Canada Farewell Tour

We moved on to the suburbs of Edmonton to stay with a friend for two nights. It could have been any house in any suburb in Canada, so I won't say anything more about it other than that we had a great time and appreciated the warm welcoming. While there we doubled back for the first time on our trip to check out Elk Island National Park, a bison reserve. The sole purpose was to see the beasts, and in the end we succeeded. The park starts with a safari-esque drive where we happened to in fact only see a herd from afar. At that distance they appeared as little more than glorified cows. How disappointing. We finished the drive with nothing further to report, and went for a hike within the park that was nice, but unremarkable considering some of our other escapades. Luckily, we saw what we came to see on the drive back out of the park. First, we came upon a male who appeared to be not quite fully grown. He muzzled at the grass on the side of the road and then settled in for a bit. He la...

We moved westward in Saskatchewan and stayed at a municipal campground in a small town called Maidstone. We chose it purely for the low price and desire to get full access to water, electricity and sewage hookups to replish ourseleves for the next few days (we need to refill the water tank and empty the waste water about every three days). The highlights were few, but I was pretty stoked about one thing. I was jogging around the town (a good way to shake off the rust from being cooped up in the RV and also see what a place has to offer), making my way down the tiny Main Street when I saw a sign in front of what appeared to be an abandoned Co-op that said "OUTLAWS BEVERAGE CO. Growler refills in the back entrance." Intrigued, I went out back and peaked my head inside an open door to find a tiny micro-brewery.  The owners were real friendly guys and they indulged me with a little talk of the trade after I informed them of my own interest in brewing and possibly opening up a sma...

We continued our drive through flyover country, leaving Manitoba (which has been, hands-down, the least attractive province) and moved through the endless wheat fields of Sakatchewan, where the true flatlands begin. The prairies have proven far more consistently captivating than I expected. Maybe it's just that I'm easily entertained, but I never got bored by the scenery, contrary to the forewarning of many. No doubt living there would be a different story, but the landscape was unique enough compared to the rest of the country to hold my interest throughout the drive. The most notable event on this drive was when *someone* missed a turnoff to stay on the Trans-Canada Highway, and we had to travel a dirt road for about 25 minutes to get back on track. The lack of traffic for as far as the eye could see did allow us to leave the vehicle for a spell. Our destination that day was a free (and unbelievably well caretaken, considering) campground just off the highway. There were no s...

Though Winnipeg was a bust, we did manage to eek out a few positive experiences on Day 16, our second (and final) full day in Manitoba. We started to enter semi-prairie territory about a half hour (maybe more) after departing "The Peg." We took our chances with a place called the Little Red Barn (A on the map) that was advertising fresh produce along the highway. It proved to have been a really nice little shop, with some of the wares from their farm adjacent, and the rest grown or produced locally. The owner, a lady in her sixties (I reckon), was kind and talkative--but not overly so--and (I can only speak for myself here), but I left the shop not only with some of the best homemade relish I've ever tasted, but a sense of restoration after the debacle the night prior. I needed that stopover to be a win, and the lady at the Little Red Barn (who looked a bit like former Federal Reserve head Janet Yellen, but is clearly a much better person) delivered big-time. Shout out to...