Water damaged side road

I made it to Alberta today and then to the Cyprus Hills Inter-provincial Park. I could have camped on the Saskatchewan side but there are no roads from one side to the other and it would have been out of my way so I decided to come here. I met a woman in the next campsite who said that they didn’t camp on the Saskatchewan side because this year they instituted a new policy that out of province guests pay more. So, I guess it was a good choice on  my part.

Looking through my camera today I realize that all of my pictures are of big sky and long horizons. Wow. It is beautiful. As I crossed the border into Alberta, I began to see flood damage. A section of the Trans Canada is being repaired and we were detoured to the other side of the road, there is water standing in the fields and in one case, I saw a house that had been undermined by the water and half of it was hanging in mid air with no ground supporting it. I talked to a woman at the park information centre and she said that this area had been hit hard. It will take years to recover. The whole population seems to be excited about the heat wave that is on it’s way. Personally, I could do without temperatures exceeding 30 degrees that are supposed to hit us later in the week but it sure looks like this area deserves it’s sunshine.

Sunshine and sky, with hay bales on the side of the road. I wonder who bales them, and who uses them. It is an idea we could use at home.

I guess I whined a bit about everything being closed in Southern Saskatchewan on Sunday but as I drove today I realized something. There is a whole area of Canada that does not have Canadian Tire, Walmart, Tim Horton’s you name it. The big chains have not discovered most of the land south of the Trans Canada in this area. Of course there are some exceptions, the bigger towns do have some of those chains but for the most part, the little towns I drove through had stores and restaurants operated by people who live in those places. Interesting concept. I’m not sure it will catch on but it sure is good to see small towns that still have their own character and haven’t been homogenized by big corporations.

A wild rose. I guess I must be in Alberta

Well, internet has been scarce lately. Hope I get to post this tomorrow, Tuesday, which might even be Wednesday before you read it. Talk soon.

Bird playing hid-n-seek in the bush. Can you actually see it? Some days I want a better camera but most of the time one that fits in my pocket is fine.