Day 5 – Monday, May 16, 2022

Our night at West Hawk Lake was a rainy one. Here is the beach area at the park:

We’ve spent the whole day with sunny skies. Rumor has it that there will be rain late tonight into tomorrow morning, but we’ll deal with that if and when it comes. We’re thankful for safe travels.

Yesterday we really entered the prairie. Some stretches were as flat as a pancake. The Winnipeg man camped next to us at West Hawk Lake two nights ago told us the land was so flat, “If your dog ran away from home, you’d be able to see him for three days.” I sensed that he thought we would be awestruck. I guess he didn’t know that the same is pretty much true in the Texas panhandle. Another similarity is wind. We were reminded of hiking in Patagonia.

If you think Iowa and southern Minnesota aren’t pretty, you wouldn’t like the Prairie Provinces either. Spring comes later here so the landscape is mostly various shades of tan. When crops are planted and growing, the browns will be replaced by almost endless fields of green and gold. Right now, I am reminded of Andrew Wyeth and some of his landscapes at Kuerners (alas, no Helga). For me, there is a serene beauty in the broad vistas, a completeness to being able to see the road ahead and behind in their paired infinity.

This afternoon, we are in Regina, Saskatchewan. Regina has more traffic than expected. We found our way to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Heritage Center and spent a nice couple of hours there. The Mounties are a celebrated force with a very interesting history. I remember watching Sgt. Preston and Yukon King on TV as a child. In case you wonder, they don’t have sled dogs any longer.