half outside Regina. Ray was having his aftenoon nap, then suddenly he woke up, looked over and said: "do you only have 60 km of gas left?". As I answered "yes", this figure changed to "50". Since everywhere we looked we could only see snow covered fields (look at the pictures!!), we were definitely becoming a little worried. The GPS was saying that the nearest gas station was 68 km away. I was all for turning back to the last town; or calling the CAA and asking where the nearest gas was. But we kept going confident we would find something.......and we did. We rolled into an Esso Gas Station with about 40km left on the tank.To say we were were thankful, was putting it mildly. So, obviously, one of the pictures is the gas station! There was a also a sign outside the gas station that left us a little perplexed.....maybe it all looks different in the summer time!
So, all in all it was a good day. We didn't make it as far as Medicine Hat - that would have been another 2 hours driving. We are not driving manically, but making sure we get sufficient rest and are fresh for driving. You just never know what you might meet next!
You might think that the drive is boring, but it is not at all. We talk lots; discuss every issue that arises including gun control, the problems on the reserves, polar bears, etc. I have been reading some of my notes on "Not for Profit Governance" and then we discuss various issues arising from the text. And so far, we have not been bored, and haven't had any "disagreements"!! The quiet time is nice. There is not much radio to listen to and I haven't yet hooked up the Ipod with some audio books. There is always something interesting to see. Even in the Prairies. It really isn't so bleak, there is always something on the horizon. And there are all sorts of communities, probably about every 20 km. The roads have been quiet, but not at all today. Lots of trucks always, and today more cars and SUVs and pick up trucks. We are taking each day as it comes, so let's see where we end up tomorrow. We are also marvelling at the capacity of our country to cope so efficiently with keeping the roads open and safe. It's been a divided highway all the way from Manitoba and most of the road has been clear with only some parts where it's been a little slower with packed ice conditions. Pretty marvellous I'd say and the people responsible for all this organization certainly deserve recognition. Thanks for the comments....keep them coming.....and check back tomorrow!
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