August 19, 2019 – September 7th, 2019

We made our way to Winnipeg, Manitoba, where we had booked a hotel room for two nights. We had been wild camping for a few days so we were both looking forward to a shower and we needed to get some laundry done. We didn’t end up doing much more in Winnipeg than that, other than enjoying having extra space, a television and take out food delivered to our door.

Our next stop was the small city of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, where you can camp for free outside of the visitor centre under a huge statue of a moose. We watched a powerful thunderstorm over the city of Moose Jaw that evening.

The main reason we had stopped in Moose Jaw was to go on a tour of the tunnels that run under the streets of the downtown area. Construction of this series of tunnels began in about 1908, originally as part of an underground steam system. The project, however, was abandoned. The tunnels ended up being first used by Chinese railway workers. Some were escaping racist persecution, others were unable to pay the government imposed “head tax” (yes, Canada too has its sordid past) and needed a place to hide. Entire families would live in the tunnels, working above ground in exchange for food and supplies.

Later, during the United States period of prohibition in the 1920s, the tunnels were used for rum running and it is said that Al Capone had his hand in the operation. Corrupt police in town turned a blind eye to the bootlegging, gambling and prostitution rings that all made extensive use of the tunnels.

Our tour was lead by young actors dressed in period costumes; we also had a role to play, as we were bootleggers looking to buy some rum from the Capone organization. The tour was interesting and fun, although we were only lead through a few short tunnels. An hour later, we were back in the truck and heading to the south west corner of the province of Saskatchewan.

We camped for a night at Grasslands National Park, East Block, where the next day we did a beautiful hike.

The hike began through the rolling grasslands that gave no hint of what was to come….a series of spectacular hoodoos and canyons along the border of the United States.

We drove from the East Block of the park towards the West Block. We had talked to park staff about our route before we left, not wanting to have to return to the main highway if we didn’t need to. They assured us that we could take the back roads and began to explain the route we should take. To be honest, I zoned out while they gave directions, figuring we would just rely on our mapping software. I should have listened to the rangers. Somehow we took a wrong turn and ended up on one of the worst roads of our entire trip!

We drove into the West Block, hoping to spot the resident herd of bison…we saw lots of ground squirrels, but no bison.

We camped for the night in Medicine Hat, and then headed north towards Drumheller, where we camped for 2 nights along the Red Deer River.

We arrived on my brother’s land near Sundre on August 28th, a few days before the start the 2019 Falcon’s Flight disc golf tournament that he hosts. This was to be the 10th anniversary of the tournament, which in and of itself makes it an important event. But it was significant for another reason….my brother has stage 4 renal cell carcinoma…kidney cancer. He was diagnosed about one year before we left on this trip, and was given about three years to live. When we left on this trip, we didn’t know if we would see him again. But there he was, smiling and joking, and ready to host about 150 disc golf players, many of which are now his dear friends.

There are two 18 hole courses on his property. For those of you unfamiliar with the game, it is similar to stick golf, only played with discs and a more relaxed atmosphere but do NOT call them Frisbees…disc golfers hate that!. You tee off, make your way down the fairway (unless, you are really bad at the game like me, then you spend a lot of time hunting for your disc in the trees), the goal being to get your disc into the basket with the minimum amount of shots.

My brother this year make up labels for each basket, with names of some friends and family on each. Here is a picture of our basket….

Most of the Falconer family was at the tournament, some having travelled from British Columbia to be there, so it was a good opportunity to also celebrate my parents’ 60th wedding anniversary, which would officially happen in a few weeks time.

After the weekend, we made our way to our cabin in British Columbia where we spent a few days with Derek’s family.

And then we headed home. We arrived at our house on September 7th, 2019, after 683 days on the road and having driven 73,960 kilometres….now that is one big trip!