Holy Batman!!! That was some windstorm we had in Fort MacLeod! It was so loud that yours truly didn’t sleep a wink! The trailer was rocking (and not from what you think), and it sounded like the wind was swirling through the walls. I think it possibly was a stampede of buffalos reminding me once again of the atrocities done to them thousands of years ago. EEK!!! As I am lying there listening to not only the wind howling, but also to Ray softly snoring (of course he was), I started thinking that maybe we hadn’t closed all of the windows. I got up and sure enough the back window was wide open. Even after closing it, all was not quiet. I think I finally fell asleep about 3:30 . Ray was feeling quite refreshed in the morning (grrrr) when he woke me up at 7:00 so that we could have a coffee and a bite to eat before hitting the road at 8:00. Are we on holiday??? We wanted to get on the road early as we wanted to make it to Moose Jaw Saskatchewan. I was soooo groggy, but only for about an hour and then I seemed to perk up.
We crossed into Saskatchewan (So-Scratch-Me-Once,,,,as my high school geography teacher called it) at about 1145. We stopped at the information booth for a bit of lunch. One great thing about having an RV, is you can prepare and eat your own nutritious food without having to eat in a restaurant all the time. And even though I was tired in the morning, I did manage to fix something so that we just needed to open the fridge to retrieve it when we stopped. I had sliced up some turkey sausage and some cheddar cheese. So gave that to Ray along with a bag of Hawkins Cheesies, that I threw at him as we were getting back into the truck. Did I tell you that I am a fabulous wife! Oh yes I sure am!!! (That is me patting myself on the back….lol). Saskatchewan is known to be miles and miles of flat straight roads. Well the majority of it between the Alberta border and Moose Jaw was rolling hills. Yes there was some flat parts, but not as many as I recalled. We went by a couple of lakes, Reed Lake which is just outside of Morse and it is parallel to the highway. It is a shallow saline lake and is 14 kms long and about 3 kms wide. It is classified as a wetlands with apparently thousands of birds migrating there each spring. Although I only saw about 6 ducks, or geese there. Not too much farther down the road we came to another much larger lake, called Chaplin Lake (near Chaplin). It also is a shallow saline lake, but much larger. It is 35 kms long and about 10 kms wide. There were huge piles of sodium sulphate that looked like piles of snow, on the edge of the lake next to the highway. This lake also has 10’s of thousands of migrating birds in the spring and summer (again, I only counted a handful). Both of these lakes are listed on the IBA Canada website if you want to read up on them. It is a very interesting site.
The wind storm today has not let up. The stampeding buffalos has followed us all day. Driving head on into the wind, the truck was getting 30 litres per 100…..which normally when pulling the trailer we get 16-17 litres per 100. I know this because Ray only told me three times, and kept bringing it up! We pulled into the campground in Moose Jaw at about 3:00. This campground had a laundromat, so even though I was a tired girl, I thought I may as well use the facilities while they were available. The two ladies in the office even offered to do my laundry for me, as they had new washing machines that took two hours to complete a cycle. I declined their offer, but good grief what machine takes two hours??? Some high energy efficient one I am thinking, because our dishwasher at home takes that long. Oh wait,,,,that is me! I am the dishwasher at home!!! Ha ha ha…….. We had decided to take it easy, hang around the campground and then visit the Moose Jaw Tunnels in the morning.
Moose Jaw Tunnels
Anyone who has been to the Abbotsford Airshow will have seen the Snowbirds performing their amazing aerobatic stunts. Moose Jaw is the home of the Snowbirds, I always thought that Cold Lake was where they were based from. It is also the home of the flight training centre for the Canadian Air Force (CFB Moose Jaw). There are a number of attractions in and around Moose Jaw, like Mac the Moose who lords over the the tourist information centre right beside one of the Snowbird planes.
Mac the Moose
Well we all know what this is....
Some of the other attractions are the Moose Jaw Trolley Company (where you can take hour long tours of the city, or take a ghost tour and hear tales of murder), Temple Garden’s Mineral Spa (which is one of the largest natural geo-thermal hot springs in the country), History of Transportation Western Development Museum and of course the Moose Jaw Tunnels, which is the city’s most popular attraction.
The network of tunnels connecting buildings in the downtown core, were originally built in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s as an underground steam system. The tunnels were later used to hide the entire Chinese families of the railroad workers who were unable to pay the government head tax. Terrified members of these families raised their families in the rat infested tunnels and only came above ground to go to their places of work. Access to the tunnels was gained from the basement of the buildings above. But probably the most notorious history of these tunnels was in the 1920’s. During the United States prohibition the tunnels were used for rum running, gambling and prostitution. Because there was a tunnel right under the CPR railway station, the illegal alcohol was easily shipped from the tunnels to the United States via the Soo railway company. There has also been evidence that Al Capone (a Chicago mobster) had interests in the bootlegging operation. Apparently even the local police of the day, including the chief were in cahoots with the bootlegging business. Right up until the 1970’s the local authories denied the existence of any tunnels. But that changed when part of the Main street collapsed. They could no longer deny it.
They offer two different tours of the tunnels. Each tour is guided by actors providing you with the history of the the life of the Chinese folks who lived in the tunnels, and Al Capone’s prohibitions days. As we were a little concerned about the underground air quality and my lungs, we opted to take only Al Capone’s prohibition tour. The actors did an amazing job of re-enacting the bootlegging operation and the corrupt police chief of the day. No photos were allowed to be taken inside the tunnels, which was very unfortunate because it would have been nice to show you how low and dark it was down there. I can’t imagine how they managed to smuggle the alcohol into the tunnels and run their illegal operation, never mind how the Chinese lived there with there children. To get the whiskey down into the tunnels, it was shipped up from America on the Soo railway. And as the corrupt Police Chief and the Mayor knew about this, secrecy was important. And I can't tell you anymore, or I would have to kill you!!! lol
After the tunnels we went back to our site and packed up to head to Regina. This drive was only about an hour down the road, but we wanted to visit with Rob and Rondi Grieve and their boys. Rob is Jim and Marline’s son. He moved his family from Chilliwack to Regina last year because he was offered his dream job. He is a pilot for STARS (Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service) air ambulance servicing Saskatchewan. Piloting a helicopter can be stressful in any situation, but I can only imagine being the pilot of an air ambulance and having to fly in all types of weather to transport victims from crash sites and critically ill patients to the nearest trauma centre. From what I understand, the communities and individuals serviced by STARS are so proud of their pilots and crew and make no bones about showing how they feel. We had an awesome evening with Rob and Rondi and their two sons. We surely will stop on our way back if we are coming through Regina.
Lori and Ray
Awesome picture of the moose! Lol!
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