morleymooseisontheloose: Day 170 and 171 Regina to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan

Night 169, one last chance to have a look around downtown Regina.

O'Hanlon's Pub was recommended by the locals.

hard to see but it was good company, left to right, Marilyn, Wendy, Megan, Hank, Josh, Pat, and Kenn

After 6 nights in the Queen's city , it was time to move on.

Day 170, I was back on the events team driving the 3 ton Penske truck (aka: little bird). After picking up the truck early in the am, it was off to our first stop of the day, a school presentation at Miller High school in Regina.

A little history lesson mural on the wall of the school

Home of the:

One of the medal bearers today was Tysen, who is with his mother Jackie, who is the director of Hope's home, the facility for medically fragile children that myself and some of our relay crew visited the other day

It was an early 9am presentation at Miller, which is a catholic high school.

The events team added something different to the 25th anniversary Rick Hansen presentation. They have included a clip about our endurance athlete Lonnie, including a video of a base jump he did while in his wheelchair. Here is a link to the clip.

The school's nominee, Vanessa takes to the stage. She is running in honour of her brother today, who is a quadriplegic. Here is her story:

Vanessa has coped with a positive attitude regarding her brother’s diving accident on August 6th ,2008. He is now a quadriplegic. She says

that he is her hero. He is always positive and never negative. What Vanessa has learnt from her brother is good things will happen no matter

what life has dealt you. Brandon is a ray of sunshine, his attitude has got them through everything.

She has absorbed this outlook from her brother and she is always positive and she is willing to help anyone at any time.

Vannesa receives the Rick Hansen medal from Lonnie

A plaque at the school in honour of J.P. Miller, who was a superintendant with the Regina catholic school board.

The students created these puzzle pieces that when put together formed this image of Rick

Leaving Miller High heading west towards Moose Jaw

Wascana Lake in Regina. (I really do have to get back to these places in the summer)

It was snowing a bit, so it was hard to get a good shot of the city of Regina in the background.

This totem pole in the park was donated by first nations people of British Columbia

My one and only day driving little bird for the next while.

I drove by the legislative building in Regina on my way out of town.

There's my turn!

The Highway of Heroes. This section of the Trans-Canada highway between Regina and Moose Jaw is dedicated to the soldiers of Saskatchewan that have lost their lives serving our country.

Our hotel in Moose Jaw, home for 2 nights.

The city was placing these posters up all around the town, including in the hotel lobby.

Downtown Moose Jaw, heading towards our end of day celebration for day 170 at Mosaic Place.

This new facility is just over 5 months old. Mosaic is a producer of potash, and has a number of mines in Saskatchewan

A display showing pictures from when Rick came through Moose Jaw 25 years ago, complete with bonus muffins!

There was a display of wheelchair curling on the ice sheets beside our end of day site in the arena.

What would a party be without Ronald McDonald. He always seems to have a way of finding out where we are!

It was tight quarters inside the foyer between the curling rink and the ice arena.

In attendance today were members from CFB Moose Jaw, which is the home of the Snowbirds, the Canadian Air Force's aerobatics team that flies in airshows all over the world. There were 3 medal bearers from CFB Moose Jaw today

Ladies and Gentlemen, yourrrrrrrrrrrrrr Day 170 difference makers!

There was also a sledge hockey demonstration on the ice as part of the end of day celebration.

Day 171. Back to f-f-f- freezing again.

But at least the sun is shining. It was an event day today with a number of school presentations. When we were downtown I snapped a pic of this retro neon sign.

Ditto for the police station.

A lot of heritage buildings in a good size downtown core. (population of Moose Jaw is around 35,000)

One of the touristy things to do in Moose Jaw is take a tour of the underground tunnels. One tour is called the Chicago connection, and talks about the bootlegging of alcohol during the prohibition era in the 20's and 30's. It is alleged that Al Capone himself was in Moose Jaw during this time running his business underneath the streets of Moose Jaw. The other tour is about the plight of the Chinese immigrating to Canada during the building of the railway. In Moose Jaw they were forced to work in laundry sweat shops, also underneath the streets of Moose Jaw. Both tours were informative, interactive and entertaining, with actors telling the stories as we toured underground. The bad news was that we were not allowed to take pictures during the tours. Click on the link to learn more.

There were a lot of historical pictures at the tunnels visitor's center

Yes, my bad, I did sneak a couple of pics down in the tunnels, this is part of the chinese immigrant tour, it is part of a chinese laundry.

Another section of the laundry, complete with the old fashioned washboards.

One of the many corridors in the tunnels.

After the first tour, we went on the Chicago Connection tour. This one was a lot of fun, we all became bootleggers, and the actors were very good, making us part of the story. Jeremy and I snuck a picture of him holding an old school "tommy gun"

Al Capone's underground "business center"

Lonnie, our endurance athlete came along, even though the tour was not wheelchair accessable. He manged to get himself down 3 flights of stairs! The power of positive thinking.