Prairie Roadtriping

The plan today was to not spend it all driving. We weren't sure where we were going to stop, but we knew that it wasn't going to be another driving day. To but it bluntly, that only sort of worked.

We left Regina with a plan to head over to Moose Jaw and visit some murals and the system of underground tunnels they had there. However, by the time we got there the Pontiac was making a very strange noise when it was running, a sort of metal grating sound when we were driving. So we ended up taking it to a mechanic while we went and did touristy things.

Apparently Moose Jaw was a major immigrant town during the railway days and then became a booming rum running town during the twenties prohibition era. Due to both of these occurrences the town is apparently riddled with tunnels that run under most major streets. There is a tour company known as Moose Jaw Tunnels that runs tours through a section of them. Most of them have been renovated and had period recreations placed in them to give you more of a feel of what they would look like during that time. There were two tours and we went on both of them. Unfortunately, they didn't allow photographs during the tour, likely because the period pieces and tour guide acting is about 80% of draw.

One of the tours was supposed to give you an idea of what a Chinese immigrant experienced when they came to Canada. Much like the Japanese Interment in the 40's, Chinese immigration during the 1880's to finish the railway is a black mark on Canadian History. Basically they enticed Chinese workers to come work on the railway by paying their way here as long as they paid it off over the next 3-5 years. When they got here, they were abused and many promises were neglected on. When the railway was finished, they were all laid off and forced to make due with racist Canadian towns. Canadian immigration policies became more and more strict until they banned Chinese immigration entirely for almost 20 years.

The other tour was centred around the idea that Al Capone apparently had an operation running out of Moose Jaw for his bootlegging business. The tour consisted of a recreation of a saloon, underground distilleries and even a mock gunfight in the tunnels. It was very entertaining, if not historically accurate.

Moose Jaw also has 24 murals around their downtown core depicting a number of prairie settings, which I thought helped liven things up, here are a few of what we saw:

A piece from the Wheat Revival Art Period, or as Moose Jawians say, 'How we spent the first 100 years of Confederation'

There was also this one: Unlike other art pieces, this picture was really flat when looking at it in person, but when I took a picture of it, it really looked like a scene from a store. With depth and everything, I was personally impressed.

If you look hard at it, you may fall in and become one with the picture.

After that, BLLA 210 got an OK bill of health. Apparently it was something with the air condition unit that when it isn't turned on, causes a part to rub against another moving part, creating all the sound. Therefore if we just leave the air conditioning on all the time it does the trick. This is obviously only a temporary solution, but I'd rather take the car back to the garage that I got the car from and get them to fix it. Fortunately it is starting to get warm here in this part of the country so it isn't really a big deal.

Now we've managed to make it across Saskatchewan and into Alberta, but not before we got a picture of that classic prairie picture: The Grain Processing Building!

Hey Baby, do those storage towers go all the way up?

Finally we entered into Alberta. Now I don't know why people give me the perception that Saskatchewan is the flattest province, because once you get into Alberta before you get within viewing distance of the Mountains it is the flattest area I have seen yet. The land went out in a straight line all the way out to the horizon, and my mind boggled.

My mind is boggling!

Now we're taking in the hospitality of Geoff's Aunt Lynn in Calgary. This should be a few days pit stop, Wednesday and Thursday we should just be taking in the sights. Tomorrow: Drumheller and Dinosaur Provincial Park, Thursday, the city itself, Friday: Banff National Park!