I hit the road for Saskatoon early on the morning of January 6th. The girls were still on their Christmas vacation, so Hailey and Anna came along with me. Roads were slippery and snow covered and there was heavy fog in places as we made our way east of Edmonton. It was about -17C when we started out, and that was the warmest temperature we would experience.
By the time we hit Lloydminster, road conditions had improved, and we were able to pick up speed. But, we lost an hour when we crossed the Alberta-Saskatchewan border into the Central time zone. Despite the sun coming out a little, the temperature had actually dropped and it was about -21C most of the way into Saskatoon. We arrived in Saskatoon right on schedule, at about 1:30PM, but got a little side tracked driving in circles looking for the gallery. Finally we found Broadway Avenue and the gallery. We backed the truck up to the rear door and got the crates of prints off-loaded and put away in short order. The gallery was still into the last couple of days of an exhibition of some jewellery so the crates were stored in a closet, and the prints will be installed by the gallery staff sometime next week.
At the recommendation of the gallery staff we walked around the corner to a Mexican Pub called Amigos. It was sort of a funky place, right next to a tattoo parlor. It was a bar, with a stage the featured live bands in the evenings, but they allowed minors until 8:00PM so the girls and I went in for a late lunch. There were even a bunch of small skylights that my company once supplied. The names of a bunch of bands that were scheduled to play over the coming days were listed on a large blackboard. The three of us really got a kick out of one of the names... "Johnny Twofingers and the Deformities".
After lunch we made our way over to the western edge of Saskatoon where I had reserved a hotel room. It was a typical chain hotel with a pool and a waterslide. The girls and I went down to the pool for a little while after checking in. Later in the evening we walked across to a nearby Boston Pizza and had a light supper. I was a little concerned about how cold it was getting so I bought an extension cord at a nearby hardware store and plugged the block heater of the truck in for the night. We watched TV in our room for a little while but we were all tired after such an early start and all the driving so we turned in early. There were a bunch of teenage kids running around the hallways of the hotel in the wee hours, knocking on doors and making a general nuisance of themselves. The girls were awakened and didn't get a very good sleep but I slept right through it. In the morning we got up fairly early and had some breakfast at the buffet that was included with our room. For hotel breakfasts this one was reasonably good and better than most. The girls hit the pool for a while in the morning, and then we packed up and checked out.
It was -26C with a breeze blowing out of the north when we got out to the truck. That extension cord was a really good investment. We fuelled the truck and hit the road. I didn't bother to bring a map with me and ended up on the wrong highway heading out of town. We were going in the right general direction, but were a little further south than we needed to be. We cut across country on a secondary highway and eventually found our way over to the Yellowhead. It was -31C out in the country and it took a couple of hours of highway driving before the engine got most of the way up to operating temperature.
I had brought my view camera along, hoping to be able to stop and take a few photographs. But with the cold winter weather that was out of the question and the camera never even made it out of the case. I did make a mental note a few places that might be worth coming back to at some point. A couple of interesting old junk yards and old buildings, as well as a really cool concrete bridge over the North Saskatchewan River. The bridge is now replaced by two new steel spans and sites unused, deteriorating, and accumulating graffiti. Hailey managed to take a snap shot of it with my phone as we drove past.
Of course we gained an hour when we crossed back into the Mountain time zone at Lloydminster. It did warm up a little as we headed further west. Most of the drive home the temperature hovered around the -22 to -25C range. Once we got back closer to Edmonton, the temperature edged up to about -18C. The girls slept for a good part of the drive, and we listened to music and talked for a while as well. It was nice to spend a couple of days together with my girls and I appreciated the company, and the help unloading the heavy crates. We made it back home, no worse for wear, by about 3:30 in the afternoon.
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