It was a warm “smoggy” day. The temperatures ranged from 22 C (72F) to 27 C (80F).
It was obvious that I was in the prairies. All you can see is the fields of grain, grain silos along the railroad tracks and miles of flat land. As the saying goes … “ When you live in the prairies, if your wife leaves you, you can see her leave for 3 days “. Looking at how flat the roads are, I am certain that if I placed a ball bearing anywhere on the road and nobody touched it, it would stay right where I put it and not roll away. I was almost shocked when I finally came to a small hill or valley.
Trivia question – what is the crop in the picture below?:
I drove from Winnipeg to a campsite about 100 km ( 60 miles ) West of Saskatoon. I was going to drive further, but it was getting late because there were a lot of delays, mostly due to road construction.
Winter is over. It is now Road Construction Season. Several times the traffic had to stop and wait for their turn to drive down the single lane. Once we had to wait about 20 minutes for the guide vehicle to finish leading the oncoming traffic to where we were and then take us through the 10 km of construction. I took a picture of us waiting for our turn.
You can see the “ smog “ in the background in the picture above. It noticed it when I left Winnipeg and got worse as I got closer to Saskatoon. At first I though it was fog but then I remembered my cousins talking about the wind blowing the smoke from the fires in northern Saskatchewan all the way to Winnipeg. When I stopped for some lunch in Russell, Manitoba, I could definitely smell that there was smoke in the air as soon as I got out of my car. The news stations in Winnipeg had reported that some roads had been closed and some areas had been evacuated the previous day, due to the heavy smoke. Everywhere I drove the landscape was lush and green so I was surprised to hear about the fires.
The time changed again as I entered Saskatchewan so I gained another hour. Saskatchewan doesn’t change the clocks back and forth like the rest of the country, so in the summer their time zone is the same as Alberta and in the Winter their time zone is the same as Manitoba.
As I am writing this, I can hear coyotes howling near the camp. Fortunately it sounds like they are a good distance away.
Edmonton is only a 4 hour drive from my campsite, so I am not sure if I will stop there tomorrow night or try to drive to Dawson Creek in BC. It will all depend on how well everything goes. It is a 23 hour drive from Edmonton to Whitehorse and there aren’t a lot of towns along the way. In fact there are stretches in the mountains where there are no gas stations for several hundred kilometres so I will have to make sure that I keep the tank full even though I have a 10 litre tank of gas in the car with me.
Ralf Hamm 
Hi from your three siblings. We are in the back yard at 3 Harvest. Gerda just read your blog and Ulla TOLD me to comment so here it is.
Awesome. Why don’t you put the email address for the blog on her cell phone. She can’t use the phone to call but she has wifi access in her apartment and then she can keep track of me.
Now I have Ulla in one ear and Gerda in the other helping me comment. Gerda says she needs training so we will have to look after that
Have to wonder if the “smog”/haze from the Saskaetchan fires is why the skies in the BWCA were also hazy all week?
Guess the construction delays allowed you the opportunity to stop and smell the wildflowers along the road. We had a severe t-storm with hail and gusting winds that delayed our travel last night.
Had a great week of canoeing with the youth! They were an awesome group to lead!
Failure on the trivia question….lots of gold here along the roadsides, but it is wildflowers.
Blessings as you travel toward Whitehorse. I’m sure that no matter where you end your day’s journey, that it will be full of memorable moments.
How fun that you could hear the coyotes howling as you were writing your reflections on the day! When th noises of the wildlife sing you to sleep it is always a good day!
Can’t believe no one has answered your trivia question yet – it’s canola!
A few people did know the answer but didn’t want to comment on the blog.