Alaska 2023
  
 

Day 03

July 10

  
     
     
   
I get BlueBelle loaded for the day and then make my way over to the Perkins next door.  
 
They have just opened up which works great for me.  
 
I get my usual on the road breakfast but I decide to go with a bacon instead of a sausage omelet and side. I've learned up north that their sausage is a bit different than what I like down south so bacon is always a safe alternative.  
 
Highway 2/52 will pretty much carry me to the Canadian border at Boundary, a journey of little less than one hundred miles.  
 
As I continue on I notice a bit of an interesting arrangement of trees on the ridge to my right. It sure looks like it would have been a lot of work for someone  
 
The scenery is quite nice and I see another lovely lake down in the valley.  
 
But the skies are not looking too lovely but maybe I'll ride out of it and not have to put on my rain gear.  
 
I have to chuckle when I see this setup in front of me. Looks like a little too little a load for a little too big a sign  
 
Once again when I pass by an old abandoned home place I wonder what happened. This one looks pretty substantial in its construction and the location looks pleasant. But I reckon it takes more than good circumstances for a home place to continue on from generation to generation.  
 
But at least this farm is reaping a crop from under the ground as well as on top of the ground - sort of a double duty.  
 
At this one they are doing a burn off of excess gas - which would make me a little nervous that close to the buildings.  
 
Soon I am at Portal which is the gateway into Canada - sort of a fitting name for this town I reckon.  
 
The crossing over into Canada is really pretty quick and painless - not the deal it was when I crossed during the Covid mess. I grab a quick shot of the Saskatchewan border and I'm off.  
 
The roads out here are long and straight but at least they are not like Nevada - long and straight and hot and dry.  
 
I've been through here before and the sight of the tortured land troubles me.  
 
I see them doing the dirty work in the distance with apparently no concern about the mess they leave behind. Not far from where I grew up in Tennessee they found phosphate in a little community named Mt. Pleasant. But as part of the deal, the extractors had to put the land back close to the way it was when they were done mining it. The phosphate eventually ran out, but if you visit the area now you would never know that the great upheaval of earth had ever taken place.  
 
So it can be done instead of wrecking the land so that it has little practical use when they are finished.  
 
As I travel across Saskatchewan, it reminds me a lot of crossing Kansas - you see plenty of storage silos ...  
 
in town after ...  
 
town after ...  
 
town of various configurations and usually near the railroad.  
 
And once again I wonder if they are to deal with the numerous fields of canola that I pass by on my journeys.  
 
If so, then these are sure in the right spot!  
 
And given the color of what spreads out to the horizon, I'd say that this place is certainly appropriately named.  
 
I guess when you're hot, you're hot and this must have been hot way back then.  
 
I have to assume that the flatness of the terrain allows the trains to be of the length that they seem to go on forever and forever. It makes me wonder how long it takes for the tail end of them to start moving after the front end starts moving.  
 
Further down the line I see a specially equipped truck running on the rails. It's sort of an interesting thing to me how they manage the 'propulsion' since the truck is riding on the rails not on its tires.  
 
Soon I enter Moose Jaw which I remember from a previous ride this way.  
 
The oncoming traffic gets to be a little more 'interesting' as I decide to move over a little bit for this one.  
 
And I can't help but wonder could I really ride under this one or not. But today ain't the day that I am gonna find out the answer - and probably there won't be a day for that.  
 
There are some pretty nice lakes up this way as I move on down the road ...  
 
and unfortunately some pretty 'unnice' road construction with the ensuing traffic.  
 

When I see this sign I have to ask myself the question -

'Does that mean there are unimportant intersections?'

and just who gets decide which ones are important?

  
 
And while I am musing about such deep matters, I see this and I don't recall that I've ever seen an elevator for a pool before.  
 
Soon enough I arrive at my destination for the evening with about 580 miles for the day. The nice thing is that this Travelodge happens to have a nice steakhouse right on the premises.  
 
I get checked in and get BlueBelle all bedded down for the evening.  
 
Then I avail myself of a good piece of dead cow and some grass and a tater.  
 
Tomorrow is a bit longer day but the route is pretty simple. It's on the Yellowhead all day long til I get to Prince George, a place I've stopped at before. Pretty quickly my brain turns out the lights and I am off to another place that I have stopped at before.