Day 15 – Dinosaur Provincial Park near Brooks Alberta, to Echo Valley Provincial Park near Regina, Saskatchewan (712 km)

With everything except the tent and sleeping gear neatly packed in the back of the truck last night, this morning we were ready to get on the road quickly once we woke up. Of course, Lilo had other plans – and she picked this morning to sleep in until after 8:00, unlike previous mornings where she had woke us up wanting to play as early as 6:00.

I woke up even before Lilo, having had an uncomfortable night on the hard ground once again. Ol’ Leaky is back to his old tricks it seems. Luckily for Vone, she still got a decent night’s sleep. I guess that’s one of the perk of sleeping beside a big guy – I squish all of the remaining air over to her side. She was less than happy when I got up to go pee early in the morning, and she came crashing to the ground!

We skipped breakfast and planned to hit a Tim Horton’s, know that our trip back to the Trans-Canada highway would take us through the moderately sized town of Brooks, Alberta. Brooks is apparently a hub of meat packing and processing activity and you can sure tell by the smell. We were mighty pleased to grab our coffee quickly at the drive-thru, roll up the windows, and get back on the highway as soon as possible.

The road through south-eastern Alberta was again lined with agriculture and not much else. It was lightly traveled on a Sunday morning, and was completely devoid of curves for miles at a time, making it a less than challenging and somewhat hypnotic drive. Pulling into Medicine Hat with the cruise control engaged, I realized I hadn’t touch my brakes or gas pedal in over an hour. Thank goodness for Tim Horton’s caffeine-rich coffee.

As we crossed into Saskatchewan I was surprised by the landscape, only in that it’s not nearly as flat as I had picture, and had heard everyone rant about. In fact, while no where near mountainous, the western half of the province was really rather hilly. Perhaps I’m being too tough on poor old Saskatchewan, but I had visions of driving down straight roads into the horizon, surrounded by nothing but golden wheat as far as the eye could see, and it turned out to be nothing like that. Ok, so it wasn’t big dramatic hills, but it certainly wasn’t the 0% grade, see-for-miles-and-miles terrain that I had been expecting. Maybe we’ll find the eastern half of the province fits the flatness bill, once we get back on the road towards Winnipeg and past Regina. But at best, that makes the province half flat – and when your claim to fame is how flat you are, I say that’s overstating even your meager qualities.

Sorry I don't have any pictures of the supposed flatness - Vone was sleepy today, and not really in a picture taking mood. We did see a really cool salt lake in western Saskatchewan. It was cool – looked like a field of snow and ice in July!

We made a quick stop in Regina for some groceries, and a new air mattress Canadian Tire, and then it was on to Echo Valley. It was interesting to see the traffic on the way to the park, just 45 minutes away from Regina. It was a Sunday night, and while we were one of the only vehicles heading north out of town, there was a constant stream of RV’s and other cars heading south – obviously returning from a weekend away.

When we arrived, our section of the campground was deserted. While there were still dozens of RV’s on the other side of the campground, there were ZERO tenters, and we had the pick of any site we wanted. Tired of playing “No Lilo, don’t eat that rock” we selected a site with tons of grass, well sheltered by trees.

Lilo played happily, while we set up and cooked a delicious spaghetti dinner (we decided we needed a bit of a break from BBQ – one man can only eat so much char-broiled goodness). She may have been a little heavy on the portions however - me thinks they'll be leftovers for lunch.