Ottawa to Saskatoon - Day 4

Day 4 of our travels to Saskatoon, it's now Tues ...

We left early from Minot to try and get into Saskatoon by mid day. We only X'd our puppy Tootsi, leaving the older ones till we could find a grassy area out of town.

A deserted gas station on the side of the road was quickly found, so out came the x-tenda leads and everyone got a good walk in the grassy area. The last one to always find that 'perfect' spot was Tyme. I continued to let her move out at the end of the lead while Mike packed up the other two.

Then all of a sudden, she disappeared!!!! in the grass! YIKES, MIKE!!! As I kept a strong hold on the x-tenda lead and quickly moving towards her - hoping she wasn't down some deep hole that went to nowhere - I could see her paws & head popping up out of this barrel like hole. I yanked up on the lead and pulled her out. Woooo .. it was like a large old barrel in the ground, somewhat hidden by the tall grass. Mike called it a 'sink hole'. Checked her out and except for her being black on the legs and belly, she was fine. We cleaned her up as best we could, knowing she'd definitely need another bath for the show.

OK, take a breath, you didn't 'loose' a dog .. we get settled again and back on the road heading for the US/Canadian boarder at Portal. We go through the boarder without any issues and not far around the bend ....

WOOOO, Mike! Turn around, there's a TIM HORTON'S! look at the line-up it's out on the road. I could just taste it! OMG, over 3 days without a good coffee ... it's like HEAVEN just popped by.(ya, know you saw this pic before)

The sign on the door says "Welcome Home". Guess you have to be a Canadian to understand what a landmark TH's has become. It is a warm place, with good food, great donuts, clean washrooms and GOOD coffee. You usually find one on your route. Starbucks is another popular one, but they don't seem to be on the main travelled routes.

Off on the road again ... fields, and more fields .... my TH's is getting low and when I check the Garmin it's going to be a loonnnggg way till the next one. Then we come into Weyburn and isn't there some new construction with a large TH's off the road.This time I filled up my TH's mug and also got an X-Large on the side. I didn't care if it was cold by the time I drank it, I wasn't going to be without coffee for kms upon kms this time.
On up the road we go .... more fields, more horizon .... some swampy areas, birds, ducks ... and one smooth collie trying to cross the 4 lanes of the road. Yes, he/she got across safely ... altho no homes in sight for miles.

As we approach Saskatoon we still need to find dog food! At least the kind they normally eat. I was searching on the Garmin as we entered Saskatoon for pet stores. Certainly seemed some large mall areas open that weren't there on the Garmin. I hit a 'go' mark, and well, doesn't it take us to an area of town with mostly houses and a few small malls. Obviously I hit some wrong 'go' on the Garmin, as this wasn't a large mall with a pet store. We pull in and reassess what went wrong. Then Mike notices a sign - bath your own dog. Wow, let's check this out as we need a few bathed (again) before the show on Thurs. Yep, a place with 6 tubs, blow dryers the works ... we'll be back tomorrow. Off we go to a store they said had our Proplan food. We arrive @ 5:32pm, it closes at 5:30! More searching, a few more stops, we're getting the lay of the land, we finally find a PetsMart where we can get a small bag of PP Selects Snr for the two older ones. The Purina One for puppies we picked up at a Wal-Mart will be OK for Tootsi while we're there. (I now know why Purina came out with this higher quality food to sell outside of pet stores ... there were SO many Wal-Marts, and big ones at that, in some of the small towns we went through that made it so easy for owners to pick up their dog food, really just about any time of day).

OK, a few other items to pick up and a stop for dinner. #1 item is to pick up a can of Tim Horton's coffee, had them open it since one needed a can opener, and some small filters so we can make our own TH's in our room ... not going to trust the motel's packaged coffee. It's now getting late, another long day ahead.

The motel we stayed in didn't have much grass, just along the side of the road. We had an end room with a walk-out. Great, easy in/out with the dogs and easy to load. On leaving, one of us could just lock the patio door and go out the end door right there .... dah ... nope! The key card lock was broken. When asking at the desk if it was going to be fixed ... 'we're waiting for a part' and so ???? 'well it's been broken for a yr now! We don't know when it will be fixed'. Go figure. So it now means one of us has to be dropped off at the front, walk all the way down the hallway, then once in the room, unlock the patio door. It was nice to have this access, but boy a real pain every time you locked up or returned.

We made it ... to the middle of the west of Canada, Saskatoon.

Saskatoon's slogan is "Saskatoon Shines" ... hummm .. that ain't what the forecast is saying ... grey, cloudy, raining, winding, and could get to -0 at night. Not looking good over the next 4 days.