Day 1- North Dakota to Alberta

Saskatchewan = Wheat

Today was a very, very long day. We decided to cover as much ground as possible today to have a little more time when things get interesting. Let's face it, North Dakota and Saskatchewan are BORING. We left Fergus at 5:39am and drove 17 hours, getting into Medicine Hat at 10 pm, and gaining an hour when crossing into Canada.

We took 52 across ND, a small 2-lane highway. It went right past Sykeston, where my mom is from. That was a highlight for me, since it's been at least 4 years since I was last there.


The drive through ND was relatively long and uneventful. At one point some cows made a jail break through their fence and onto the road, but Kate jumped out and wrangled them back in. We also drove by a five-mile stretch of hills with strange, cryptic symbols on them. Lots of '85 or '64s, we couldn't quite decipher them, and are hoping to find an anthropologist to help. Could these be from when Pioneers staked out their land claims?



The border crossing was slick, and we got through without any trouble, except when he asked if we had weapons, Katie said no while I said yes- I mean, we do have a pretty impressive knife with us. We did wind up smuggling some bugs across the border. Saskatchewan was a more colorful version of ND, with miles of fields of a bright yellow crop that was beautiful, but we couldn't identify. Any ideas?

We saw the only exciting animals on this stretch in Moose Jaw. Well... kind of exciting- a fake moose and some Prairie Dogs.


But we did go and see the murals in Moose Jaw- the town is famous for them, and the ones we could find were beautiful. But it was in the 90s out and the cats were screaming- after 12 hrs they had had about enough of the ride.



I'm not a big fan of SK, it's really rough- we were on the biggest highway in the Province, and all they had along the way was outhouses. Can't you splurge on your biggest and grandest highway? The moment we got into Alberta it was nicer- rolling hills and buffalo- the first buffalo we'd seen, and the hills were screaming out for them the whole way.

We are now in a pet-friendly hotel in Medicine Hat, and Mr Darcy and Bear vote 2 paws up for being out of the carriers after 17 awful hours, poor guys. Medicine Hat is a big archaeological site, so we're excited to explore it tomorrow. Then off to Calgary and camping in Banff tomorrow.

I'm sorry that those of you posting comments have had trouble, I'll work on it tonight and try to fix it, because we really would LOVE to hear from you guys on the way!!!