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Aug 22-26 We drove from Brooks in Alberta to Moose Jaw in one day – about half-way across Saskatchewan. We enjoyed the incredible prairies as we drove along the Trans-Canada. They are not nearly as flat and boring as many have said, rather we found them interesting and beautiful. The landscape is rolling, and we crossed small valleys where rivers had carved out their path. Along this highway it is the eastern part of SK and Manitoba that are truly flat, but even there the colours of the wheat and prairies grass blend beautifully with the blue and white above. The huge farms are amazing as they sit on the horizon surrounded by fields as far as one can see. Tall silos and trees surround the homesteads and from the car some looked like tall skyscrapers of a new town. It is almost impossible to judge distances. And we saw many trains – whole trains. For those who have not travelled or lived here, imagine over 100 cars where the twin locomotives in front and the last car is visible at the same time. Sometimes there is an engine in the middle which we suspected was to help the extra long train around curves as they climbed hills, and most cars were stacked two containers high. It was amazing how many trains there were; a good sign we hope.

After an extra day in Moose Jaw for our third oil change since we left home, we continued east. The low pressure system north of us provided a tail wind of 40 km/h, gusting to 60 and the fuel consumption dropped significantly. One guy on a bicycle sat upright and rode the wind. He was going faster than he could have pedaled. Funny how on that day we saw almost no RV rigs going the other way! Their fuel consumption had to be more than twice ours. When we stopped to refuel before noon, the lady told us that a westbound motor-home had asked about the nearest campground; he was tired of using so much fuel. We made it all the way to Winnipeg that day. Aug 26th is our anniversary and we spent a relaxing day in Winnipeg, as we had two years ago when we stopped here on our train ride west to Vancouver.

24 Prairies