June 12th & 13th Saskatoon & Riding Mountain

After Rosetown - I rolled into Saskatoon and planned to spend the day but the hotels were a little pricey. How do you go on a motorcycle ride with a tent and camping gear and stay in a $200 hotel? I decided to get a "real" sleeping bag instead. I found an outdoor store with great service and a good selection of bags. I traded in my 6 pound 50 degree bag for a 2 pound 20 degree bag. The clerk pointed to the "Spot" satellite tracker that I ware on my coat sleeve and asked me if it was my heart rate monitor....

Saskatoon is an interesting city - lot of young people and a lot of activity. By the remarks that I've heard from Canadians, Saskatchewan is looked down on. It is one of the poorer of the provinces although that seems to be changing to some degree. Mostly agriculture and some minerals seem to be what sustains the province. Saskatoon on the other hand seemed to be a little more cosmopolitan with a lot of activity. The Saskatoonians are proud of the city and I'm sorry that I didn't have a little more time to take in the sights.

My next planned stop was Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba - so that's the direction I headed. Along the way I spent the night at a private campground in Foam Lake - clean and quite.

The next day I headed out to find Riding Mountain without a map. I've had no maps. They take up too much room - but it does present challenges. My alternative is to get internet access where I can and then go to Google maps and plan my route - but I have had no way to print the route. I do have a GPS - mostly to make sure there are gas stations along the way and I do enter my destination but to use it I have to stop. I did make it to Riding Mountain and found a great camp site. The tourist season hasn't started here yet so things have been nice without a lot of crowds.

Okay - so I've seen a lot of "big rocks" and a lot of water. What about animals? I've seen one bear, two coyotes, a lot of deer, three elk, so many prairie dogs that I can't count and today an Ermine.

Right now I'm in Winnipeg Manitoba - home of the Wailin Jennys - www.thewailinjennys.com - check them out.

Here's a bit of trivia - meet Ria. Ria worked for Cirque du Soleil setting up shows all around the world - including setting up "O" in Vegas for the first time. And for those of you that didn't know - Cirque du Soleil is a Canadian company based in Montreal. Ria said they were a great company to work for. Guess where they get their performers - how about the Olympics.

Tomorrow - Ontario and Thunder Bay.