Fort Macleod to Swift Current

Tuesday Sept. 7 saw us wake up at 5:30 am to a heavy hard frost. The truck was coated in an ice like frost as was everything else outside. At 6:30 am I put the thermometer outside and it registered –1C, and the sun was up. It would have been colder at 4 am so this has been the coldest morning of our entire trip. The weather forecast is calling for snow in the mountains tonight. Time to head east.
We got underway around 8am after being serenaded again by the local coyote packs. Their morning songs will be missed. We will also miss Buffalo Plains RV and tenting Park and the owners Sue and Ernie. They run a small, friendly, clean oasis of a park that is ideally situated for many day trips through southwest Alberta. The location is very quiet helped of course by being about 12KM away from any major highway, but having an excellent paved road leading to their location. The washrooms and laundry facilities were clean and well maintained and the whole place was well managed. We will be back and can highly recommend it to anyone traveling in this area.
Traffic was light through Lethbridge and we stopped at Tabor to pick up another dozen corn from a local truck vender.

We arrived in Elkwater, Cypress Hills around 1 pm and got quickly settled into our site. Very quiet here with hardly any campers left after the long weekend. We took a long walk along the lake and found out that we have not been walking enough lately. Our legs started to get tired after a couple of hours.
Had a great dinner of steak, baked potato and corn on the cob. Just as we finished dinner three deer paid us a visit. The doe and her fawn did not want the other one around so an interesting chase took place all around us until the interloper was scared off. It is very quiet here. Only about three rigs in the section of the park we were in.
The next morning, Wednesday, we left for Swift Current. It was overcast but no rain. But there has been a lot of rain this year in Saskatchewan. Fields have standing water in low areas, which are filled with ducks and geese. We heard on the news that only 13% of the crops have been harvested and farmers need about three weeks of dry weather for the crops to mature and the fields to dry out so they can be harvested.

We drove through Maple Creek where the TCH was washed out in June. The highway is divided here but only one side of the highway is open with two-way traffic, east and west. It is hard to say if it will be finished this fall or not. Anyplace where there were hills you could see slumps and slides because the ground is so water logged.
We arrived in Swift Current early in the afternoon and found lots of spaces available at the Trail Campground, right in town. We got set up, found the local mall and did the shopping we needed to do, groceries etc.
Thursday morning we woke up to cloudy skies and a forecast for rain. We decided to stay in Swift Current for another day. I was able to find out on the internet that a representative from the hearing aid company that made my aids was scheduled to be at a local Pharmasave Store. Since my aids needed some work on them I decided to go down and see if I could get to see the representative. We got there at 9:30 am and she took me right in as the person who had an appointment for that time had not shown up. She did the repairs that were needed and within 20 minutes was on my way with hearing aids that worked much better. Talk about good luck. This representative is only in Swift Current every second Thursday and this was the day! N did all kinds of Christmas shopping here as well, so we can now say our Christmas shopping is done.
Tomorrow morning, Friday, we head south to Coronach, a small town near the US border. Coronach is central to the area of the “Big Muddy”, which was home years ago to many famous outlaws from the USA, including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. There are a large number of historic sites to visit and a fair number of museums that should be interesting. We plan to spend three to four days in that area and then head towards Brandon Man. To see the grand kids. There is no WiFi in Coronack and area, so this will be the last you will hear from for the next week, or until we arrive in Brandon.
Quote for the day: When they discover the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed to discover they are not it.
  - Bernard Bailey

Cheers
P & N