Travel Log - Day 2

Banff, Alberta - Swift Current, Saskatchewan ~ 675.5km


We decided to stay in Banff for a few hours and walk around. After a decent continental breakfast ( hotels seem to vary in their continental offerings), we went out for a walk. It's a gorgeous day today. Spectacular view of the Rocky Mountains which seem to surround this little piece of quaintness called Banff. We enjoy the shops very much and after a couple of hours head back to the hotel to check out.

I had made up an itinerary a few weeks prior to leaving and I had hoped to make it as far as Calgary the first day, but it was not to be. We decide to try and make it to somewhere in Saskatchewan by nightfall.

Driving through Alberta, I cannot help but think of cowboys riding across the praires like they do in country music videos and the movies. Instead of seeing them riding on their horses, I see cowboys and cowgirls driving their cars down the dirt roads that run very near the highway. They fly down those roads, leaving a long trail of dust in their wake. There are lots of hay bales all over this flat land known as the prairies. It's hard to know when one farm ends and another begins. I'm glad to be on a straight away instead of winding through the rolling mountains; too much motion.

While driving eastward, a little fox ran across the section of highway heading westbound and it quickly turned around when it reached the grassy, midway, meridian and darted back into the fields. That was exciting!

We stopped in Brooks, Saskatchewn for lunch and had a hard time finding a place to eat so we stopped in at the tourist info center for some advice. There weren't any funky food places, no good pubs, only fast food or Boston Pizza. We went to Boston Pizza and were joined by a few flies...hmmm, I wonder how bad the bugs are going to get the further east we go?

Arriving in Swift Current, we found another Best Western, but were very disappointed with the quality (mostly the smell of being right beside the pool )so we switched over to Holiday Inn Express which was brand new. This was right next door to a casino for which the hotel gave us some vouchers. After we settled in we gave the casino a try. I've never played games at the casino, never gambled. We were given a total of $20 each for signing up and using our vouchers. Plus, we were each given a $5 food voucher for the restaurant so we had a bite to eat too. Neither of us used all of our $20 gambling money so we just kept the rest. I don't get the machines at all, I just had fun pulling the handle down and anticpating all the gold bars lining up, but that never happened. The casino is busy with people aged 50 and up. Some of them are on a casino bus tour. I never knew that there was such a thing as a casino bus tour trip. I wonder how many of these people are addicted to gambling.


Interesting experience.