Day 79 - Monday, August 18 - Adios Manitoba

Monday morning and the skies are grey with the promise of more rain in the air - they certainly don't need anymore of that here!  As soon as we were within a very few kms of Saskatchewan my phone got service and I had many emails and a phone message.  Yeah, Karianne had a baby girl while we slept last night.  Abigail weighed in at 8.5 lbs and arrived at 4:47am on Sunday, August 17th - that is if I understood the message correctly.  Congrats to them all and glad everyone is doing fine. 

Back on Hwy. 1 heading for Saskatchewan and this is the landscape as we enter the province.

The sun is shining in Saskatchewan today.   We stopped at the info centre to find out a few things about some of the sights in Saskatchewan.  The attendant told us to take a little side tour into the Qu'Appella Valley.  So we decided to take her advice and see something other than beautiful prairie.  

This is along Hwy 9, just coming into the valley.  Who knew Saskatchewan had such hidden beauty? 

The Qu'Appella Valley was created millions of years ago by glaciers during the ice age.  

Round Lake was a Mission Site but now is populated and has many homes around it.

The road is a bit rough, but we have been over worse on this trek.  Crooked Lake Provincial Park is the next place along the route.  It is heavily populated with tourist resorts, lakefront homes and a few small farms.  The Qu'Appelle River runs through the two lakes winding it's way along the roadway.  Beautiful drive - it took us about 100 Kms out of our way, but was so worth it.  

Well it seems Dan needs a break and it is about 1:15 pm so lunch stop as well.  When we stopped we realized that somewhere along the road we gained one hour - another time zone change, so now we are on Mountain Time - same as Alberta.  We decided to get fuel in Regina as the Gas Buddy was reporting some pretty cheap prices. And yes - $1.19 per litre for fuel - hip hip hooray!  So not far now until we get to Moose Jaw for the next two days.  The Tunnels and Casino are our next destinations.