Month: February 2026

Regina, Saskatchewan

August 21, 2025

After my stay in Moose Jaw I would drive about 50 miles east to Regina (pronounced rej-EYE-na), the capital of the province and it’s second largest city. But first, the view from my bedroom window when I woke up before sunrise:

Kind of hard to see in a photograph but the crescent moon is in the bottom center and above and to the right are two planets (I don’t recall which ones).

I drove over to Regina and the first thing I saw when I arrived in town was Mosaic Stadium, home of the Saskatchewan Roughriders football team.

Next I drove downtown to, where else, the Visitor Centre. Frankly I was surprised that about all they had there was a map of the city.

I drove back to the stadium to get a closer look. Outside were three flags.

On the right, the British Flag, on the left the Canadian flag and in the center the Saskatchewan provincial flag.

Next to the stadium was Confederation Park, a small, grassy fenced in area with several benches and tables. There was also a display of indigenous art:

Next to the park and the stadium was the convention center, and in the parking lot a group called Cirque Italia (Water Circus) was setting up a large performance tent:

It was a nice day so I drove back downtown and walked to several city parks. In one of them I saw an enormous jackrabbit (technically a hare).

I could tell he was big (he reminded me of my cat, Bigfoot, who weighed 16 pounds). Well, jackrabbits don’t get THAT big but his back legs were long and when he got moving he could really make tracks. I saw another one in another part of town.

The next day I had to do laundry. The Airbnb I was staying in had a combination washer/dryer – something I had never seen before. I don’t know what the attraction was, other than taking up less space, but it took FOREVER.

I had done some research overnight and decided to go to two government buildings – The Legislative Building and Government House.

That is the Legislative Building, looking back from the gardens in front of it. And this is the view from the front of the building looking towards downtown.

And the statue of the horse and rider you can see in both photos is Queen Elizabeth II, riding her favorite horse – Burmese.

In another part of town I found Government House.

It is the official residence of the Lieutenant (pronounced Left-tenant in Canada) Governor of Saskatchewan, who is the Crown’s representative.

The weather was going downhill and I had a driving day the next day so I went back to my Airbnb to get my clean clothes out to the car and rest up a bit.

My day in Moose Jaw

August 20, 2025

It took all day to get here and I arrived just before nightfall so I spent the next day exploring Moose Jaw. As I often do, I started at the Visitor Centre.

Above is a version of the Snowbirds jet. The Snowbirds are Canada’s precision flying team (like the Thunderbirds or Blue Angels in the US). They are based at CFB Moose Jaw, a large military base a few miles south of town. Moose Jaw has a reputation for clear weather in the summer so it is a perfect training ground for pilots to practice their skills.

And that is Mac the Moose, here for obvious reasons.

When I went inside I was greeted by a more lively mascot of sorts. Say hello to Cheese the cat.

Get it? Mac and Cheese?

This was one of the displays in the Visitor Centre.

It promotes a tour of real tunnels underneath the city. There are two theories for the existence of these tunnels. One is that they housed Chinese-Canadians who were forced to live underground. There is no real proof of that but is there is documentation for Chinese business owners having lived here many years ago.

The second theory is more widely embraced. Chicago mob boss Al Capone is alleged to have used the tunnels for hiding alcohol, prostitutes and promoting gambling here during Prohibition. Again, no documented proof of that but it has kind of taken on a life of its own. Many of my Airbnb hosts thus far have mentioned it if I told them that I was planning to come here.

Other displays featured the importance of the railroad (two different national rail lines pass through here), agriculture in the community, and promoted various sports teams, notably the Moose Jaw Warriors hockey team.

And of course, the Snowbirds.

Note that the Snowbirds logo is featured on the hockey player’s uniform above, as is part of their logo as well.

Moose Jaw is a nice town of a little more than 33,000 people and it seems to have held that level for at least 10 years. It is the 4th largest city in Saskatchewan. People who live here are called Moose Javians. Seriously. Betcha didn’t know that! (Don’t feel bad, I didn’t either).

As I stated earlier, it has embraced the urban legend of Al Capone having a connection to the town, and calls itself “Canada’s Most Notorious City”.

I went to the Temple Gardens Arena in town as it was listed as the location of the Moose Jaw Curling Centre. The day I was there, however, it appeared to be set up for hockey.

Moose Jaw did host the 2025 World Men’s Curling Championship, as well as the 2023 World Para Ice Hockey Championship, in this multi-use arena.

As I was driving back to my Airbnb (one of the nicest one’s I have stayed in) I drove through this coulee a short distance from the house.

A coulee is a French-Canadian term for a valley or depression. After my hostess explained that I realized I have driven through lots of them. Those photos are looking left and right from the lowest point on the, otherwise level, road.

Calgary, AB to Moose Jaw, SK

August 19, 2025

Today would be a driving day. I would be traveling from NW of Calgary, near the western edge of southern Alberta province (though it is relatively narrow at the south end), to Moose Jaw, in south-central Saskatchewan province, which is much wider. Google Maps said it would take about 6 3/4 hours without stops, and would be all 4-lane highway. I don’t call it the dreaded interstate because I am in Canada. If anything it would be interprovince, but the highways up here have treated me very well so I have no reason to attach the “dreaded” moniker to them.

This going to sound crazy but I have wanted to go to Moose Jaw since 1977, when the movie Slapshot came out. It was about a fictional minor league hockey team with a bunch of misfit players, and included, what some might call above average hockey rough play which really drew attention to the team. It included the three Hanson brothers and another player whose name I don’t recall. At some point in the movie the fact that the brothers were from Moose Jaw and the other from Saskatoon (or vice versa) was mentioned. Ever since then I have wanted to go to those two places.

This was the view out my bedroom window during the night near Calgary- the moon and two planets.

When my Airbnb hosts in Golden and Canmore learned of my plan to go to Saskatchewan they told me – be prepared for prairie and farmland. Once you get out of the Rockies it will be flat as can be. No worries – the same is true in the US.

Not a mountain in sight.

I stopped for lunch in Medicine Hat, AB, which was about halfway to my destination. The first thing I saw before I got off the highway was the World’s Largest Teepee.

Well, maybe not authentic but it makes a good photo op. There was some indigenous artwork on display.

I stopped at the nearby Visitor Centre for maps and brochures and had a nice conversation with one of the workers there. He convinced me that there was enough here to see that I would add it to my itinerary later in the trip. Because of the possible air quality issues I had downsized my original plan which had included a stop in Medicine Hat.

I had learned of a small racetrack and r/c aircraft flying field north of town and set out to check them out quickly before I got back on the road. Before I got there I saw a sign indicating that neighboring Redcliff, Alberta is the Greenhouse Capital of the Prairies.

I found both the racetrack and the r/c flying field right next to each other but both were closed on the day I was there.

Spectators Welcome so long as there is someone here! I won’t even post a photo of the race track since I couldn’t get very close. For those of you that don’t know me, car racing is one of my interests, and I used to fly r/c helicopters for a few years and always stop in if I see a flying field somewhere.

I also learned that Medicine Hat is nicknamed “Gas City” because of an abundance of natural gas underground, and I passed a few businesses which process it for transportation by rail.

As soon as I crossed into Saskatchewan I started to see evidence that it was, in fact, largely farmland.

Huge silos and grain elevators. And to give you an idea how big this one is, here is a photo with vehicles parked next to it (way down in the lower left hand corner).

Further up the road, another one:

Before I got to Moose Jaw I came to a large lake and noticed a raised observation platform:

The signage indicated that Reed Lake is a seasonal stopover for migratory birds. It is the second largest saline inland water body in Canada.

When I finally arrived in Moose Jaw I discovered that one can even get poutine at McDonald’s in Canada.

Poutine is basically french fries covered with cheese curds and brown gravy. I tried it a few years ago when I was in Quebec (where it originated) but it is not something I should really be eating…

I arrived at my Airbnb in Moose Jaw in the early evening. It was located several miles out in the country south of town, and I was treated to a magnificent sunset and, looking in another direction, storm clouds. It had been a beautiful day but storms were moving into the area. They basically went around us but because of the flat terrain I could see storms far away from where I was.