5 Exodus – East To Winnipeg
After Spending all day walking around Calgary I was tired out and it was time to head east. At 18:14 I popped on my GPS And jumped on the Trans-Canadian Highway 1.
The trip out of the city was short, and then I was in the prairie land again. Apparently all of central Canada is prairie land. The central plains to the ultimate. It’s flat fields of who knows what for miles on end. It is exactly like North Texas, as I’ve said before. I don’t know what I was actually expecting. Actually yes I do. I figured more hills and Trees. More Montana-ish. I’m not disappointed, since it is Canada after all. But it’s exhausting driving without anything to look at.
Then it became dark.
Apparently Canadians do no have the same love for the road trip as Americans do. Now this is just a guess on my part, but it’s based on a couple of things.
#1 – Their idea of a rest stop is a gravel side road with 2 port-o-potties and a picnic table. That’s if you’re lucky. Sometimes is just a shoulder with a trash can. And they are very few and far between.
#2 – There are no street lights. Ever, Anywhere, at all on the Trans-Canadian Highway. It’s 110 Km/Hour in total darkness.
At one point there were 2 vehicles coming the opposite way and they were positioned just so that I swore they were a single car coming right at me. Needless to say I take evasive actions for no reason whatsoever and then feel like an idiot, and laugh for the next 10 miles. Then at some point they did some patchwork on the road surface and there were large tar patches that looked like there was something in the middle of my lane. Again I’m diving for the shoulder. Again I’m laughing my ass off, cause this time there was someone behind me and they did the same thing.
The other crazy thing is that I haven’t seen even a small town for miles (Kilometers). It’s like there is nothing out here for ages and then there is a gas station in the middle of nowhere. There are roads and exits along the way, but nothing along the highway. It’s like they cut the highway but nobody cared. I drive for a while but I’m sleepy and delusional. I finally find a gravel road they call a rest stop and I crash out. It’s 23:00.
At 02:44 an 18-wheel blows his air horn (and holds it) on the highway as he passes. I jump up, look out and see there is nobody else on the road but him. He obviously did it just to wake us up. Nice to know there are still assholes out there, cause they help make the rest of us look good. Then the other part that I dislike about rest stops is that when I woke up there was a truck parked behind me (asleep I’m sure). You are most vulnerable when you sleep, it’s one of the reasons I don’t like sleeping in other peoples homes. The only thing separating you from the ax wielding sociopath is a glass window. Jeepers, it’s time to hit the road.
I keep heading east and then as the sun comes up I realize just how much the darkness hides. See, Canada doesn’t give a rats patooty that the highway is right there, they build their towns and cities where they feel like. And then they just make a road that connects their city to that highway. So as you drive down the dark, unlit highway you miss the fact that the town is like, 6 Kilometers off the road. I was looking to the left in the field when I realized there was a skyline in the distance.
It was the city of Regina, which is the Capital of Saskatchewan. Do they make sure you know it’s there? Ah whatever. I would have driven right past it.
So I adjust the Tom-Tom, OK it’s a Magellan but that doesn’t sound as literarily appealing. So as I was saying, I adjust the Tom-Tom and head for Regina.
Regina is actually a cute little town. It’s very small but it’s, uh, quaint. Shit I’m running out of adjectives. I figure I’ll find a parking garage and check out downtown. They apparently only have 1, and everyone in Regina parks in it. I find a spot on the very top
Take a picture of myself
And then head down to wander.
I joke but I actually like Regina. I was surprised at the number of “tall” building they had.
My GPS only showed 2 suggested points of interest. 1 was closed, and the other was the mall.
They had a park, which you can see behind me (above) and it had some neat art pieces, like ants in a dead tree
They also had some other statuary, like this
And this thingy
And some famous burrito guy
After the park I walked through the mall. The outdoor mall is several blocks long. It has a ton of very old buildings with amazing architecture that have been recycled. They closed the street to vehicle use and they turned the old builidings into restaurants, galleries and shops. It’s very common in Canada, though I’ve also seen it done in Boulder, Colorado.
They even had a pita restaurant, which caught me off guard, but it was nice to see
I then went into the actual mall. It was really neat because the obviously built it around some very historic buildiings. Where they could they simply built around it, using the building as part of the mall itself.
Where they couldn’t the at least kept the facade.
After that I checked out the stainded glass window that the Royal Canadian Foreign Legion
After that, Regina had been covered. It took just over an hour and I ran out of things to look at. So then I returned to parking garage and realized there was no FRIGGING elevator and I was parked on the 11th level. So after draggin my big butt up all those stairs I went to fill up the car. I also needed a bag of ice, and it was $2.89. TWO DOLLARS EIGHTY-NINE CENTS FOR A BAG OF FROZEN GOSH DARN WATER!!!
Onward Eastbound. Only 6 hours to Winnipeg…
CLICK HERE TO READ MADE IT TO WINNIPEG
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