Spring 1997 - Cincinnati to Yukon
Journals - 31 May 1997
Day 61 - Macoun, Sask.
31 May 1997 (sunny and very hot! mileage = 43.9) -- X - We got up at about
7:30 and were ready to leave at 8:30. It turned out that the post office
opened at 9:30 on Saturdays, so we went to the duty-free shop and I checked
V.M. and called my dad to ask the most-traveled man I know about border
crossing (he was in Croatia and Scotland last week). We used up some stamps
at the post office, then set off for Canada. The border crossing was pretty
simple (as my dad predicted). We were asked if we had any guns, weapons of
any kind, Mace, fireworks, alcohol, tobacco, duty-free items, gifts for
Canadians, and that was about it. No IDs or anything. They did ask
citizenship and where we were from and how long we'll be in Canada. So
right away, we stopped in a tourism welcome center and got some Sask. info
and a good map of S. Canada. We also learned that we gained an hour since
they don't do D.S.T. Then we got pedaling to Estevan. We saw open mine work
(lignite coal) and other quarry stuff. I climbed a hill to look at a "point
of interest" which was a large gear from the early part of the century used
in the coal mining. In Estevan, I changed our $ and was annoyed to learn
that our many laundry quarters couldn't be changed. The dumb clerk
suggested "Just go to the border. It's only a few minutes away." Ya.
Four-hour round trip for us. No thanks. We then went to the grocery store
and as April checked out the yummy cookies Canadians have, I programmed the
HP48 to easily handle $ and unit silliness. We then ate lunch on the
courthouse lawn. I checked into a sports setup to see what the tire
situation was here -- sold the last one yesterday! Then back on the road.
It was HOT! At one point, my thermometer read 103 degrees F! We stopped at
an awesome official picnic ground that was like an oasis in the wheat
fields. But they had no H2O, so we kept going. We got to Macoun and a
friendly guy told us that their hangar-like building was for curling ice!
He suggested that it would make a good tent site. It is nice and cool
(shade) in here and the mosquitoes (which are plentiful) are slightly less
abundant. We put the tent up, washed and now we're done for today.
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