On Wednesday, October 25th, my brother Charlie and I made our way to Regina, Saskatchewan to connect with family. It was approximately 6.5 hours direct, but we made a few stops along the way.
One stop we spotted a huge migration of birds. Wow! The pictures do not add the sounds or the full panoramic site of this spot. Absolutely amazing.
One unplanned stop was a little upsetting to say the least. We were just west of Moose Jaw and we were about to pass a truck (it was on a divided highway section). We noticed a van on the side of the road with a mother holding a child and the father flagging us down. Charlie pulled across the two lanes over to the shoulder and the man came up to the passenger window. I rolled the window down and he thanked us for pulling over. He started to explain that he had run out of gas and that his visa was not working. He showed us his visa card and then asked us if we had any money to spare for gas. He then stated that he had to get to Manitoba for an important meeting. He indicated that he had called a tow truck and it would be about 45 minutes to get there. Charlie and I were about to give him $20.00 each, we had both reached for our wallets when the guy continued to talk about leaving a ring with us and would send us back the money and for us then to mail back the ring. Charlie had just previously read about this scam and stuck his hand over my wallet and said just a minute. Charlie mentioned that he would take him up to the gas station, which you could see from our vehicle, and the guy then said that a tow truck was on its way and would have to try to start his vehicle. His story had changed a bit now. Charlie indicated that this may not be the case right now, but that he had heard about this scam. The guy was persistent and I stated that we had to get going, if he wanted a ride up to the gas station to get in ... he declined. While driving towards Regina, I was quite upset ... upset to think that this guy was using his family to pull a scam ... that this guy had flagged us over on a busy highway as if he was in an emergency situation. This was not cool. I must remember if that ever happens again to video the conversation and of the guy pulling this scam ... this is awful, because if someone really needs help it is jerks like this that would make some people hesitate in pulling over in future situations ... shame on him. People, watch out for this scam.
After finally making it to Regina, we got settled in with our brother Matt and his lovely wife for the night.
As they had left early for work, Charlie and I went Geocache hunting by driving Northeast towards Melville. We found a couple of geocache boxes and then stopped in Fort Qu'Appelle to check out the area. We drove through the fort, visited a campground and took a short walk along the bank of a lake and took a few photo's. It was a very nice area and the lake was very calm creating some lovely reflection shots.
Walking along the lake edge, there was one area where beaver had been quite busy. It was quite amazing to see some huge trees had been chopped down by the beaver and then to see this piece of a tree completely chewed up by a beaver.
A great stop for a cold one at O'Hanlon's downtown Regina. It was a lovely bar.
The decor was lovely. LOL
We had to order this particular pizza as it was created by our brother Matt (Alias: Bixby) and so is named the pizza, Bixby. Matt had asked them to try a specific mixture of ingredients and so it became the Bixby pizza. It turns out to be quite popular. I must admit, it was very tasty.
Matt and Kathy ran into a couple friends who are new into the publishing business and have just published their first book. This copy was hot off the press!
On a cool day we played a little nine holes of Frisbee golf, such a blast.
After a lovely stay, Charlie and I made our way back to Lethbridge, Alberta. We took a little side trip to Red Rock Coulee. This was quite an interesting natural wonder and certainly worth the trip to see this. The following description of these unique boulders is from Wikipedia:
"The most striking features of this landscape are the round reddish boulders. These are sandstone concretions and at up to 2.5 m in diameter, they are among the largest in the world. The boulders were formed in prehistoric seas as layers of sand, calcite and iron oxide collected around a nucleus formed by shells, leaves or bones. The concretions grew larger as the circulating waters deposited more layers. The reddish colour comes from iron oxide. Look carefully at the concretions - you may be able to see their "growth rings" (layers of sediment deposition) and fossilized shells, leaves or bones."
A quick selfie to get a little idea of the size of these huge unique boulders.
We had made quite a few short jaunts along the way, including finding a great number of abandoned homes including some old abandoned cars.
An end of the day to a perfect time in Saskatchewan ... we landed back in Lethbridge at sunset.
