Canada's halfway point: One week under our butts

I'm writing this post from the comfort of Tom's son Mac and Adrian's apartment in the southern suburbs of Winnipeg.  Much has changed for me in the past few days since I wrote as we entered Alberta , but for those who care...the smokey air of BC is still with us.  Sad, but true, Western Canada's tragedy is nothing more than a daily annoyance in the lives of those living east of the Rockies.  With the expansive space comes a feeling of possibilities, energy and excess of size and resources to cope with all... I had to remove my "SaveWater..Stop the Pipelines" pin temporarily.  I didn't want to as I still truly believe that BC is a special place, but my "in the know" Calgary friends warned me that I would offend.

Our travels into the city of Calgary, up the Cowboy Highway 22 were not the normally scenic vistas of the Rockies we enjoyed last year, but merely a glimpse of how the air had been affected.

 Finding an RV park in Calgary could have been our choice, but when your almost lifelong school friend Daryl and her husband John offered their driveway for our stay, we felt right at home.  Juggling a household of people is Daryl's specialty and meeting the family from Britain enriched our stay in the city. 

 Meeting up with Lynn, Barry and new friends at the Calgary music venue "The Blues Can" was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.  Just the right combination of talented live music and quirky, eclectic people who love music and dancing was a highlight of our visit.  A "not to be missed" Calgary experience, although when I mentioned it to a more sophisticated school chum..I got a sense, it's not on her "to do list".  Hmmm...I think Mexico has made me accept that how the environment looks are not the essential part of a good time.

 Ollie met a few new friends on his journey through Calgary...  First there was Charlie, John and Daryl's "granddog" who took us walking the hillsides near the Trans Canada Highway...with Calgary in the background.

Then there was Mabel, the brindled rescue cross who makes having a small horse seem possible in the city.  She seems to have no sense of her actual size as she frolics with any other canine who comes her way.  

 Then on a walk through the quiet side streets of Bowness came Mac the cat...a fearless friendly puss who wanted to make Ollie feel right at home.

No visit to Calgary would be complete without seeing Evelyn and Kathy, friends from our Zihuatanejo connections, with Bently and Frida to give Ollie a taste of sophisticated city life in her beautiful home.  Lovely and delicious evening was had by all!

 So after 3 days of friends, food and exploring the city, we said goodbye to Daryl, John and their great family and headed to the outskirts of the city to catch up with fellow Mexico lovers Bill and Linda at their country property.

This is the vista of the prairies east of Calgary that gives a westcoast dweller a new perspective on space, farmlife and the wonders that the prairies just might hold for the next day or two.  Each time I viewed that landscape over the next two days, I found myself reminiscing on the books I've read about the harsh reality of prairie life for the settlers.  It's one thing to be travelling in relative comfort in an airconditioned vehicle with amenities and another to imagine life on the flat prairies with winter looming.  They were people far braver than me.

 Pre-dinner we were given a tour of their son's property where Linda and Bill are renovating a dated bungalow and their ambitious and successful son is building his company's storage building.  Skunks are also dwelling on that property so we chose to keep Ollie safe on a leash rather than smelling skunky in our small trailer home.

 We breakfasted and then said adios to Bill and Linda, with plans for a future Oaxacan getaway in mind.  Off we headed east in the hazy landscape.

Many people had made recommendations for our travels across Saskatchewan, a province which for many Canadians is seen as a "must do" in order to either get to the coast or the East...it's reputation had been entrenched in Tom, but with my urging we chose to head to the Cypress Hills. 

 This is a large interprovincial park is on the SouthWest corner of Saskatchewan and has a deserved reputation as a beautiful and unique landscape that escaped the flattening by the glaciers that the rest of the prairies underwent.  We loved our one night experience there, biking and hiking and would love to travel back, it deserves a stop on any cross prairie trip..maybe someday!

The next day found us planning a drive along the very southern edge of Saskatchewan on Hwy 18 to the little known but intriguing Grasslands National Park...a vista I shall not be able to say I saw...it was the worst of roads for our little trailer and we wasted two hours of driving only to find the access road under construction with fresh oil and dust.  We elected to move on through the vast rolling pasture landscape of the prairie.

 The air smells like sweet clover so a small roadside stop provided our car decoration and aroma for a few hours in the heat.

 We said goodbye to Saskatchewan and spent one very short night outside of Winnipeg arriving just in time to say hello/goodbye to dear friend Jo who had dropped in on Tom's son Mac and Adrian for a few days on route home to Seattle..what a gal!

Mac is a new teacher, starting year two at his school in a relatively affluent suburb south of Winnipeg.   This next week he will set up his classroom for the Gr. 5/6 kids who will eagerly return early September.  All I can say is that they did not build schools like this when I was a student or my kids were.  I love that the young people of the future are being educated in environments such as that.

And who ever imagined that a Canadian school library's would include books in these diverse languages.  Canada is truly an amazingly multicultured country.  I'm expanding my mind in Winnipeg!