Day 3: Brandon to Calgary

Again, woke up very early, I was still on Eastern Time, so I had gained an hour. Headed up the road to the Husky Truck stop on the highway to eat. One thing about Husky Truck Stops is that the food always comes fast, even if it's nothing to write home about. Hit the open road and turned on Chris Moyles on BBC Radio 1 for the breakfast show to break the monotony. Sometime....you want to hear more than music on the radio. It's nice to hear humans talking.

Not much to say about Manitoba. It's very very flat, and the road seems like one straight line forever. The wind was blowing from the south and it was going to get warmer, which was a good thing...in that it was going to get warm, but I had to hang on to the car. The east side of Saskatchewan looks alot like the west side of Manitoba, it's really flat, there are few trees, and very few towns. You start missing the luxuries of an urban area, stuff like Tim Hortons every 10 feet.

Regina is a long drive from Brandon, and the first thing I noticed is how wide the roads are. Everything appears supersized, the roads, the shopping centres. I guess with all this land to pave over, there isn't really any need to make things more compact. I feel sorry for anyone that has no car in this town. It doesn't take long to leave Regina & I mentally set my sights on Moose Jaw, the next city. Who the fuck named this city anyways? Moose Jaw?

Once you pass Moose Jaw, the land isn't so flat, but it's completely treeless and desolate. It also started to snow again, but more blowing snow. There are tiny little towns with 100 people along the road, nothing else. I spent the time listening to this AM radio station that had "Trading Post" going on, where locals called up and tried to sell books & other such stuff on the radio. U know a place is tight when you can give you name and phone out on the air, and when the DJ knows the people by name. Something sorta cool to that, sans the whole hayseed part of it. It seems almost foreign to me to hear people giving out personal information on the radio, hell let alone on a city bus.

I stopped in Morse, Sask for lunch at Subway of all places, but it was closed down. So, with nothing else on the road, I headed for the next hamlet. It was called Herbert, and pulling into downtown (if that's the word) nearly every single store was boarded up. I found a diner called "Family Restaurant" and went in there. Ever get the feeling you're in a classic country video? The entire place was full of seniors who probably went there just to get out of the house and break up the boredom. I felt like I was on display when I walked in there.

The guy that owned the place started telling me he was from Ottawa & Edmonton and had moved there for cheaper housing. He paid 300 bucks a month for an entire house. Hey, I'm all for a deal and shit, but I kept thinking to myself, who the fuck would move ALL the way out here to a town of 200 people that had no grocery stores, etc. He sorta creeped me out, but the food was pretty good. He probably has a booming business because he's the only place to eat in the entire area.

The speed limit in Sask is 110, which makes doing 130 sorta easy. I have seen no cops at all on this trip, but then again, I haven't really seen many people. The place where I stopped for lunch is 65 kms from Swift Current, the last major "city" in Sask. I stopped for gas, and got out of it. Once you pass Swift Current, it becomes (if you can believe it), more freaking desolate. I kept looking for houses somewhere, anywhere, but they are few and far between. These farmers must have liek 10 000 acres of land for themselves. The terrain is these small hills, covered in grass & that's about it. I dont think you can grown anything out here, but there is a pretty big Wind Farm on this ridge in the distance. Here we are, worried about where to get out power, why not just put windmills ALL over this place. We'd produce enough power for the entire free world. I"m sure of it.

Crossing into Alberta, the first town is Irvine, which is my last name (now you can stalk me). It's very flat, and tumbleweeds blow across the road at times. It's also warm enough that I had to turn on the Air Conditioning in the car, lest I sweat till I was soaked. I had made the mistake of wearing a hoodie, and had no clean clothes so I couldn't change.

Drove into Medicine Hat, a city of maybe 50 000. Not much to say about it, but it looks reasonably modern. I wanted to stop for gas, but I waited too long and there were no more gas stations.

Leaving Medicine Hat, you drive what appears to be up a hill forever. I am now incredibly sick of driving and just want to get there. There isn't alot to see, but I can at least hear radio from Calgary now, in certain spots. The first song was Crazy by Gnarls Barkley on Vibe 98.5; a sign of my insanity for doing this perhaps? I stopped to pee in a place called Brooks, where some wierd guy in a suit walked up to the urinal and asked me if I wanted some literature on God. I told him to get lost, because I had to finish taking a piss. People like this freak me out. At least WAIT till I finish my fucking piss you moron. The bathroom in this place was so incredibly dirty it shocked me, I should have probably showered before I got back in the car.

After about 3500 kms, listening to Calgary's New Rock Alternative, I could finally see the city, mountains in the background & a sky that was partly cloudy, but looked almost surreal, sorta God-like really. It was still very warm, like 15C, which was nice. Hard to believe 2 days ago it was -40C. I got on to the Deerfoot Trail, and headed down to where I would be staying until I found a place. The locals whine about the traffic but it's really not bad. The radio kept talking about how bad the Deerfoot was, but it looked like normal traffic in Kitchener on Hwy 8. I think alot of the people that come to Calgary come from small towns in Saskatchewan or BC, so they've never actually seen a real traffic jam. Perhaps the legal system should hand out fines of "Driving in Toronto Rush Hour" instead of making you pay. That'll fix em.

People in Calgary also drive slow. Back home, the fast lane averages about 150 km per hour. Here, people drive 110 in the fast lane and they seem to have missed the part in driving school about SLOWER TRAFFIC KEEP RIGHT. This immediately becomes a bone of contention for me, but I arrive in SE Calgary where I'm staying.

Nothing feels so good as getting out of the car & walking around. 3534 kms in total. 3 days on the road. I am SOOOOOO sick of eating greasy food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I'm awake till 8 PM when I pass out, still in my clothes.