The wonderful thing about vacations is you can sleep until you feel like getting up…and if there are no big plans for the day, you may just sleep in a bit longer than you usually might. Welcome to my world for the last 2 weeks. I am beginning to dread having to wake up to an alarm clock again in 10 days. Needless to say, today was yet another leisurely start. We ate a “real” breakfast of eggs and all the fixings in the hotel restaurant, loaded the car and hit the road. Today was the start of a few long drive days as we make the final stretch across Saskatchewan, Manitoba and bit of Ontario. We started the day off visiting the Elizabeth II Gardens across from the Regina Legislature building. A lovely park with so much to see and do. There were walking/biking paths around the lake, beautiful gardens and lawns, and water sports (kayaking, sailing and crewing).

It was in the upper 80’s today (about 29 C) so we didn’t meander for too long. As we ventured eastbound on Trans-Canadian Highway 1, I saw a few signs for “Scenic Route.” I passed a few of them, then looked over and asked “Are you game?” Off we went the next exit to explore the road less taken. If it wasn’t meant to be explored they wouldn’t have signs on the highway, right?

A two lane road that wove through field after field of canola. The color of these flowers is almost unnatural, yet it is clearly part of nature.

Lake Katepwa was the next highlight. A great vista point for photos, and a chance to throw away the week old cherries we’d been carrying with us.

GPS told us to make a right turn onto County Road 612, so we did. Seems we are destined for “off-roading” this trip! While the speed limit was 80 KPH, I kept it around 40 – we were not familiar with the area, I really didn’t want to change a flat tire, nor deal with a cracked windshield. My apologies to the few cars who passed us and clearly knew where they were going. It was worth every minute it added to today’s drive.

As we made our way back to the highway, we were treated to a moose crossing. Momma and two babies crossed the road in front of us. Unfortunately we were far enough away, and they were fast enough, that we couldn’t get a good photo. We did appreciate the fact that both times we’ve “off-roaded” this trip we got to see wildlife up close and personal. Sheep in Colorado, moose in Saskatchewan.

We crossed into Manitoba a little after 3PM. I was in need of a pit stop and stretch, so we stopped in a few little towns and drove right on through as they were really little, and we were playing tag with a Canadian Pacific train. In Virden we did stop and tried to find the visitor center. While we didn’t find it, we did find the old train station and Alexandra Hotel across the street. If you closed your eyes you could picture people of old disembarking from the train and heading across the street to the hotel.

We hit the western edge of Winnipeg about 7:30PM, and were checked into the hotel about 25 minutes later. We are right in the heart of the University of Winnipeg. Across the street is a Hudson Bay Traders store. We were going to check it out in the morning, but based on recent reviews, we’ll hit the road instead and settle for a photo.

It was a pleasant surprise to look out our window and see our second Canadian legistature building for the day.

Tomorrow is our longest drive day at about 7 1/2 hours. It is time to wrap up today’s adventure and rest so we make it safely to Ontario.