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| Starting Location: | Calgary, Alberta | Ending Location: | Saskatoon, Saskatchewan |
| Weather There: | 8:27pm Mountain Time |
Weather Here: |
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| Starting Time: | 8:27pm Mountain Time | Ending Time: | 8:42pm Central Time* |
| Starting Mileage: | 122,676 miles | Ending Mileage: | 123,258 miles |
| Total Drive Time: | 10 hours, 21 minutes | Miles today: | 582 miles |
| Accusations of Flirting: | 1, at the Co-Op gas station | Evil looks from DQ girls: | 1, in Medicine Hat |
The * on the time is basically some confusion about the time. The clocks in Saskatoon at the motel and the gas station said the same time as Mountain Time, but Denny's and the map show Central Time. My guess is daylight savings isn't observed, but lacking a definite answer, I'm going to assume everything is Central Time. (Thus, we could have actually arrived at 7:42pm and not lost an hour at the province border, but I'm not going to second guess such a worldly matter.)
| 5:50am | Alarm making noise. I rose to switch it off, and found Tubby flopped into my spot. Annoyed, I cozy-ed up on the blankets kicked onto the floor. |
| 7:41am | I awake from my slumber, and good gravy -- it's way past my 6am projected departure time. I begin causing quite a ruckus, but it has the intended effect, and movement begins. |
| 8:27am | At long last, the adventure of the day begins. The details aren't important. We begin our wander around Calgary. |
| 8:56am | There's hardly any trace of the 1988 Olympics being played here, although I'm sure a lot of important things have happened here since. But I can't name a single one, so we hit the highway and left. |
| 11:26am | The next stop, as we switch from a south-bound to a east-bound direction, is Lethbridge. The city wasn't particularly extraordinary, although there was this one green tower thing at the northern edge of town near the Trans Canada Highway 1 on-ramp that I couldn't quite sort out. |
| 1:29pm | Medicine Hat was a good place to make the next stop, call out for a bio-break, and grab lunch. The clerk at the Dairy Queen seemed somewhat annoyed with Tubby's initial inability to choose an order, then making some silly comment about being confused by Canadian coins, and finally, when he called out, "We won!" when the girl used the microphone to call out our number -- 572 -- as though the place were crowded or she'd forgotten who we were. She didn't even offer us ketchup. |
| 2:44pm | We crossed over into Saskatchewan, a fun little province that takes a bit of practice to spell correctly. The map and signs indicated this is Central Time, so I adjusted accordingly. |
| 4:23pm | The scenery isn't what anyone would confuse with being fascinating, unfortunately. |
| 5:11pm | Swift Current is a clever name, and as good a place as any to stop for gas and a look around. Aside from a lot of brick buildings and three train buildings making up a large depot (next to an equally large railroad switching yard), the town wasn't fraught with fascination for me. Taking a northerly direction, I continued to press on toward my final stop for the day. |
| 7:14pm | The final turn between highways came in Rosetown. I didn't find the sign right away, but I really liked the look of the grain elevator against the blue sky. The girl parked backward in the red Ford Tempo, who ran outside to get something from her car, then walked back inside... well, I have nothing really to say about her. At all. |
| 8:29pm | We arrived at the edge of Saskatoon, where we are destined to rest our weary heads. |
| 8:42pm | After checking in at the Thriftlodge (a cheaper sister chain of Travelodge), it was decided food was in order. |
| 9:22pm | After countless circles, we landed at Dennys, to be served by Ben. |
| 10:22pm | With a $4 tip (that's Canadian, but still about 15%, so worry not), we headed over to the Co-Op to fill up the travel vessel with travel vessel fuel. |
| 10:24pm | This is where the stories begin to come unraveled. Tubby and I both agree he exited the car, and the blonde under the charcoal gray Co-Op cap wasn't expected... particularly as this wasn't a full service gas station. Yet, she'd already undone the gas cap, confirmed we wanted Regular [unleaded gas], and began filling up the Expedition.
We also both agree that she had dimples and silver hoop earrings, and no rings were observed... and in that respect, we further agree that no lines were painfully crossed. However, he and I are at odds as to where the line is drawn between conversation and flirtation. (And while I like winning arguments, the young lady didn't have a name tag on, so I wouldn't be able to follow-up with her even if I wanted to win the $2 bet about whether the orientation of the conversation was either here or there. Fortunately, it's a $2 coin from Canada, which is both fitting, and far prettier than two $1 U.S. bills put together, since we retired the $2 concept in 1976 with the U.S. Mint no longer issuing $2 bills). |
| 10:31pm | Oh by the by, it's raining off and on. The car was quite damp on the passenger side, by dry on the driver's side, when we emerged from Denny's. A few drops were splashed on Dimple Girl and Tubby, but of that, I don't care if he gets soaked, Mr. I'm-Not-Flirting-I-Don't-Even-Know-How. |
| 10:54pm | Giving up on updating, largely because of the bickering and because Tubby can't admit I'm right, we just turned in for the night, disappointing all three fans who were so readily following my updates. Until now. Well, not now, as I've finally posted it [two days late]. Apologies to you both. |