The grand tour of Saskatchewan

Rough estimation of the route using google

The grand tour of Saskatchewan. Or maybe just central Saskatchewan. We stopped in Regina and Moose Jaw to visit with my family and have a graveside service for Grandma (Mary) Zimbowski (1928-2017). As much as I have been told I am going on an adventure, I don’t think anything comes close to the “adventure” my Grandma took, sailing across the Atlantic in the 1950s, landing in Halifax (Pier 21) and then taking a train to Saskatchewan. I remember her telling stories of “what is this place?”. My dad did a touching musical montage of this beautiful strong woman as she raised her 3 kids while working full time, tending to her massive garden, cooking home made bread and perogies and cabbage rolls.  She was an amazing grandma that had a great sense of humour, an infectious laugh and a heart of gold. We miss her.

After staying on streets and driveways of family, we headed northwest to Douglas Provincial Park to meet up with friends. I think Saskatchewanians really do appreciate their lakes as it seems most lakes have some sort of park encompassing them and there was some pretty beaches along this one (Diefenbaker Lake). We also hiked the trails in the park that were lined with cacti and juniper bushes (we got smart and left the dogs at “home” the 2^nd time out due to having to watch their every step with the cacti) and led to beautiful sand dunes with small areas of stunted trees. Got to hang out with good friends too!

Our van and Dawn and Tyler’s Boler

Kim and Ruby washing Dawson

Douglas Provincial Park sand dunes at sunset

The challenges

1. the heat. Mike and I don’t do well in it in the best of times and although it is not even June yet, the temperatures are hovering between 27-29 during the day. Normally we could just go grocery shopping or find a coffee shop with wifi but how do you cool down with the dogs?

2. slowing down. We wanted to have a km/gas money limit but trying to explore Saskatchewan is challenging - things are just a long ways from each other.

3. compost. After composting our fruits, veggies and egg shells for the last 10 years, we are struggling with either how you compost on the road or throwing our organic food in the garbage (hurts my heart thinking about it). My thought is there needs to be a website where you can register your house as a place that accepts travellers’ compost.  We are hoping we may stumple upon  community gardens that may want our kitchen scraps...