Today we travelled through the Prairies. The first 2.5 hours of our drive was dedicated to getting out of Ontario - finally! Not that I didn't enjoy the drive, but it pretty much took 3 days of driving to get through it. As I said in my blog post yesterday, I LOVED driving between Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay. And today from Dryden to the Manitoba border was quite a sight as well! I have never seen rock cuts like the ones we saw today! I think the construction workers and engineers who produced this highway were given lots of explosives for the job as there were no up and down hills, just zooming between rocks.
It's true what they say about the Prairies - flat! There was more sky then there was land to look at. What baffled my mind was how straight and far the highway went. I'm not exaggerating when I say that you could go 10-15 km of highway on a complete straight stretch before you rounded a corner. The highway went so far into the horizon that cars would just disappear from sight. It was all new, and to tell you the truth, quite exciting. We had both been told that Manitoba could be a very boring drive. Besides getting a little sleepy (which is completely understandable if you ask me considering we have been driving for four days straight), I was wide eyed and bushy tailed trying to take it all in. The fields ranged in colours from golden yellow to vibrant green. There were areas where machines were harvesting the wheat which I've never seen done before. We also drove past some breath taking sunflower fields. This was probably my favourite part of the day. The yellow and brown of the sunflowers drifted off into the horizon in full bloom. I've truly never seen anything like it before!
Crossing into Manitoba saw happiness in my heart, but the anxiety also set in a little bit. I've travelled in Ontario before, and though I had never been that far west in Ontario, I had been into and travelled around parts of the province. Manitoba is new. And Saskatchewan. Crossing the Ontario/Manitoba border today finally saw the reality truly set in. I'm moving across the country! And I am happy to report that this realization didn't bring on tears of fear, but a smile of bravery and excitement. I think this is a good sign.
Tomorrow we depart from Regina and make our way to our final destination - Calgary! This will probably be the shortest day of driving, which I think was strategically planned. The thought of having to get in the car again tomorrow makes me sick! I am tired of driving, and tired of sitting. I want to get up, explore, and get some exercise. Though I am slightly excited to see the oil rigs and more of the Prairies, I'm also quite excited to stay put in Calgary. One more day, I keep telling myself, one more day.
Calgary, here we come!
I hope to see the sun flower fields!!! Beautiful picture!
ReplyDeleteSo excited for you! And jealous! Nan asked me yesterday how you were making out and I told her about your blog posts and then said, "I wish I were driving across the country."
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure why, but this line made me laugh: "I think the construction workers and engineers who produced this highway were given lots of explosives for the job"
Safe and happy driving today!