Terry and I made a last minute decision NOT to rush out of Minot this morning. Waking up at 5 AM local time, I realized we had a plastic bag of U.S. quarters saved to do laundry, a laundry bag that was bursting and a laundry less than 20 yards from the trailer. Thus, 1 + 1 + 1 being equal to 3--and the fact that we would be heading into Canada for more than a week--we decided to spend some time doing laundry, having a cooked breakfast and generally making ready.
We still made it to the border at Portal by 10 AM (local Saskatchewan time--one hour behind the ND time). There we had to wait as the Canadian border guards checked out the truck and trailer. Why? I don't know, but we finally got the OK to proceed by 10:30 AM and proceed we did.
We boogied on up highway 39 to highway 35 to highway 33 and on to Regina, Saskatchewan. you know, there are NO rest areas along those highways? For the most part there aren't even any wide spots where you can pull over. We finally saw a sign for a Provincial Park a couple of kilometers off the highway and, since it showed a picnic table, decided it might be a good place to get off the road for 15-20 minutes. Turns out there was a campground, some ball fields and a huge lake (totally hidden from the main highway)--and a fee. When we told the lady at the booth why we were there, she agreed there were no places along the road, waived the fee and told us to head down to the lake front for our sandwich. Beautiful area!
We had a little trouble locating The King's Acres Campground on Eastgate Road in Regina, also. There are three sections of Eastgate Road--two of them connect; the third, does not. And directions that include the step "make a right on the unnamed road" are not much help. We were all set to head a little further out of town to a second campground when we spotted the third Eastgate Road and a big sign for King's Acres Campground.
We got settled into our campsite by 2:15 PM local time and on our way downtown to visit the Royal Saskatchewan Museum.
The museum is located in a beautiful setting off Albert Street with manicured grounds much like those to be found around the Smithsonian in D.C. While the museum is small (only two floors) it has marvelous presentations of the flora and fauna to be found throughout the Provence on one floor and a geological history on the other that is among the best I've seen. They also have half a floor dedicated to the Provence's First Nations' history and culture. We spent two hours viewing the exhibits and left just as they were getting ready to close for the day.
Back to the campgrounds (after a quick stop at Michael's for some DMC floss for the resident stitcher) and dinner.
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