morleymooseisontheloose: Days 172 and 173, Moose Jaw to Herbert, Saskatchewan

Day 172, back to the prairie winter, Bring It On!

Our time is up in Moose Jaw. I have the distinct privelage of driving the supply/luggage truck to Swift Current today.

You don't see a lot of farm machinery of this scale for sale in the lower mainlandw of B.C. or in the Okanagan.

Speedy Creek here I come.

The edge of town.

Straight west.

Looking back in the mirror looks pretty much the same.

The highway runs parallel to the main line of Canadian Pacific Railway

Highball Morse! (that's railway lingo for get the train moving at high speed)

Our end of day celebration was in Herbert. With a population of less than 800, I believe it is the smallest community to host our end of day.

I was going ahead with the supply truck, but a friend asked me to stop in Herbert and take a couple of pictures.

Another farm town that has seen better days.

There was a museum in an old railway station building, alas, it was closed.

I had to take a picture of this street sign, I have a buddy in Revelstoke, B.C. with the same name.

Not much going on in downtown Herbert on a Saturday.

A bit of a private museum behind a building downtown

Across the pond. Those cows are outstanding in their field!

A quiet vigil. An abandoned St. Patrick's church.

I found this amusing, A sign for Castle Garden Estates, but their is just an empty field.

Leaving Herbert.

And into Swift Current, population about 15,000

We stayed at the Holiday Inn, right beside the Living Skies Casino. To get us over there, we got a slot machine voucher for twenty dollars, and a 5 dollar coupon for dinner. I lost my 20 in about 2 minutes

Most of the relay team went for dinner, the food was pretty good and was reasonably priced.

Later that evening we took in a little WHL action, the Swift Current Broncos against the Regina Pats.

C'mon, break it up, boys!

About 10 of the staff attended the game, including Kenn, Josh, Kirsten, and Dawn

On the scoreclock there was a plug for two of Swift Current's medal bearers who will run on Day 174

They won it all in 1988-89, Canada's major junior champions

Entertaining game, although the home team lost tonight.

Afterwards some of us (including Josh and Jeremy) went to a country bar, (it was a blast from the past, it's been a long time since I have heard any Glen Campbell!)

Or seen any "hotline to? " phones!

Day 173 was another day off (hey, we are keeping as close as we can to Rick Hanen's original schedule from 25 years ago). I passed by the casino on my way to...

Safeway. You really do get tired of restaurant food after awhile. Sometimes it's nice to just pick up some fruit and vegetables, and ingredients to make a sandwich.

But I will have to work up an appetite first.

I dropped my groceries at the hotel and decided to go for a walk, the weather had warmed up today to almost freezing!

Behind the hotel I found a dirt road that headed towards some hilly farmland.

What's left of last year's harvest, not sure what the crop was.

Never did make it to the top of the hills, one just led into another one.

This magpie followed me from branch to branch for quite awhile, chirping at me the whole time.

Yah, Whatever!

Okay, I had to show this pic, because there was just so much of it to dodge! I assume it is deer scat (poop)., but I have been known to be wrong before.

Hard to tell, but It looks like an old magpie nest. (there used to be one like it near my home in Summerland, B.C.)

It was a beautiful day, and the best thing was it was so quiet up there, I could hear my ears ringing.

I spotted this old icebox out in one of the fields.

Most of the area was all farmland. There was one small section that had some rock, and also one sagebrush, just like the ones you see in the Okanagan Valley.

I could of stayed out there all day, it was a little piece of mind.

Then the bonus. These deer were up at the top of the ridge. I could not see them very well, but this little Cybershot camera I have has an awesome zoom. They had to be at least a quarter mile away, but they had no problem spotting me!