Heading west from Kenora, Ontario in the morning of August 25, we crossed the border into Manitoba within less than an hour, and continued to Winnipeg for lunch, gas and shopping. By then all traces of yesterday’s storm were gone, and it was a hot day. The old part of the city, down by the Assinniboine River, has lots of big trees and plenty of shade, but out in the suburb to the northeast where the Costco is, it was uncomfortable with the sun beating down and nowhere to hide. So we continued west, stopping only in Portage la Prairie for cold beverages from Timmy’s, and ended up heading right through Manitoba and down to Moose Mountain Provincial Park south of the Trans-Canada Highway in southeastern Saskatchewan. There was another time change at the border, so we gained back another hour. We were hoping for a refreshing swim in the lake before getting a campsite but, although the beach was fine, the lake was a bit scummy with algae and we didn’t go in. Our campsite was by another lake, also not suitable for swimming, but we enjoyed a nice sunset over the lake and through the trees while enjoying dinner.
On Monday August 26 (day 66 of our journey) we left Moose Mountain Provincial Park and headed to Regina, where we again headed to Costco for gas and a bit of shopping, and did some banking. From there it was down to the legislature (the only provincial legislature we hadn’t seen yet) and walked around the grounds and inside the main building, where Rhonda and Lyndsay had a tour.
From Regina we continued west to Moose Jaw, the site of some infamous tunnels below the streets. They were originally built as part of steam works to heat the downtown buildings, but were later put to other uses, as explained in two theatrical tours that we took. The second tour related to the earlier time, in the late 1880’s. It seems that after the CPR was finished in 1885, there were a lot of Chinese labourers around, and more kept coming, due to war and poverty in China. Some of these people found work in laundries in places like Moose Jaw, but were kept underground and out of sight, and forced to live and work in deplorable and slave-like conditions. The other tour, which was more light-hearted, relates to the time of prohibition in the USA in the 1920’s and 1930’s, where alcohol production there was banned, but it carried on in parts of Canada. It seems that there is a railway the heads north from Chicago to Moose Jaw and ends in tunnels near the ones we were in, and the infamous American gangster Al Capone frequented Moose Jaw and used the tunnels below town as a base for a rum-running operation. During the tour we were all cast as rum-runner recruits, and each of us was singled out at one time or other for a theatrical role. Lyndsay was given a really cool gangster nickname that she doesn’t want me to disclose here! After the tours we drove to the training air force base (where the Snowbirds are based), where one of Rhonda’s former students currently lives with her family while her husband is undergoing flight training. We had pizza dinner with them, before driving to the local Wal-Mart to park for the night.
At the Legislature, Regina
From Regina we continued west to Moose Jaw, the site of some infamous tunnels below the streets. They were originally built as part of steam works to heat the downtown buildings, but were later put to other uses, as explained in two theatrical tours that we took. The second tour related to the earlier time, in the late 1880’s. It seems that after the CPR was finished in 1885, there were a lot of Chinese labourers around, and more kept coming, due to war and poverty in China. Some of these people found work in laundries in places like Moose Jaw, but were kept underground and out of sight, and forced to live and work in deplorable and slave-like conditions. The other tour, which was more light-hearted, relates to the time of prohibition in the USA in the 1920’s and 1930’s, where alcohol production there was banned, but it carried on in parts of Canada. It seems that there is a railway the heads north from Chicago to Moose Jaw and ends in tunnels near the ones we were in, and the infamous American gangster Al Capone frequented Moose Jaw and used the tunnels below town as a base for a rum-running operation. During the tour we were all cast as rum-runner recruits, and each of us was singled out at one time or other for a theatrical role. Lyndsay was given a really cool gangster nickname that she doesn’t want me to disclose here! After the tours we drove to the training air force base (where the Snowbirds are based), where one of Rhonda’s former students currently lives with her family while her husband is undergoing flight training. We had pizza dinner with them, before driving to the local Wal-Mart to park for the night.
Friends at Moose Jaw
We left Moose Jaw on Tuesday morning (August 27) and drove west to Swift Current, where we stopped at a tourist info. centre to get some Saskatchewan souvenirs. There was quite a good museum attached to the centre, which explained how this area was a shallow sea at the time the Rocky Mountains were being formed, and was inhabited by many of the same creatures found in the Drumheller, Alberta area. We had lunch in the parking lot, and then carried on west to Alberta.
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