Everything in the prairie is blooming right now. I wonder why anyone needs gardens when where ever you look the land is alive with colour.

My time in Black Diamond has been non stop. Catherine and Dwight have taken me to see everything that we could possibly fit into 3 days. We have been to art gallery’s, farmers markets, out to new restaurants and to dinner. We didn’t stop very often or very long. What generous hosts. We even took the back roads through the foot hills and to Banff. What a drastic change in scenery.

On the road to Banff

Banff Village crowded on a long summer weekend

The way home. Hard to believe that an hour of driving can make that much of a change in the view.

Through all of this driving, Vincent has spent his days sitting in the drive way so today we to0k him out for a little fun and let him ford the local river. He was tickled.

Vincent cooling his feet

The river as we drove through

A definate highlight of the trip

I am leaving for Calgary tomorrow but I will miss the laughs and hospitality I have found in foothill country.

Holiday Monday fun as the band does Johnny Cash and June Carter in Okotos town centre.

Banff buddies on the road. These guys don't seem to understand roads and traffic. Luckily people are so thrilled to see them that they stop and snap pics as these guys wander down the roads

Something else by the road side

I found this room with the exact colours I have in my kitchen. See Fred, other people like those colours together too. Of course, my kitchen looks better.

I like the little town of Pincher Creek and as I pulled out of the campground I decided to visit their museum. Wow. I have never seen a small town museum like this. It was huge, literally a whole village, and the horticultural society has made it a haven for heritage plants. Well worth the trip if you are ever in this area.

Sod house from the museum. I am quite taken with these cozy, effiecent homes. I especially like the garden on the roof.

Along the road I passed C0wley Ridge where Alberta Hydro has invested heavily in wind turbines. They sure picked the area well. There were signs warning traffic to be aware of high wind gusts. I sent lots of energy to my bike riding friends from the night before. They were riding along the same stretch, into the wind, into the mountains. I hope they made out ok.

Cowley Ridge

There are hundreds of these things. I wonder what kind of neighbours they make.

As I started to get into ranch land I passed three drovers driving a small herd of cattle. Oh I wished I could stop for a picture but I couldn’t. You just have to believe me, it was like a scene from a movie, except they were moving them along a grassy plain and there was no cloud of dust.

The radio was giving storm warnings and I watched this cloud being peirced by lightning. It was beautiful and I actually snapped many photos trying to catch one lightning strike but didn't get that lucky. I had to drive in the rain for a bit, but basically missed the whole thing.

Black Diamond

When I got to Black Diamond, Catherine and Dwight treated me like family and when I told them I wanted to see a special place that had been recommended by a friend, they took me on an evening drive. This is for you Fay

Okotoks Big Rock

Big Rock in Okotoks is a part of a train of 500 glacial erratics (stones dropped into weird places many years ago during a big melt) that they mentioned at Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump.  I had no idea how big it would be. I thought sort of in the order of Big Rock in Campbell River BC but it is much more impressive than that.

Climbing up the inside trying to make the top. Guess next time I will bring some proper shoes. I stopped about 10 feet short of my goal wondering how I would get down. Not sure they would send a helicopter for me or just leave me stranded.

Both Catherine and Dwight are going above and beyond the call of duty to show me a good time. Tomorrow, weather permitting, we are going to take a picnic and take back roads through the mountains and into Banff Park. That reminds me, I need to charge up the camera battery.

I am leaving for Calgary early Monday morning to visit Wendy’s sister Holly. I am looking forward to that. I probably won’t post until Tuesday. Talk soon.

Isn't it clever the way they conceal a 6 story building here

I locked my keys in the car today. I was just walking away from the parking lot toward the Head Smashed In Interpretive Centre when I realized they weren’t with me. I went back to Vincent and he was standing, shifting from tire to tire, a bit contrite…I mean, should he allow me to lock the doors with the keys in the ignition? Sometimes he doesn’t, but there they were, hanging deliciously beyond my reach. Luckily I had my purse with me…and luckily it has a spare. I am not sure if CAA would have come out there. My memory…sigh. But other than that the visit was great. It is a UNESCO world heritage site. Today they had powow dancers and drummers. No matter how far I walked out into the field, the pulse of the drums followed me. Amazing the distance those drums carry. I didn’t watch many of the dances but saw a Jingle Dress dance and remembered Gail’s neighbour whose steps were just as sure even though her regalia was not quite as elegant.

From the top of the cliff. Glad I am not a buffalo.

I had a tasty buffalo burger for lunch and headed, after several recommendations to Waterton International Park, another UNESCO site. I had hoped to camp there at the place where the prairie meets the mountains (thanks Marce and Gail) but believe it or not, every site was booked tonight.  It was a great drive though.  I headed to Pincher Creek where I am staying in another urban campground with internet service and a creek behind me to lull me to sleep.

Waterton Park

More impressive than anything, today I met a couple of young people who are bucking the winds and biking across Canada from East to West. Rene from Ottawa and (oh darn I am so bad with  names – sorry) from Winnipeg, started in Winnipeg on July 17 and are already here. I ran into them earlier today when I was getting gas and thinking I was camping south of here. We arrived at the campground at the same time. They looked hot but were still moving and after showers, they looked positively energetic. I met an older cyclist who is staying in the same campground and he didn’t have the energy to talk. Both had gone about 100 km today. I have to say, sometimes I think that, as slow as I can travel in Vincent, biking or walking has to be the way to see the country. I pass things too fast to even get decent pictures. My knees are cringing (interesting mental picture) at the notion of some of those hills but my imagination and heart really wish I could do it.

A cyclist's dream. Can you see the windmills in the back there?

I kept seeing signs warning of wildlife on the road and two deer, at separate times made me put on my brakes, once pretty hard, mainly because I didn’t see him throw himself in front  of the guy I was following and intending to pass…erp! Since I was stopped anyway, I tried to get pictures but they were moving fast. I have a picture imprinted on my brain though.

With the heat, my walk around the jump area was fragrant and peaceful.

A beautiful drive along the mountains to Black Diamond tomorrow. Doesn’t this make you want to pull out your map of Canada? Maybe while I am at Catherine’s I will put this year on my map.

The edge of the world. There were storm warnings for this afternoon but looking at that, it is hard to believe.

A few short weeks ago I would have said that the world is round but after today, you could talk me into believing it is flat. Either that or it has a great big blue bowl over it. One or the other, either I will drive til I fall off the edge or, I will run into this great big blue wall.

Mountains on the horizen

Then again, first there was a blue smudge on the flat horizen but after driving for hours an edge or lip to the world became apparent. It looks like the flat prairie actually ends at a wall of mountains. I’m headed that direction. It doesn’t look like I will fall accidentally off. I will have to work harder at it. I will keep you posted.

Most of my driving today was on gravel highways like these, no traffic, lots of sun and sky. Not too hot. Perfect.

I thought I was lost but nope, there I was at the cross roads.

Today was a great internet day. I found it every time I turned around. Tonight I am a community campground in Cardston Alberta. I can hear horses talking to each other and I have Wi Fi. Interesting combination. You might know Cardston as the home of actress Fay Wray, King Kong’s girl friend. When she came home in 1962 they dedicated this monument to her. Cool.

Memorial to Fay

I am in Alberta. I am getting an urge to get those Cowboy boots I’ve always dreamed of. I will keep you posted on that.

Tina – this one is for you.

Vicki on the walking trail around Cardston

Talk soon.

Water damaged side road

I made it to Alberta today and then to the Cyprus Hills Inter-provincial Park. I could have camped on the Saskatchewan side but there are no roads from one side to the other and it would have been out of my way so I decided to come here. I met a woman in the next campsite who said that they didn’t camp on the Saskatchewan side because this year they instituted a new policy that out of province guests pay more. So, I guess it was a good choice on  my part.

Looking through my camera today I realize that all of my pictures are of big sky and long horizons. Wow. It is beautiful. As I crossed the border into Alberta, I began to see flood damage. A section of the Trans Canada is being repaired and we were detoured to the other side of the road, there is water standing in the fields and in one case, I saw a house that had been undermined by the water and half of it was hanging in mid air with no ground supporting it. I talked to a woman at the park information centre and she said that this area had been hit hard. It will take years to recover. The whole population seems to be excited about the heat wave that is on it’s way. Personally, I could do without temperatures exceeding 30 degrees that are supposed to hit us later in the week but it sure looks like this area deserves it’s sunshine.

Sunshine and sky, with hay bales on the side of the road. I wonder who bales them, and who uses them. It is an idea we could use at home.

I guess I whined a bit about everything being closed in Southern Saskatchewan on Sunday but as I drove today I realized something. There is a whole area of Canada that does not have Canadian Tire, Walmart, Tim Horton’s you name it. The big chains have not discovered most of the land south of the Trans Canada in this area. Of course there are some exceptions, the bigger towns do have some of those chains but for the most part, the little towns I drove through had stores and restaurants operated by people who live in those places. Interesting concept. I’m not sure it will catch on but it sure is good to see small towns that still have their own character and haven’t been homogenized by big corporations.

A wild rose. I guess I must be in Alberta

Well, internet has been scarce lately. Hope I get to post this tomorrow, Tuesday, which might even be Wednesday before you read it. Talk soon.

Bird playing hid-n-seek in the bush. Can you actually see it? Some days I want a better camera but most of the time one that fits in my pocket is fine.

Such blue sky

Ok, I’m not really lost but in Southern Saskachewan they must not get many tourists because after I crossed the Manitoba Saskatchewan line I didn’t see any more tourist info centres. I didn’t realize how much I rely on those places until they aren’t there.. Tourist info centre, I couldn’t even find a gas station. I just drove miles and miles seeing only field after field of canola, flax and some sunflowers (not in flower yet but that must be spectacular when fields and fields of them are in bloom) It seems that the roads bypass the towns and unless you turn off the main road you see nothing but road, field and sky with the odd grain elevator or oil pump sticking up in thedistance. I was beginning to worry that I would not find a camping place because my map, although pretty good at showing roads and towns, gave me little other information. Finally I turned into a museum in Estevan thinking that they might at least have some local information. Closed. Yup. It is Sunday in rural Saskatchewan and everything is closed. Finally, leaving Estevan I found a tourist info centre, and what do you know, it was open. The woman there came from Ottawa a few years ago. She cautioned me to get gas before I headed out. You won’t find it out there on the roads on Sunday she said. Yes. I noticed.

I love trains - they are such a way of life here and they seem to go on forever

Tonight I am staying in Nickle Lake Campground just outside of Weyburn Sask. The lake is man made and I can still hear motor boats coming in as dusk is falling. The family across from me is shaking popcorn over the fire and the smell is making me feel like creeping over with my little bowl. Tomorrow I think I will be in Cyprus Hills inter-provincial campground on the Alberta side. There are not many couchsurfing hosts in southern Saskatchewan but there seem to be more north of the trans Canada so hopefully on my way home I will meet more people. For now, the weather is perfect and camping is great.

Prairie Lake - the grass around it blows in waves just like the water

Oh, one last thing. I heard Michael Enright do a repeat interview with Oscar Brand on the occasion of his 90^th birthday. He sang a song he wrote, you may remember it, “This Land of Ours.” He had me in tears by the end as I sang along. It was a good day to be on a prairie highway and singing at the top of my voice.

A small oil rig. These remind me of those silly birds that we used to get that would dip their beaks into a glass of water...remember the ones. These little rigs dip and sip from the ground, stand up and then dip and sip again.

Talk soon.

PS. I forgot my glasses this morning and can’t really see this post so it could be worse than usual. I am not even sure that I got the right pictures in….ha ha.  This campground is unusual in that it has internet service but I walked a long way to get it and I was not prepared to go back. Hope you can read it. I am on my way now.

Straight roads, blue skies and rippling grass. It is almost impossible to drive. I just want to stand and admire.

What luck I had to meet Nellie’s sister Lorraine in Winnipeg. I just want to thank the powers that be for amazing sisters. What would the world be without them? Lorraine treated me like a sister and gave me insights into why I love Nellie so much.

On the way through Winnipeg it was raining hard. I let Karma take the lead. I had an address and no directions. She took me right down town, past Portage and Main. A big fan of the rock band the Guess Who, I was thrilled to be there. Maybe the way back will be sunny and I will find a parking spot and gawk. That day though, I simply clenched the steering wheel and hoped that Karma knew what she was doing. She did.

On the way out of town, Lorraine gave me a by pass, the road was sunny and I missed the traffic of down town completely. Much easier but not nearly as much fun.

Prairie Grass Preserve

Yesterday I went to the Prairie Grass Preserve that I once heard Peter Gzowski talk about. What a thrill to be there. What an adventure finding it. Vincent had a mud bath, but the hot, humid air brought the sweet scents of the un-tilled prairie field to me and it was everything I had imagined it might be.

After taking a 2 h0ur hike and being impressed at the loving way that volunteers have labeled many of the plants, I headed east again for Turtle Mountain Provincial Park. On the way the sky got black and I ended up setting up camp in the rain. Vincent wore his raincoat last night.

Volunteer labels

Vincent in a rain coat

Today I got up and had breakfast, then headed to Souris for a walk across the swinging bridge, a car wash and some technology. I am staying at Turtle Mountain one more night before heading to Saskatchewan.

Long suspension foot bridge - not as sturdy as you might think

When people have said that I would find the prairies a boring drive, I always thought they would be wrong. I love sky and I have not been disappointed. The landscape is startlingly beautiful and the people seem to be just as friendly as the sky is wide.  I have been surprised at how flat Southern Manitoba is. I wonder if it is just as flat in the north.  Turtle Mountain Park is in a more rolling area but the sky still goes on forever.

Could this be Vincents roots?

I am having trouble finding internet service these days. Hope to talk soon.