Road tripping

A little too much travel for three days. From Leduc, Alberta to Prince Albert and Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan then home with a few side trips along the way. I had taken June 20th off to create a three day weekend.

The road trip started on Saturday morning. I hit a nasty rainstorm on Highway 16 heading east outside of Paynton, Saskatchewan. It was coming down so hard I could hardly see the highway. I thought about pulling over and waiting for it to subside. That plan was scrapped when a few irregular chunks of ice bigger than a softball suddenly appeared in the storm in front of me and bounced off my roof as I kept driving. That does not make for a pleasant sound. I figured it was better to keep going and I might hit the end of the storm. Some miles done the road it stopped.

From North Battleford onward the weather was fine. There were some severe weather and possible tornado warnings on the radio concerning the Prince Albert area which is where I was headed. Nothing came of it.

I got to Prince Albert late in the afternoon. I did not see the need to book a reservation before I started the trip because I thought there would not be a problem getting a room. Huge  mistake. There was some kind of ball tournament there and there were no rooms to be had. I checked seven hotels. Correction, one well known hotel chain did have a few rooms available. The place looked very sketchy when I walked in, like it was a hotel for transients with the clientele to match, and I promptly walked out. I would have slept in the SUV if I had to. Luckily I found a room in a motel five minutes south of Prince Albert in a motel that looked like it was built in the sixties with a few inexpensive renovations through the years. It was relatively cheap and surprisingly quiet. They never asked for a credit card and I paid cash when I checked in. Very very  quiet. Never heard a damn thing all night long.

The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful except for half a day of rain today. Note that between Tisdale and Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan there is a lot of nothing. The roof of my SUV had a couple of minor hard to see dents. If there is other damage I have not found it. I found a few interesting things. Gas was too expensive in Saskatchewan, over two dollars and six cents per litre. Other than the price of gas I enjoyed myself.