Alberta to Saskatchewan

Ernie was a happy man today--once we got out of the city of Edmonton (we actually only drove across the north side, so we didn't get into the city proper at all), we drove through prairie farm country all day! Lots of wheat, other grains, tractors, hay bales, and miles and miles of farmland--a big change from all the mountains of the last several months! I love mountains, but Ernie's preference is prairie land, so he was loving the terrain today! He loves to be able to look out over open country and see for miles, so he was feeling a little claustrophobic in the mountains. The weather was absolutely perfect--sunshine, blue skies, and temperatures in the mid to upper 70s! Staying in Edmonton yesterday to let the bad weather get ahead of us turned out to be a very wise decision! So not only did Ernie get to see wheat fields, but he saw them with the sun shining on the golden wheat!

Some views of Alberta fields . . .

We have now traversed the entire width of the province of Alberta--going west on the way to Alaska and now going east. This afternoon we left Alberta for Saskatchewan, the first time we've been in this province. So far it looks very similar to Alberta, but maybe a little more rolling and a little more "growy." We're spending the night in a city park in Battleford, which has a museum with lots of old agricultural stuff, so who knows when we'll leave tomorrow. :) It remains to be seen whether we'll get across the entire province of Saskatchewan into Manitoba tomorrow. We drove almost 300 miles again today, and Ernie's knee has been bothering him the last few days, so we might have to stop more often for him to stretch it and take breaks from driving.

Our total mileage on this trip so far is getting close to 12,000 already! Ernie had calculated before we left that we'd drive about 12,000 miles, but we're obviously going to exceed that! We'll make it home before the predicted four months, though, even though we're driving more miles than anticipated.

Now that we're headed southeast, it seems like we're getting closer to home. But looking at a map of Canada and the US, I see we still have a loooong way to go! Right now we're about straight north of central Montana. We're not too anxious to get back to Indiana's heat wave, but we are anxious to see the kids and friends!