Canada-US Cruicky’s Adventure

With the time difference we were awake by around 4.30am here time…so with such an early start you would think I would be organised… but nope not as early as I thought… still we were packed and out of the Motel by 6.40am…but by the times e went to Tim ahi tins for our farmers bacon wrap and I had to take them back as they didn’t even cook them,,,it was 7.10 am that we took off down the Hwy… a very, very long Hwy… the staff when I took the wraps back..were very rude…saying they had cooked them..but I insisted so she the main girl threw the wraps in the bin, then held at her staff about doing new ones…I had before she threw them away I had asked could she pls just heat up the ones I had…but she was not in a mood for anything at 6.50 am …. With wraps in hand and actually still cold off we speed…

This was the start of a very long 750k run on yep a great Hwy… but at times very mundane…
Our first look around was at Moose Jaw…yep,that’s it’s name…it had a lot of Mural’s but most of all know for it’s Under ground tunnels.. story to be told below… but sadly we were too early,..to see them, so just looked at the Mural’s,…. As we drove around….

The tunnels began in about 1908 after several Chinese railway workers were savagely beaten at the CPR railyards by whites who believed the Chinese were taking their jobs. This was the time when Western Canada was gripped by hysteria about the "yellow peril," and Ottawa imposed its infamous head tax on Chinese would-be immigrants. Terrified and unable to pay the head tax, the Chinese workers literally went underground, digging secret tunnels where they could hide until the situation improved. Evidence suggests the tunnels were used for many years. The railway workers managed to bring women to live with them and even raised children in rat-infested darkness. Access to the tunnels was gained from the basements of buildings owned by legal Chinese immigrants. The underground residents would do work for above-ground laundries and restaurants and would obtain food and other supplies in payment. Because the tunnels were built adjacent to heated basements, they were livable in winter.

The tunnels became a hub of renewed activity in the 1920s for rum-running during Prohibition in the United States. They were reported to have warehoused illegal alcohol that was shipped to the U.S. via the Soo Line Railroad. The tunnels were also used for gambling and prostitution, all without interference from the corrupt police.There has long been anecdotal evidence that American mobster Al Capone visited Moose Jaw or had interests in the bootlegging operations. No written or photographic proof exists of Capone's presence, but several firsthand accounts from Moose Javians who claim to have met him have been documented. Capone's grandniece also confirmed he had been in Moose Jaw before his 1931 conviction for tax evasion. In the 21st century, the city capitalized on this notoriety to restore the tunnel network into the Tunnels of Moose Jaw, a tourist attraction that opened in June 2000. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, however, states that there is no "evidence that he ever set foot on Canadian soil.

Such an interesting story…what a shame we didn’t get to see this…

The Prairie Plains… even though the greenest of green, just went on and on forever it seemed…with rolling hills they looked like something out of a TV add they looked so prefect in shape….Dotted with massive grain silos, some very small lakes, you could see that they have t had the rain they head in Ontario and Manitoba….

Not far out of Moose Jaw we came across massive salt 🧂 mounds beside the raid and looking to the left of the Hwy was massive Lake e cursed heavily with salt….then further up the Hwy were more Lakes on the jest quite larger lakes compared to what we had been seeing…They however had a green tinge to them…on research they were salty as well just not as salty as the one being salt mined… The first Lake was Little Manitou Lake which apparently has health spas you can go to… Legend has it, these springs were found at the turn of the last century by Cree warriors who appeased their raging fevers by drinking and bathing in this water.

The second lake was Reed Lake it is also a salt lake but known fir it’s prolific bird life that come there every year…. It can get up to 100,000 birds in spring…

Driving along this hwy we are constantly seeing massive train lines…my glory are they long…. They go from one Massive Grain Silo to the other… these silos have huge, I mean huge elevators on their roofs that are used to fill up the trains…
We stopped for morning tea, in a little town or as it turned out to be much bigger again than we thought Swift Current…yep you read right… We had goggled a place to have coffee found one and set the Pravin to take us there… On arriving I spotted a thrift shop in Main Street so off I set to look for a small Themis I had yet another terrible coffee today…so only way is to make it myself… I was in lunch even the Themis expensive brand,,,,as I was leaving a lady dressed in a very long, heavy cotton blue flowers with long sieved and a black and white dotted head scarf on her head..with her were 2 young boys dressed in black suits with hats on they heats old style has and her daughter older than the bipods with a dress the same as her mother but in red…and she also had a head scalp…

They didn’t look like Mennonite’s so after we left I did a search to find out what religion they were… After we left the Thrift shop we saw more ladies dressed the same but with different colours… I did come to find out they were Hutterite’s a form of Brethren religion…and they have 3 different sects of them around this area each sect the ladies dress different..I also read they could have more than one wife…crazy men…

We had our coffee it was ok….heading back to the car we saw firstly the hugest big soft hairy dog…so cute and the we spotted Barber and John desperately needed a hair cut so he went to see if he could get one… he really was looking like a wooly mammoth 😳😂😂😂😂 … I headed back to the thrift shop on the off chance they had another little travel bag I could put around my neck…my little one I use to put my phone in is stuffed to the hilt with bits and bobs, anyway joy of joy I found one just after I started looking and a good travel brand as well..so bonus… all around.. plus the lady who asked if the dog was mine in the street bailed me up in the Thrift shop for a chat…she loved my pants so she chatted and then noted a different accent then struck up a bigger conversation..I must say she is the first person to actual ask about my accent…and wanted to chat…I found most people polite and friendly but not investigate who you are like we di as Aussies…

Anyway happy little Vegemite’s got everything we needed a new look husband 🤔🤔🤔😂😂😂!

Tim and Jess saw a few different animals we only saw 2 deer and some very silly Prairie Dogs playing on the hwy dicing with death sadly some did meet it…

There were very few cattle dotted over many of these prefect shared rolling hills…surprised that there weren’t more… but I guess they have to be stored in sheds during winter…you can’t have a few 1,0000 head of cattle stored in sheds it would be a mammoth task….although we did see one feed lot not sure what they do with theirs…. Apparently the so called deer we saw would have actually would have been Pronghorn Antelope ….this is what Jess and Tim saw closer up…our were in the distance hence why we did realise,,, they are the 2nd fastest in the world behind a Cheetah and travel up to 86mph…

The road which was 2 lane both ways and in some parts kilometres away from each other…we wondered how the local farmers would get to the other side of the Hwy… but did not small cone ting roads leading from one to the other from each farm…
Also a,in* the Hwy were and become more were Oil wells… plus heaps and heaps of Gas pipelines and Gas values popping up on peoples properties… reminds me of home especially when we did our Kimberly Run 3 yrs back the sheer volume of Gas values and pipelines on people properties were unreal…

Tim sent us a contact to join them for lunch at a town called Medicine Hat yep you got that right as well… strange names out here…all todo with the Canadian Indian tribes in the area..,before we go to lunch we had seen a sigh that you could go to a Massacre sight that had been were the Cree Indians we based,.. we didn’t even do sunder going… like our last aboriginal history we have nothing to be proud of in that way either…it’s a very sad part of history for both countries sadly…
Back ti lunch Tim had found a Korean Restaurant called Arriang… we were 30 mins behind them due to our longer than planned stop up the road at, Swift Current….but we made it…the find was great and fast and before we knew it off we sped down that long, long, long Hwy again..you could see it for kilometres after kilometre in the distance…
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We crossed into another Province Alberta Tim and Jess wanted to go to the Dinosaur Provincial Park, we said we would go there too…but when John saw just how far it was to it he decided we would go on to Calgary…it was getting late and it’s been a massive drive again.l. Tim and Jess sent lots of photos and were blown away by the fact it was a shock for them with the rolling green hills abruptly stoping opening into this rugged grass less rocky canyon with unusual rock formations…lots of cactus 🌵which are flowering… and their bonus was to see heaps of massive intact dinosaur skeletons…. They were 2 hours or more behind us…but elated seeing what they saw…

During the day we had heaps of issues with emails back and forth from the owner of our Accommodation we were heading to tonight…He sent an email to ask for a $250 deposit for damages… we did think it odd but plus he wanted John’s ID…John didn’t want give his ID but held off…. He got thinking and started to wonder we had been scammed..so after paying the guy the money he out a lock on our credit card… we eventually contacted him personally to confirm it was him…and it was very strange request but we did it… anyway once here things got very complicated as no info had been sent how to access the unit…phone calls back and forth, text msgs back and forth we eventually made it in… what a pain this one has been and part 2 tomorrow morning will fill you in on more…least to say we haven’t really had these issues before maybe once with Airbnb but not with Booking.com. Guess a first for everything….

Tim and Jess arrived very late very tired, but happy they went to see the Dinosaur park…Tim ordered Thai, I had a little and upset my poor old tummy no end…I sat up till midnight to settle it…maybe one day it will calm…Read more

So, so crook last night…so didn’t get to sleep until midnight, then awake every hour until 4.45am and gave up…went out to get a coffee only to see Tim asleep on the lounge….guessing me being in there probably woke him up….Couldn’t even get the coffee machine working, so back to bed to start the blog… just as I was getting into it we received an email to say the payment for here hadn’t gone through it was declined…ohh my glory…I waited a bit before waking John to tell him…He finally after much hassle and phone calls back and forth with Booking.com who we have never really had issues with..did sort it out…..they were a bit Cross at the owner contacting individuals to get extra payment deposit different from the accommodation payment in case of damage.,… they found this very unprofessional and we’re going to take it up with him…Jess did some research and found lots of past guest had the same issue and were all miffed as to the procedure… anyway we finally got a confirmation email to say the money had been sorted…it actually ended up being quite a painful process and this unit is pretty dodgy anyway…the little wall shelf beside my bed just feel off the wall…. we will have to try and fix this or he will, take our $250 extra money he has gotten out of us…it is to be repaid once he knows there is no damage…let’s hope that’s what happens🤔🤔🤔

Finally done by 7.30am, did my readings, then up for Brekky and start the pic download process…. Never a quick job, but finished by 10am…

We set off on foot to check out Calgary… walking past really lovely homes made very modern around the corner from us…then down a big hill to make our way across the The Centre Street Bridge which crosses the Bow River it connects with Chinatown….and Memorial Drive…..on top of the 4 concrete pavilions are 4 massive concrete Lions which apparently have just been replaced due to deterioration…From here we could see the very tall, Calgary Tower, with its bright Red Deck… heaps of very modern building with a sprinkling of some older ones.. Murals on some of the buildings… The most humongous wire head sculpture of a young girl…really quite amazing…it stands 12m tall…it sits at the base of what is called the Bow Building quite a striking building in its own right…
From here we tried to find a coffee shop to have morning tea…that was a bit of a feat in itself…most places looked like they didn’t open until 11am…it took us until just after 11 am but did find a place…certainly not the coffee culture we have in Aust….after that Jess had suggested we go to see the State Library, had some issues finding it…but did find a park on the way… it had what’s called the 5 Famous Statues …. The Famous Five are Women five (5) prominent Canadian pioneers who fought for women’s suffrage – the right to vote, be a part of the senate and participate in public matters (Person’s Case led by Emily Murphy). This park had a huge water feature in the middle with Pergolas around one side of it with beautiful baskets overflowing with planted flower plants… this was the same up the Main Street as well. Made everything look so pretty flowers make such a difference in a city of concrete….
We got a little lost in the main government building, so I asked a couple armed security guards how to get to the library…we only had to go out the door and there it was…it had a very modern look of the Central Library as it’s called…. The design features an oval-like form and an interior with a large central atrium with a skylight. The building is elevated one floor above street level to accommodate a light rail trackway below, as well as a public plaza. Planning for a new library began in 2004 and was finalized in 2011. Construction began in 2013 with the encapsulation of an existing CTrain light rail tunnel portal; above-ground construction of the library itself began in September 2015.

We checked it out as much as we found interesting then headed towards Prince Island, going past their Light Rail Stns…up the Main Street where it was foodie paradise with heaps of now opened restaurants to feed the hungry hordes… it truly was packed…By then Tim had contacted us,.. He and Jess had gone to the Zoo had hoped to spend all day there only half of it was closed down for now… they had decided to go to another motel tonight with aircon and a decent bed…their bed in our apartment is a 3/4 mattress on a king size bed frame… ours is a Queen size on a King Frame… very odd….

Anyway they wanted the key to access the unit to pack up.. so they met us on the mismatch bridge being built across a tributary of the Bow River…all along the water front of the area is being extensively refurbished and redone…guess by the time it’s done it will be great but for now quite a mess… we said farewell and headed to the Restaurant on Prince Island for lunch…it was quite upmarket but very quite, good service…lots of skiing artefacts around the lodge walls… A huge fire place and quite rustic yet upmarket… We ordered a shared meat platter… which was not to bad…but whatever they put with the fish in a little dish I think it was either duck fat, or lard something very heavily oiled and yep it did me in…by the time I got to the Unit after walking from the island, through Chinatown, across the bridge and up the big hill I had to go to bed for an hour or 2 to let my poor old gut settle… did my usual med regime to calm it down, but it still took quite a bit…the trouble is you have no idea sometimes what things are until it’s too late… anyway back in the Unit…Tim and Jess are packed and gone…

Our afternoon was spent relaxing…John watched some movies…I did yep this blog….. we ate in with bits and pieces I needed to use, it ended up a mixed Bruschetta type dish on toasted bread….We finished the evening watching the last of Obi Won Kenobi we had been watching the new Star Wars series with Tim….
Now we will have to find something else to keep us entertained at night when we have access to a smart tv….well that was Calgary for us! Guess we could have seen more but most cities are that s city I personally can’t wait to see the Rockies tomorrow that’s more my type of tripping nature at it’s best!!Read more