Welcome to Canada...eh?

 This morning we woke up in Minot and it was POURING rain, not just raining.  Flooding.  Oh yeah, it was windy too.  We were soaked before the car was loaded.  However, we finally got out on the road and headed for Canada!

Believe it or not these weren't the biggest things that passed us today.

We managed to make it to the Canadian border without drowning and we made it through with no trouble at all.  Very nice agents at the border!  One question...Why does it look like a prison there?  

We realized as we crossed the border just how hard it was going to be to navigate Canada without our smartphones and the maps app.  We are so spoiled!  Anyhow, the wonderful gentleman at the visitors center got us back on the right track and gave us a great lunch recommendation.  

Artwork display at the visitors center.

For those of you that know me well, you know that I seriously love my Canadian or European candy! So when we first stopped for gas I made a beeline for the candy section!

It only looks like we're driving through a lake.  This is a field.  With ducks...

I saw a ton of beautiful old weathered and apparently abandoned farmsteads.  However, it was pouring rain, windy and blowing us all over the road making it nearly impossible for us to stop safely.  So I had to settle for trying to take pics as we flew past them down the road.  

After several hours of downpouring rain and wind,  we drove out of  it and the next mission was to find petrol ASAP!  We followed a sign that promised fuel and we thought we might be heading for Deliverance...

However, it was more like Mayberry.  The gas station attendant even pumped the gas for us! Full service! I didn't know that existed anymore much less pumps like these!

I kid you not.  The conversation at the pump was this exactly.

"Where ya headed?"

"Alaska." 

The guy looked shocked for a second and then...

"Ways to go yet eh?"

I love Canada. 

I'm not even kidding when I say that at least every third person we've spoken to ends every sentence with "eh?" or "right?".  I really thought it was just a stereotype but I totally love it!

We missed a turn that was supposed to take us to Moose Jaw and ended up in Regina, the capital city of Saskatchewan.  We also ended up there at rush hour.  It was less than awesome and the roads downtown were less than trailer friendly. However, Shotguns crazy trailer maneuvering skills paid off and we got out of there without incident.
By the way the truck is now named Regina.

Finally we found our hotel for the night and we lucked into this awesome view! The hotel looked like a monolith from outside but was just beautiful and very fancy inside! Something like I might expect in Vegas rather than Saskatoon, Saskatchewan!

This is the pool in our hotel.  In the center of the hotel.  What you can't see are the skylights above it.  We were exhausted but made time to take a dip because it was just too cool looking not too.  The water was perfect and we had a lot of fun, though I kind of felt like we were swimming in the fountain!