Double Gas Prices, Triple Liquor Prices, and the Relentless Wind- We Enter the Canadian Plains

We left Dickinson, ND and started toward Regina (ri JYN uh), Saskatchewan. Right from gitgo the going was tough. We had pouring rain, strong head winds, and the headache of massive truck traffic.

Nasty skies of approaching storm

Western North Dakota is experiencing an oil drilling boom as numerous shale oil fields are being developed, drilling derricks and producing wells are everywhere. Of course, all of this activity places huge demands on infrastructure and support services that they were not designed for. Need a job? Move to western ND and make a fast buck while suffering through the brutal winters.

All kinds of traffic

Our trek northward was along a two lane highway which was shared with tanker trucks, hay haulers, farm implements, and general haulers of equipment whose function could not be surmised. On top of everything, road construction was in full swing for the short summer and there were several road widening projects where we had delays. Rain and wind didn’t slow anything down.

We made it to Fortuna, ND where we presented ourselves for a border crossing into Canada. We answered all of the agent’s detailed questions, whereupon she took our passports and headed into an office with a computer terminal.

At the border

When she emerged we expected that this old, innocent couple would be waved through, but she surprised us and asked us to “pop the trunk.” After a 5 minute search of our rear end possessions, she cordially told us how to get to where we already knew how to get to, and let us cross. We figured that some of this is retaliatory procedures for what our border agents put the Canadians through and wondered how much easier life would be if everyone were subjected to profiling. We found southern SK to mirror the activities of western ND. Shale oil field development was everywhere.

We checked into our motel in Regina then headed out to a Wal-Mart to pick up some cold drinks, car snacks, and roadside lunch items. Unlike Louisiana, we found that Wal-Mart didn’t sell any beer, wine, or liquor. We asked a nice lady about where to purchase these items and were directed to a provincial liquor store. Sticker shock! Alcohol prices in Canada are astronomical. After looking at all of the purchase options, we ended up getting 15 cans of beer for $25 and a “cheap” 1.75L. of vodka for $54.

That's about $5/gal.

At those prices Capt. Larry figured you didn’t have to worry about a hangover! We filled the car up with gas and had a devil of a time with our debit card before we finally finished our purchase with a credit card. We hadn’t eaten in restaurants much, because we were still adhering to our “Alaska bush plane low weight diets,” but Jane wanted some Chinese food. We found a Chinese restaurant that was voted “Best Chinese” in 2012 by Prairie Dog magazine, but we found the food to be greasy, lack seasoning, and be a strange offering of traditional Chinese dishes we have experienced in other restaurants. We got back to our room and tallied up our purchases which totaled $380 for our first day in Canada. And Alaska is supposed to be expensive?

The next day, Friday, we headed north to Prince Albert in a 30 m.p.h. headwind that shook the car all over the two lane road. This part of SK displayed massive wheat, oats, or barley fields, most of which were waiting to be planted, and not much else.

Watson, SK grail elevator

We noticed that Canada had very few rest areas, very little litter on the roadside (probably too expensive with recycling requirements), and no dolllar menus at the fast food resturants. We stopped in Watson, SK which claims to be the home of the original Santa Claus holiday. We found a post office and decided to by some stamps to mail postcards to the granddaughters.

Watson Santa Claus statue

A book of six stamps and 3 stamped postcards cost $13.50, so Americans shouldn’t bitch about 5-day delivery! The granddaughters will have to bear with us.We left Watson and made our way to Melfort, SK, arriving around  lunch time. The wind was so strong that we had to have lunch in the car, rather than set up at a roadside picnic area. We arrived in Price Albert and checked into our motel. Jane did laundry while Capt. Larry took the car out to get it washed, refueled, and pick up a couple of grocery items. We exercised in the motel’s gym (too windy to walk outside), had dinner and watched some movies before turning in.

Sodbusting Our Way Through the Dakotas

On Memorial Day we started our trek to Alaska and left Indianapolis to make our way to Sioux Falls, SD. Our plan was to visit South Dakota’s Badlands and Wind Cave national parks before going to Mt. Rushmore.

Jane at the Corn Palace

On the way we stopped off in Mitchell, SD so Jane could see the world famous Corn Palace.

Mt. Rushmore in corn ears

The Corn Palace is decorated entirely with corn ears and stalks, and the display changes each year. It takes about 100 acres of differently colored corn varieties to produce the changing artwork displays. Farmer Jane was really impressed! We drove across the rolling hills of South Dakota on I-80 until we got to the Badlands N.P. scenic loop.

The Badlands

This was a 40 mile detour off the interstate through the park. We stopped at the visitor's center and got the stamp and view a video about the park and its exhibits.

At the Badlands

We stopped and had lunch then followed the loop until it took us to Wall, SD. Here, Jane got to visit and shop at the famous Wall Drug store.

Wall Drug

Capt. Larry picked up a few items the found his way to the pharmacy museum and pharmacy.

At Wall Drug's Pharmacy Museum

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Because he was a pharmacist, he was invited to sign the special guest register and received a bumper sticker proclaiming "Where In the Heck is Wall Drug." We left Wall, and made our way to Hot Springs, SD, where we checked into a motel for the night.

Bison grazing along the road

The next morning we headed out for Wind Cave, N.P. We had visited Mammoth Cave, N.P. on the way up to Indy, but were surprised with this one. The park is really about the cave and the land above the cave.

Antelope in Wind Cave, N.P.

We saw some bison and pronghorn antelope grazing by the road on our way into the park.

Jane wouldn't throw this!

The cave underground is currently about 140 miles explored, but the formation was a lot different from some of the other caves we've been in.

Getting the stamp!

We learned that the physical requirements for almost all of the tours were beyond our capabilities, so we opted to collect the stamps and view the  park's video and exhibits about the cave. We left Wind Cave and headed up to Mt. Rushmore, which completely thrill Jane.

Finally, Mt. Rushmore!

This one one of the items on her bucket list. We viewed the exhibits, collected the stamp, and watched the video about how the monument was made. It was really interesting. We left Mt. Rushmore and headed up some back roads through South and North Dakota and spent the night in Dickinson, ND.

How about this picture, Millette!

The going was slow, because we were frequently stopped for road construction projects.

97th Indianapolis 500

Some vintage sprint and dirt cars

We returned to Indianapolis for race weekend. Friday was Carburetion Day and we watched the teams do the final tweaking before the race.

A nice crowd for Carb Day

We watched a really exciting finish to the Indy Lights Firestone Freedom 100 race where the top four finishers crossed the finish line four-abreast and the winner won by one one-thousandth of a second. It was the most exciting race finish we had ever seen.

In the garage area

After the race we watched the pit competition which was again won by Helio Castroneves of Team Penske for the 6^th consecutive year.

Ready for technical inspection

The Carb Day concert this year featured Brett Michaels and the band Poison, but we opted out and went back to our motel. We returned to the track on Saturday. The only track event we watched was the parade of vintage cars then we toured the garage area.

Checking out the bottom

We watched the cars being presented for the mandatory pre-race technical inspection before being impounded until race time. Capt. Larry found the inspection process really interesting. In trhe sponsor exhibit area Jane was able to amass a horde of freebies that were being handed out.

This year's pace car

We returned to our motel and got ready for race day. We returned to the track early on race day so we could breakfast at the American Legion hall like we did last year, and a couple of hours before start time, we entered the track and found our new upgraded seats. We really liked our new seats which are in the middle of pit row and give us a great view of the action. Tony Kannan had his first Indy win after numerous attempts in what turned out to be a really exciting race with 68 lead changes during the 200 laps.

Capt. Larry would like to inspect this!

We're At It Again!

We're on the road again for another adventure. For the past year we've been working with our travel agent on  a trip to Alaska. One of the bucket list items is to visit all of the national parks, and many of you have followed this crusade as we tick off various parks. Well, Alaska has 8 national parks that are generally more difficult to get to. Only 3 of the parks are accessible by road, so we will be bush-flying, float-planing, or boating into the other five. We will be staying overnight in 4 of the parks. But the real kicker is that we will be there around the summer solstice. That means 24 hours of daylight when we are above the Arctic Circle, and 21-22 hours of daylight around the Anchorage area. It should be a hoot! On the way up, we plan to visit 3 national parks (Mammoth Cave, KY; Wind Cave, SD; Badlands, SD) and then drive through the Canadian plains of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, and finally going through the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia and the Yukon. On the way home we will be collecting some more stamps at national parks in California and Nevada.

400 miles and counting

But the visit to Alaska is via our annual trek to the Indianapolis 500 time trials and race. We will once again hook up again with our Looper friends, Dave and Joyce Johnson, who live just outside Indianapolis, and then visit some family in Ohio. On the way up to Indy, we stopped off at Mammoth Cave National Park.
We had both previously visited this park, but the return trip was to collect the stamp. We were surprised to learn that length of explored corridors had grown from about 200 miles when we visited years ago to around 400 miles today.

Capt. Dave and Capt. Larry

And exploration is still ongoing. There is also a new visitor's center with some really great informational exhibits. Since we can pass this anytime we go to Indy, we just may have to return to do the whole thing again.

We arrived at the Johnson's the day before Qualifying Weekend at the track. It was a great visit the Dave and Joyce really can put out a great spread at mealtime. We caught up on new news and reminisced about old times and our "loop" trip together.

The Sarah Fisher car gets attention

After a great extended "happy hour" and a restful night's sleep, we headed over to the speedway for "Fast Friday." This event is a practice session for the following qualifying day, but we enjoy seeing the teams try all sorts of things to increase their speed and some of the fastest speeds are are recorded during these sessions. We watched E.J. Viso of Andretti Motorsports have the fastest time for the day of 229.543 m.p.h.

Chevy Camaros parading

However, halfway through the session the spring rains rolled in and inundated the event. We left and headed for our motel. The next day was Pole Day where the cars attempt to qualify for the first eight rows or 24 positions.

It's all about the cars

We started the day with a number of track events, one of which was a parade lap of over 300 Chevrolet Camaros, of various vintages, around the track.

The Pagoda

At the end of the day, the fastest nine qualifiers' times are erased and they participate in a "shoot-out" with the fastest qualifier winning the pole position. We like this day because there are a lot of other events at the track and we enjoy watching the cars post some really fast speeds. When it was all over a local favorite, Ed Carpenter, won the pole with a speed of 228.762 m.p.h. This found favor with the crowd as he is a one car owner/driver team and was able to beat out the bigger and more monied teams.

Jane and the perfect swamp truck

On Sunday, Armed Forces Bump Day, the rest of the field was set and we enjoyed the events and exhibits at the the track.

Danny, Sherrie, and Capt. Larry

We were also met by long-time family friends, Sherrie and Danny Johnson, whom we were able to catch up with at the track and with appetizers at a nearby restaurant. It was great to see them and we enjoyed their company.

We left Indianapolis on Monday and headed for Ohio to visit with Capt. Larry's nephew, Brian and his family, Janelle and daughter Edra, who live in Delaware.

Our favorite cherub!

We enjoyed three days of gourmet meals, sightseeing Delaware, and enjoying good conversation and the adorable antics of three-year old Edie. We also had a minor setback.

Let's skinny dip

Our car experienced an electronic sensor failure that caused the cruise control to become inoperative. Because we were going to drive some very long distances on our way to Alaska, it was pretty important to have it fixed.

Jane and Edie being creative

We had a little difficulty with the dealership, but after 3 days and $400, the problem was fixed. Jane delighted Edie with presents every day, and we found out that Brian and Janelle can throw a very entertaining happy hour.

Go Bucks!

Jane and Janelle had manicures and pedicures resulting in Jane's electric blue nails, and Brian, a drummer in a blues band, took Capt. Larry to a jam session at a local bar where he got to see him play a set. It was a great visit and we were sad to see it end. We were saddened to have to leave their great hospitality, but had to leave to get back to Indy for the race.

Brian, Jane, and Edie