We made it to Saskatchewan the evening before - slept in a quiet campground along the highway and woke up for an early run (Dana has me training with her for a 10Km run in the fall so we are running our way across Canada). The run was quiet - just me and the prairies... and a few dogs that startled me when I ran past them. The whole rest of the run was spent worrying about how I would make it past these terrifying guard dogs without being bitten. I had even picked up a few good sized rocks as weapons to be ready. As I came back around by their driveway, they started bounding across the field... but as they got closer, I realized they were wagging their tails and giddy to see someone out in the middle of nowhere - they were just very jumpy puppies. So I loved on them, and kept on running.
While I was out running the kids were having a blast running around the campground exploring all the new terrain. They even came across a dead porcupine (ewww) and some very live cats.
After a not-so-quick pack up and breakfast (theme of our trip so far), we turned our vehicles east and headed further into the prairies.
Day two found us taking a gas/lunch break in Swift Current where we stumbled upon a lovely little spray-park and playground. The kids were overjoyed at this little stop, and the grownups wondered if we could just move to a house on that block... with house prices so high in Calgary I bet we could buy TWO houses!!
moved
Along the way, we kept quizzing the kids on which province we were in ("What's a province?" ugh), talking about all the farmer's fields and listening to some good music and audio books. At one point we were surprised by our virtual tour guide, Grandpa Jack, who must have been following us from home on the Apple app Find My Friends because out of nowhere he texted me some information about a small town we were just about to pass by. We took the opportunity to turn off into Mortlach, a
Classic Prairie Town, and take a quick spin through the two streets we could find. Our efforts were rewarded with an old grain elevator and a handful of ramshackle houses and interesting stores. Staying on the main highway doesn't give you a chance to see the real life on the prairies- glad we stopped.
We were making good time, so we decided to drive all the way to Regina for the night where we stayed in one of those campgrounds with as many rules as grass on the prairies. I spent a bit of time arguing with the office staff about how unethical it was for them to charge me extra for my own biological children (can you just picture it? A cranky, hungry momma bear!) but alas the only thing we succeeded in doing was letting Dana temporarily adopt a few of my kids. The last straw was when the office guy wanted to sell me a chocolate bar because I mentioned I was probably just grumpy because I was hungry. Haha. Sean says I'm not allowed to go into the offices of any more campgrounds :)
Tell me- what is the point of a playground if not for letting the kids go play while you relax for a few minutes? Let's just say we might have broken a few of their rules :)
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