Rhymes With...

September 13, 2007
Thursday
We spent most of the day driving to Regina, stopping in Hanley to fill up the tank at Prairie View Gaz. We received a free loaf of bread for filling up and, when he saw our license plate, he threw in two cups of coffee at no charge.
I spent some time calculating and converting to find out how much we pay for gasoline. We spent $61.89 CAD for 56.83 litres and that converts to $4.00 American per gallon.
We were surprised to discover that changing time zones did not result in a change of time since Saskatchewan does not recognize daylight saving time.
Friday
We reported at 1000 hours to the RCMP Heritage Centre, training depot for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
RCMP has six requirements for a Mountie–Canadian citizen, 19 years of age, clean record, willing to serve anywhere in Canada, high school graduate and something else. They are no longer required to be able to ride a horse, be male, speak two languages or achieve a minimum height.
The government receives 6,000 applications annually and selects 2,500 recruits. Depot training lasts for six months and a class graduates every Monday.
The depot is located on 700 acres and used to be ten miles west of Regina. Most of the area is used for scenario training.
We toured exhibits in the Centre and watched a 30-minute movie, then walked to the parade ground to watch the daily Sergeant-Major’s parade. Traditionally this is the daily roll call used to account for those present and to identify deserters, whom the Sergeant-Major is responsible to find and punish.
After that, we went inside the chapel. It was built in 1873 and is the oldest building in Regina. It was originally a bar and sold beers two cents cheaper than the bars in town to try to keep recruits from straying off depot.
Next to the parade ground we paused to honor a cenotaph that burns with an eternal flame and displays divisional flags that honor 218 policemen who have lost their lives in performance of duty.
Saturday
Today was an all-day drive, relieved by a sighting of a herd of caribou two hours east of Regina.
We arrived in Winnipeg at what we thought was 2:45 pm but was actually 3:45 because Manitoba does recognize daylight saving time.
Sunday
We drove to The Forks, a park at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, a place that was important to the trade of the First Nations and has since become important to the trade of Winnipeg.
First stop was the Sugar Mountain Express, an unrailed boxcar filled with candy displays. The Forks Market next door was more interesting–a combination farmers market, strip mall and swap meet, indoors in what used to be a railway station.
I bought an elk smokestack, a Slim Jim made of elk meat, and a Jim Morrison lapel button.
We walked along the river on a trail that Mrs Davis believed was not meant for tourists and eventually arrived at the Alexandre Avenue dock. There we boarded the River Queen for a scenic tour along the Red River.
We sat on the promenade deck next to a tableful of Red Hat ladies and cruised first upriver, then down river, then back to the dock, where the captain practiced landing until he got it right. Please, God, don’t give him an airplane.
Monday
We took a long travel day, up shortly after midnight and on the road to Marathon. We left Manitoba and watched a scarlet sun rise above the hills and lakes of Ontario, land of lakes, granite outcroppings and fall-tinted forests of birches and maples.
We crossed the boundary into the Eastern time zone, then the divide for the Atlantic watershed.
We checked in to the Marathon Travelodge at 4:30 after 606 miles, then drove into town to observe the pulp mill and the harbour. Our hostess, Nancy, sent us to Pebble Beach, where she said this year’s low lake level has exposed a strip of sand below the rocky beach.
We stopped by the town’s Curling club but the door was locked. Nancy said it is too early to ice the rink. During the winter they have several leagues playing and it’s lots of fun.
Tuesday
Nancy served breakfast in the dining room next morning. A restaurant is attached to the motel lobby but it is closed because she cannot get anyone to work as a cook.
She told us that Marathon was founded in the mid 1940s to serve the pulp mill and was originally a company town. Gold was discovered nearby in the 1980s, Canada’s largest strike, and the town continues to grow as companies invest in the mines, extracting also platinum and diamonds.
Nancy arranged for us to meet the Fire Chief downtown before we left and we traded patches with him.
A half hour along the highway, we passed the David Bell gold mine, located on Yellow Brick Road. We stopped at White River for coffee. White River claims the coldest temperature in Canada, 78 degrees Fahrenheit below zero.
We stopped at Fenton Lake in Lake Superior Provincial Park for a picnic and shared bread with a black-striped chipmunk.
Driving in Ontario required great patience. The highways we followed were two lanes and signed for 90 km/h and we stopped several times each day for road work.
We crossed St Mary’s river at 3:00 and re-entered the United States. Our Customs officer told us we won a special prize, we were the 100th vehicle since the last 100th vehicle so we were selected for random search. Two officers opened the back door, observed our haphazard arrangement of clothing, luggage and souvenirs, and waved us on.