wherein Liz travels through the Canadian great plains
Jul. 15th, 2025 08:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingI decided to leave on Monday instead of Sunday, so yesterday I drove from St. Paul to Winnipeg, where I visited a botanical garden and had dinner (a delicious gourmet cheeseburger accompanied by an interesting local hard cider) in their attached café/bar.
Today I drove from Winnipeg to Regina, where I visited a natural history museum. Unfortunately both restaurants located within a block of my hotel are temporarily closed (probably due to roadwork) and I didn't feel like driving anywhere, so for dinner I ate half of a dubious pre-made turkey sandwich (thrown out: 1 slice of bread, raw onion, raw cucumber; eaten: 1 slice of bread, turkey, "swiss" cheese, lettuce, tomato) and one dubious pre-made pork "empanada" (I strongly suspect this began life as a Cornish pasty recipe, somewhat inelegantly repurposed), both purchased from the dinky café attached to the hotel lobby. Two dubious empanadas remain, lurking in the hotel room mini-fridge.
So far driving in Canada has been an interesting experience. I am glad that Google Maps has switched to tracking my speed in kph, because trying to read the kph part of my car's spedometer is, shall we say, challenging. Also, did you know that in Canada you have to pre-authorize the dollar limit of your gas payments? Wild. And there are no rest areas on the Trans-Canada highway in Manitoba or Saskatchewan (can't speak for any other provinces), so you have to look sharp for gas stations or fast food restaurants at each tiny gathering of stuff beside the road if you want a chance to stop -- and settlements are few and far between on the prairie.
Anyway tomorrow I should reach the gathering place in Alberta, and I am told that toward the end of the drive the landscape becomes excitingly vertical instead of flat. :D
Today I drove from Winnipeg to Regina, where I visited a natural history museum. Unfortunately both restaurants located within a block of my hotel are temporarily closed (probably due to roadwork) and I didn't feel like driving anywhere, so for dinner I ate half of a dubious pre-made turkey sandwich (thrown out: 1 slice of bread, raw onion, raw cucumber; eaten: 1 slice of bread, turkey, "swiss" cheese, lettuce, tomato) and one dubious pre-made pork "empanada" (I strongly suspect this began life as a Cornish pasty recipe, somewhat inelegantly repurposed), both purchased from the dinky café attached to the hotel lobby. Two dubious empanadas remain, lurking in the hotel room mini-fridge.
So far driving in Canada has been an interesting experience. I am glad that Google Maps has switched to tracking my speed in kph, because trying to read the kph part of my car's spedometer is, shall we say, challenging. Also, did you know that in Canada you have to pre-authorize the dollar limit of your gas payments? Wild. And there are no rest areas on the Trans-Canada highway in Manitoba or Saskatchewan (can't speak for any other provinces), so you have to look sharp for gas stations or fast food restaurants at each tiny gathering of stuff beside the road if you want a chance to stop -- and settlements are few and far between on the prairie.
Anyway tomorrow I should reach the gathering place in Alberta, and I am told that toward the end of the drive the landscape becomes excitingly vertical instead of flat. :D
