Strathmore, AB to Swift Current, SK ~Hot Prairie & The Badlands!

Wal-Mart Sunrise!

Wal-Mart again for the night… couldn’t find the campground listed on the map. (We found it the next day further down the road) I didn’t sleep well this night. It was hot, but the main reason was the truck traffic going all night. The “Singing Sam Tires” were humming all night. The trucks hauling sometimes three trailers which makes for 38 tires rolling on the highway. Oh well, I got over it very quickly when the sun came over the horizon sometimes after six am.

A Sea of Grass!

The road east now straight as an arrow for as far as one can see. My gas mileage increasing to 14.5 mpg maybe with a tail wind. I set the cruise control and watched the grasslands fly by. At mid-day we were in Medicine Hat, at the visitor center. I picked up a map to survey the town. I noticed they had a dump station and took advantage of this to empty the tanks and fill the fresh water tank. The old town is down in what they call Alberta’s Badlands. Now here in Alberta “Badlands” means that there are hills and the land is not level. We drove around and looked at the parks, but it was now in the 90’s. We headed east on PH 1.

Let Us Not Forget A Sea of Wheat!

At the Provincial Border, we stopped at the Visitor Center to pick up a map of Saskatchewan (from now on known as “SK”) A T-shirt at the Center says quote “Hard to spell easy to draw”! There was a geocache here and were able to claim our “SK” souvenir on line with their free WiFi.

There are more bugs on the windshield here than any other place on our 69 day journey. The grasslands must be a perfect environment for them. My windshield is also a perfect crash landing site.

Unforgettable Sunset!

Swift Current is our spot for the night. There are storm warnings for severe thunder storms for tonight.

The Prairie Does Offer Beauty Also!

That is what we did and saw