Our original plan was to stay in Saskatoon for 2 nights. We had a reservation in Jasper four days from now however we wanted to extend it to include the following weekend, this turned out to be an impossible feat. So we decided to shorten our stay in Saskatoon and add an extra weekday in Jasper.
The drive from Winnipeg to Saskatoon is about 8 ½ hours of driving, with long stretches of beautiful golden fields. They are all along the journey, so we had to google it since we had never seen it before. Turns out they were Canola fields, who knew! Our family absolutely loves the conversation and fun facts that comes out of these curiosities. It was such a vibrant yellow spanning over the countryside brightening up the drive. As anyone knows who has driven this stretch, it is quite long with little change in scenery.
Where we stayed
We stayed at Gordon Howe Campground in the overflow section right next to the baseball diamond. It was cheap at $20 a night with no hookups but the Wi-Fi was working to allow for some youtube watching. The location was great to get to the Saskatchewan River and downtown. We were lucky that no one parked on either side of us which allowed for room to get our big rig in and out easily.
What we did
We ventured out for a short drive to the river to go for a family walk after this long driving day from Winnipeg. Something that we all had to convince ourselves to do from being so tired. Once we got going though, it was exactly what we needed! There are well maintained paths to walk or bike all along the river with public parks to relax and enjoy. It was a well needed break for us and we loved walking along and looking at some of the houses backing onto the river just thinking, we could move here, what would it be like? It is a neat feeling to have the option to settle down wherever we choose.
What we missed
Western Development Museum as I had read that this was the #1 thing to do here but, had to make a choice!
Repairs
This was our first boondocking site since parking at Walmart on our trip out east last month. This also being our first opportunity to test our new water bladder to then pump into the RV. The water pump did not work as expected, water did not flow in and the water pump seemed to endlessly run. Jason called it and decided to work on it more at our next stop in Edmonton before hitting Jasper with 4 nights of no hook-ups. This put a bit of stress on our second week of the journey. We will see what happens!