Have Love Will Travel

On the third day of driving we finally came to the end of Ontario and the start of the Central Time Zone of North America (one hour behind Toronto).
The North Western end of the province seemed to drag on forever and we welcomed Manitoba and its straight new roads with open arms.
On the edge of the border lays the city of Winnipeg our stop for the night - a flat boring wee city in what seemed to us like the middle of nowhere.

Monday we drove through the prairies from Winnipeg to Edmonton.
Manitoba – Saskatchewan – Alberta: 15 hours drive. Lots of Tim Hortons coffee kept Jared going…….

The Prairies are breath taking, completely different from any other scenery we have encountered in Canada.
The dry plains reminded us of Canterbury, only on a much grander scale.

The yellow paddocks were unfenced and old barns and random trees the only things filling them. Often there was quite literally nothing as far as the eye can see.
The roads where straight, long and boring, often staying that way for over 100 kilometers.

For lunch we ventured off the main highway and into the baron plains. Complete nothingness remained in all directions, only this time no traffic and the sound of silence.

Come twilight our path ventured north and the plains gave way to slightly lusher surroundings and home to many types of wildlife. Deer, Moose, Elk, Grizzly Bear, Wolf and Caribou warning signs littered the highway and dead carcasses became a common sight on the roadsides. We had a close call with a curious Deer but managed to avoid hitting anything throughout the whole trip there.

Edmonton is in the Province of Alberta and is home to the largest Mall in the world.
The West Edmonton mall has over 800 shops and 23,500 people work there. There is also an amusement park, a water park and daily animal shows not to mention the full size ice hockey rink!. It gets to below minus 40 degrees in mid winter so it does kind of make sense to create something to escape the cold.
Being Canada’s richest Province thanks to the rich oil sands the province has less tax then anywhere in the country. A good excuse to spend more at the mall!
Edmonton is completely different then Toronto, the people are very friendly and everyone seems relaxed, things run at a slower pace.

We spent two nights in Edmonton at the Super 8 Truck Stop and then Wednesday afternoon we drove into the Mountains our first stop Jasper.