Woke up in the urban sprawling outskirts of Minot, North Dakota after a rough night of barfing up some bad Mexican food, which I love and usually have a remarkable tolerance for. I guess I met my match in Minot. Checked them out on Yelp afterward, and the reviews from satisfied patrons were numerous and laudatory so I guess I must have just gotten a bad burrito. Actually, Jackie's flan was one of the best I have had in a while, and at $1.99, it was a bargain. She didn't sleep too well either, so we made a quick, photoless dash through Minot, which we judged to be unappealing, at least at the moment, and got out of Dodge, heading north to the mind clearing wide open spaces of northern North Dakota. To match my mood that morning, the sky continued to be unkind... hard, featureless and taunting as we started out, but we were on the 83 headed to Canada and things could only get better...
This was the first photo taken north of Minot, not a very compelling start to this posting, but it was headed in the right direction. We were soon to find that other than the town of Westhope, a few miles south if the Canadian border, there are no outposts of humanity more or less, on this stretch of the 83 in ND, but there is a lot of wheat, corn, and one thing we learned is that they grow alot of sunflowers in the Dakotas, an awful lot.
As you can tell from the sky, these pictures, while all taken on on the 83, are not necessarily in chronological order due to issues of lighting, circumstance, narrative, and luck, or lack of it.
In as much as we were passing through on August 17/18, it appeared that we in the midst of grain harvesting season and the wheat chaff was thick in the air, in our noses, and the silos were gleeming with abundance. Took this picture at two focal lengths, loved them both, but couldn't decide which I liked better, so here are both...
Along the way, the closest we got to a town were signs for Glenburn about 4 miles out of our way.
We didn't stop in Glenburn, but judging by the graphics on their newly minted sign they either are, or hope to be, cashing in on the booming oil production industry looking to suck ND dry before they pack their bags and move on.
As we reached the intersection of Highways 83 and the 256, the 83 makes a quick turn to the right...
at Renville Corner, a place that consisted of this one store/service station, a couple of good signs, and nothing else and is not noted on any map I looked at, so I'm not sure of much other than that it is the only commercial establishment between Minot and Westhope, so fill up or drink up or whatever while you can...
As the sky had changed for the better so did our moods...At Renville Corner we turned right and a few miles down the road we made a left, and when we did, we made our final approach to the Canadian border, stopping for a while in Westhope, the only town on the 83 north of Minot, and about 5 or 6 miles south of the border.
On final approach down the runway, and here we are, at long last...
Crossing the border was a pleasure. The Canadian border station was still a low tech little wooden hut, and the guards were warm and welcoming. When we told them we were just coming up to look around and to buy some Coffee Crisps (a great candy bar only sold in Canada) they seemed pleased. I wanted to ask about taking a picture of their building but Jackie was adament that I not ask, so I didn't.
But, here we are on Highway 83 in Manitoba, Canada. As we drove north on it, we came to the intersection on the 83&3...
Looking at the map, Jackie realized that if we drove west on Highway 3 for about 25 miles or so, we would be in Saskatchewan, so off we went. This part of Canada is as lonely and desolate as any place we have ever seen. Splendid in its isolation with miles and miles that are flat, empty and beautiful...
and they all kind of look like this. Just as we approached the Manitoba/Sask. border, we saw the most remarkable sight, a farm, the Saskatoba, and as luck would have it, all the stars were in alignment for the world's perfect photo, and no, it is not photoshopped as a friend of mine thought.
Before we knew it, we were entering Saskatchewan...
Photo by Jackie
Made a pitstop in Gainsborough, Sask. to buy some Coffee Crisps, and look around. All of the buildings on the onesided main street faced the train tracks with their backs to the sun, so the grain elevator, trackside offered the only good sun lit photo op.
Our business done, we headed back to the border to cross back over into the US, where we were detained and roughed up emotionally a little, in what turned out to be quite an unpleasant welcome home to two supposedly good Americans by two border guards with apparently nothing better to do than to practice their search and interrogation skills at this rarely utilized crossing. I did not think about taking any pictures there, just glad to be let go.
Pablo
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