Today we decided to cover some miles in order to arrive in Duluth a bit earlier than we originally planned.  Canada is great – and unseasonably hot today with temperatures in the 80s in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, but there is not too much to see.  As with our last extended trip in Canada (see Homeward Bound ) we were amazed at the lack of traffic on major Canadian Roads like Route 1 – the Trans-Canada highway – on mid-morning on a weekday.

We departed immediately after breakfast from Eagle Valley Park Campground in order to cover as much distance as possible.  After two hours we stopped so each of us could meet, virtually, with our little brothers in the Big Brothers program at VideoRay. These on-the-road Teams calls – made with assistance from people at VideoRay and Switchpoint Foundation – are sometimes challenging.  We have to choose between trying to use Starlink, or Cellular connections.  Scott chose Starlink and was cut off for a few seconds every few minutes.  Tom switched to cellular (we were within sight of a tower) and had better luck.

Back on the road, and for the last three days, this part of the world is flat! And every town has its grain elevator, like these two:

And grain bins, lots of grain bins. Grain bins are everywhere, individually and in groups of up to as many as maybe 50. We were going to stay in a Grain Bin Campground, where you can stay in an actual grain bin, but our plan change meant we would have to bypass that stop.

In addition to the basic staples for every town, there are many other sights. Some frequent and common and some unique. Here are some of the more interesting ones.

Chaplin, SK is renowned as the “Salt of the Earth.” The are several salt flat-like lakes that were primordial sea beds. The incessant wind whips the salt in the air and you can see the clouds from miles away.

While the local tourist board would have you remember Chaplin as a major stopover for migratory birds, we will remember it for strong gusty winds and blowing salt.  Scott braved the winds to take some pictures of the interpretive signs (there was a French sign for each English sign – very  Canadian, but we are less accommodating and only include the English versions here) and was happy to still have his hat when he made it back to the camper.

A lunch of leftovers and diesel purchases were the only things keeping us from our next campsite – Elkhorn Campground – run by the local municipality and next to what seems to be the local rodeo (referred to as the “agricultural grounds”).  Tom had been emailing the administration, and we were assured that we could take the prime spot – number 8.

When we arrived we saw one camper that appeared to be kinda permanent, but vacant. Otherwise, the camp was empty, except for a lone pickup truck (with no camping equipment).  We also noticed that the washroom was locked.  Tom walked over to the truck assuming it might be a maintenance person’s (it wasn’t). The owner came out of their back door and Tom got some inside information. Linda, the caretaker, makes her nightly rounds at 7pm, so we set up watch. Linda arrived as expected and Tom talked to her about the bathroom situation.  Turns out she had turned on the power and water to the campsites when it opened, but not the washroom – which also had not been cleaned.  Tom’s puppy dog eyes guilted her into going home, returning with keys and cleaning supplies, and opening the washroom.

The washroom has everything you could want – toilets, showers, hot water, etc. – just no shower heads in either the men’s or women’s side (not a problem checking since there were still no other campers.)  You could take a shower – we guessed – but a single very strong stream.  We’ll find out how that goes in the morning.

Dinner of leftovers, Blog, and bed.