Well I'm here...

Arrived in Fairbanks 2 nights ago fairly late.  Things have been very hectic and I've been recovering from the drive.  I lost cell service and couldn't get internet after that so this fell apart a little but I'll post what happened over the next few days when I can find time.

After Saskatoon, you can see there were a few more interesting things to look at, but still not much.  Drove to Grande Prarie that night, just over 600 miles of farm land and mostly nothing still.  This was a very very common sight along with people just randomly crossing perpendicular to you on the 110km/hr highway as there's not really enough traffic for on ramp or off ramps to be necessary.  There were even a few driveways right on the highway.  Got in pretty late and there wasn't much there but everything was very dusty and muddy.  Was exhausted so I just passed out.  Tried listening to Pandora to sleep but got denied because I was in Canada.  Really not fond of Canada anymore, not that I ever was.  The following day was full of interesting things to look at in the rockies but I'll save that for the next post.  Still need to get unpacked so I can get the pictures off my other camera.

Well that didn't take long

I just had to say something...

Well still nothing past Edmonton...

About 200 miles from Grande Prairie. 8pm here. At least it's good weather...

Canada could be real

Signs that Canada isn't just make believe land to just drive people insane. Just passed thru north battleford and ìt should get more interesting after Edmonton. Just passed a sign for table mountain- that's how bad it is here. Also ìt's extremely windy. Have seen 0 wildlife so far, alive at least. Canada phone number is <no longer valid> with unlimited incoming calls so if you'd like to hear a personal description of just how boring the landscape is, give me a call but it is a canadian number so steal your friend's phone to do it. If this picture doesn't cost too much i may send more later

Always just hated Canada without a good reason.... until now.

Apparently the last few posts I made from my phone never went through.  Between North Dakota and Canada, cell phone service is nothing to write home about.  I'm in Saskatoon now, it's about 10am here and I'm getting ready to leave.

I can't even begin to elaborate how boring Canada is - Saskatchewan in particular.  Minnesota was pretty bad, then North Dakota was terrible.  I headed straight North from Fargo and went West after a while and MS Streets and Trips had me cross the border at what I wasn't even sure was the border.  There was a little white building next to the road that just said Border Crossing with no instructions other than business hours.  I stopped out front (not wanting to get gunned down for just driving past- although I'm not even sure they carry weapons in that section of North Dakota).  Well the guy was real nice, asked lots of questions, said I was all set and he just needed to stamp, then he came back out with a buddy and they searched my entire car.  Oh brother.  Well after they took everything out and were puzzled how everything was in there in the first place, I offered to help and they stopped on a dime and walked away saying have a nice trip and just left me a half unpacked car in 90 degree weather.  Didn't take long to get everything back together, but soon I was in the great land of Canada and was looking forward to ANYTHING to look at after North Dakota.

So to my excitement, almost immediately (about 4 hours) after crossing the border, the scenery changed drastically and I saw my first elevation change.  If you look hard, it's there, I promise.  Yupp, between North Dakota and Regina, SK that is literally the biggest "hill" I saw.  After stopping in Regina, I headed out Northwest towards Saskatoon and there were a few dips and hills, but mostly stretches of nothing but farm fields and a few sunflower fields that went further than I could see (and when it's this flat, you can see for a very very long ways).

After a while, the sun went down and there were clouds ahead so I was hoping that meant mountains... or anything at all but flat farm land.  I arrived in Saskatoon just after sunset and still no mountains in site.  Hoping to see some elevation changes today but after the last 2 days, I'm not hopeful.

Not to mention the bugs are absolutely terrible.  Every gas station I see, I stop to clean my windshield and headlights, but I don't think the front of my car will ever be the same again.  I don't have a picture, but if you're in a carpeted room, look down at the carpet, color it brown/green/orange, then imagine it in the shape of a front bumper.

Hope you're all doing well.  I'll be stopping in Grand Prairie tonight and will have wifi there so if there are more exciting pictures (as in more exciting than these - not more of these exciting pictures), I'll post some up.

I don't know what this is but I want to be a part of it

Wendy's Wisconsin Wednesday

Stopped at wendys for some chicken nuggets. I've decided Wisconsin is
pretty awesome. Kinda like a giant adirondacks except with a giant
highway through it. I'm starting to think that's what the rest of the
drive will be like. I have no idea where I am now but these nuggets
are taking forever. It's been a nice sunny day for driving but not
much else has happened. Also there's now a trucker telling racist
jokes on the CB.

Good Morning Day 3

Got into a Motel 6 last night around 11.  Made great time yesterday and even with the car fully packed, managed 32.5mpg on yesterday's first fill-up.  Had a bit a trouble with dinner though.  Tried to use dad's swiss army knife (thanks dad) to open a can of chicken.  Well I thought I knew what I was doing- but I was proved wrong when I made no progress.  Eventually sorted it out when I started using the can opener side rather than the bottle opener.

I'll probably end up in Minnesota or North Dakota at some point tonight but we'll see how things play out.  Miss you all.  Hopefully there will be more interesting things to take pictures of soon (Ohio and Indiana are surprisingly not interesting)

Also it appears when I change the time zone, it adjusts all of my posts in the past too so old posts may start to have strange timestamps as I progress

I haven't any idea what a blog is....

Well I've only really heard of these things in theory and never followed or written one so this is just a shot in the dark.  I figured this was the best way to keep all of you family and friends updated and share stories and pictures instead of plastering facebook and irritating everyone.

Currently sitting in a parking lot in Pennsylvania stealing wireless to do this so I'll make it brief.  Yesterday was a lot of construction but I've just updated MS streets and trips' construction info so hopefully it'll take me around most of it from here on out.  I've acquired a mascot and co-pilot.  He only talks when I make him and still, he doesn't say very much.  So anyway, thank you Marisa.  I'll try my best to not let him get eaten by a bear.

I'm not sure what's on the agenda for today but if anything interesting happens, I'll be sure to 'blog' about it.  Man that sounds dumb...