Day 8 - Surprise Surprise!

This morning we were up fairly early.  We packed up the gang and headed to the southern tip of the campground.  That is where the interpretive trail is for the Buffalo. Even me, the great navigator that I am, led us down the wrong path.  I did in the end find the way.  We got to see some Buffalos.  We thought we would see them free in the plains but the only place we saw them was in the paddock (where they feed them).  Pretty cool non the less.  We hiked a little bit up the trail.  Bones was loving life!  He was hunting prairie dogs like crazy!! He had his nose so far down the hole! It was hilarious!  We headed back and packed up the trailer and headed west towards Medicine Hat.

Buffalo Pound Park

Bones hunting

Justin was on the phone with his mom when all of sudden we come across a part of the highway where both sides are covered with some white substance.  He hangs up, pulls over and I turn to my friend Google to find out where we were and what this might be.  We are in Chaplin.  This is what wikipedia tells us:

 'As well as being the home for shorebirds, the main business of Chaplin also uses the sodium sulphate deposits of Chaplin Lake. Saskatchewan Minerals, a private company, harvests the sodium sulphate through an evaporation method; large salt deposits are visible from the Trans-Canada Highway. Additionally, Artemia Canada, a seasonal company, catches and packages the brine shrimp that thrive in the salt water of Chaplin Lake. Both of these industries support the needs of shorebirds by ensuring an adequate supply of water in the spring and summer.'

What we came across on HWY1 in Chaplin

It was pretty cool to see.

Figured we would stop somewhere along the way and again, my trustee google told me that there was a kite festival in Swift Current! Justin loves kites and hey, why not?! We parked the trailer in the field, got bb girl all bundled up and headed towards the action.  It was actually quite different and cool to watch.  People have kyte routines coordinated to music.  It was soooo windy! What a perfect place for a kyte festival! We heard some locals talk about how it isn't always that windy - a few years back they barely had any wind!  It was so windy today that they had to put weights on their kytes in order to control them better.  What a cool spot to randomly hit!

Dancing kite

These three girls did a show with their long dresses flapping in the wind.
Different and kind of cool!

BB Girl enjoyed the kites!

Picked up a little lunch!

While Justin was driving, I was trying to catch beautiful pictures of the prairie skies and in particular the trains going by!  You can see them for miles.  It's very pretty! The train director must have seen me, because he blew the train whistle at us!!! I waved! :)

We crossed into Alberta at around 1500 (guessing as we didn't write it down).  Of course, out we went for 'the' photo op!  The Alberta sign was our least favorite.  It was just older than all the others and wasn't as well manicured!  We grabbed some cuddles with baby girls and continued on our way!

Cuddles before hitting the road again.

We arrived in Medicine Hat fairly early - 1630ish.  On our way we saw the worlds BIGGEST Teepee! whoohooo!!! We would soon come to find out that Medicine Hat likes to be renowned for weird big things.

World's biggest teepee

When we arrived at our campground, there were a lot of people wearing Search & Rescue uniforms. We figured maybe it was an excercise as the campsite was city owned.  Turns out it was a real search for a young girl that had gone missing.  We have no further info. The campground, Gas City Campground, is the nicest one we have seen yet!  The layout was very smart and the campground was well manicured!  I gathered our stuff and went to do the laundry!

BB Girl keeping busy while we setup.

At the kite festival, bones was running around in long grass.  Justin felt something behind his neck while he was driving and thought maybe it was a tick.  When our site was setup we checked Bones! OH! GROSS!!! We found 3 ticks on him!!! EWWWWW!!!! 

Yucky tick!

On my way back, how I laughed when I noticed who are neighboors were.  What do you know....Bob & Cindy - our friends from the depot!  Justin was giving bb girl a bath while I went to the laundry and bb girl was freaking out!  Justin went to apologize to the neighboors and that is when he realized who they were! How cool! They drive the biggest nicest fanciest Winnebego rig!

Bob & Cindy's Rig

They gave us the tour. Two washrooms...need I say more! wow! Poor Bob was so disappointed because he couldn't get his satellite feed on his 50 some inches big screen!!! Gotta love camping!  A local told him that if he moved his rig a few feet forward, he would have perfect reception.  Poor Bob! Too much work to move his rig forward.  I didn't understand!
I said Bob?  Are there too many buttons to press??  He had a good laugh!! He doesn't put his jacks down by hand like we do! :)

We enjoyed a beautiful Medicine Hat sunset.