Day 3... North by Northwest

This morning we slept in a bit, but left Ile des Chaines by 8:00 and headed toward Winnipeg.  By the way Winnepeg is the most populous city in Manitoba with 631,774 people.  There are only 3 other cities in the entire province with over 10,000 people.  What I discovered today is that most of Manitoba is water.  There are many lakes that take up more of the overall size of the province than actual land and much of the land is very marshy.  We picked up the Yellow Head Highway in Portage la Prairie, also known as Canada 16.  It is primarily a 2 lane lane road with a few small sections of 4 lanes.  The drive today was very pretty, lots of canola, alfalfa, wheat and barley.  Some areas were very flat but there were some rolling hills.

We hit the Saskatchewan border at lunchtime.  There was a less water and less people.  The country side was pretty but after  12 hours of looking at grains of different varieties, I am all grained out.  We came through Saskatoon this evening at rush hour.  I always wanted to visit Saskatoon, I guess because I like to say Saskatoon... Saskatoon...  We are camping in mosquito haven tonight in the town called Battleford.  We are very close to the Alberta border and the switch to mountain time (it is now 10:20 and the sun hasn't set yet!).  We're told it has been a very wet spring and summer, part of the reason for the downstream flooding in North Dakota.  Their is a fort right next to our campground that has some historical significance to Saskatchewan.

Tomorrow we will continue west on the Yellow Head Highway to Edmondton, Alberta and pick up Highway 43.  Hopefully by tomorrow night, we we be to Dawson Creek, BC, the beginning of the Alaska Highway.