Wide Load

Leaving Swift Current on Saturday morning we drove for a few miles at 70 mph behind this rig

Wide Load

We spent nearly the whole day driving by field after field of freshly rolled hay and tractors working on making more.  There appears to be several methods of securing the rolls, the most common ones I saw were a  mesh wrap around the outside or a couple of string bands around the roll.  Some rolls are completely wrapped with a white fabric-looking material. 

Passing from Manitoba into Alberta didn’t make much difference in the scenery.  There were still fields, one after another, filled with yellow blooms – canola or mustard -- and grains.  As we progressed northwestward, however, there were more hills, richer colors in the sky and trees.  Every imaginable shade of green and yellow, red roofs on white buildings, and the sky.  I haven’t seen such a sky, stretching from horizon to horizon, brilliant blue with white clouds, since we lived in Colorado.  There were more farms with cattle and ponds, houses surrounded with high stands of various trees.  In between those farms were miles and miles and miles of wide open spaces.  You could be “alone” out here.

Alone

I drove off the road, stopped and got outside to take this!  What can you say?

The railroad track follows the highway for a lot of our miles.  Trains are long and often have engines in the front, somewhere in the middle and at the rear.   They appear to be carrying grain from the huge and very photogenic elevators.  Some of those look like sailing ships with complex rigging when you see them from a distance. 

On this divided highway traffic rolls along at around 70 mph (110 kph.)  What keeps you from getting hypnotized by the miles and the scenery is the fact that this isn’t an interstate with controlled on and off ramps.  There are frequent access points for the local cross roads and rarely are there signal lights.  It’s disconcerting to be watching ahead and see a double-trailer coming across your lane as you approach at that speed.  You stay awake!

Crossing!

One of the rest stops had three markers describing the history of ranching in the area.  Here is the text of one of the markers:

The "76" Ranch

The "76" Ranch took its name from the brand it used by the Powder River Ranch in Wyoming. When Sir John Lister-Kay bought the ranch's entire herd of cattle for his land development, he kept the brand and took the name "76."

This was the site of the Crane Lake Farm., one of the ten such farms that together made up the "76" Ranch. In 1890 it was made the cattle operations headquarters.

Each farm had a two storey house, a bunk house, stable and machine shed, granary and windmill, blacksmith shop, harness room, cattle shed, sheep shed and piggery.

The "76" survived the winter of 1906-07, but lost two thirds of its cattle, its British owners sold it to Gordon, ironsides and Fares in 1909. In 1921, the "76" ranch was permanently broken up and the brand passed through a number of owners before returning to this area in 1945.

The Rest Stop

We saw a site along the highway with stacks of metal pieces that reminded us of the Erector Set of our youth.  After a few miles of speculation on whether it was something going up or something that had come down we got our answer.  A new set of high-wire poles is going up.  It really is a life-size erector set!

Erector Set

Last night at 9:15 the sun was still high in the sky.  Being this far North makes a huge difference in the length of the days.  We’re in the same time zone as my parents in Utah and at 9:30 p.m. when I talked to them it was dark there.  I had just been outside taking a great photo of the buildings behind our motel to illustrate the level of daylight.

9:15 p.m. from our back step

Today, Sunday the 22^nd, we will stay a second night in a really nice chain motel in Airdrie, Alberta doing laundry, taking Diva to the park where she can run and chase her ball and generally chilling.  Tomorrow we will head to the Banff National Park just West of Calgary, find a campground and pitch the tents for a couple of days.  There won’t be any internet access there so think of us up in the gorgeous mountains hiking and fishing and exploring.  We’ll be back with photos and updates when the internet signal goddess smiles on us again!