Day 23, Wed. June 18, Hazenmore, Sask. 114 km

We tried for an early start this morning. However, Adele's glasses frame broke (duck tape works) and Dave 3 cut his left thumb with the bread knife. Otherwise, an early start on Hwy 4 heading south.

We passed quickly (following wind) through areas whose names reminded us that German POWs probably stayed here (e.g.Rhineland, Blumenhof), saw large hedgerows and of course, the usual dead gophers. The road surface was new and wonderful.

Eventually after 55 km we came to Cadillac where we had French fries and coffee in the relic-filled hotel dining/pub area. Dave 2 entertained us with a childhood ditty which some knew but which I'd never heard before. Here it is:
Great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts,
Mutilated monkeys' meat,
Pickled porpoise pus,
French fried eyeballs in a bowl of snot.
And me........without my spoon!
I think it must be a prairie thing!

Then we changed to Hwy 13 heading east towards Ponteix which was to be our destination. Instead ,we decided to take advantage of the cooler day and the favourable crosswind so kept going towards Kincaid. However, we received a phone call from our tour director, Brenda, that the Kincaid campsite was an open field with about 200 squealing gophers and no toilets!

We stopped in at the Red Coat Inn in Hazenmore to have a soft drink, use the washrooms and to confer. Dave 3 went next door to the Coop and found out that we could camp in the little park across the way. Good news, but the issue of washrooms and showers came up. We decided we could eat dinner at the Inn to access the washrooms in the evening (we're quite flexible!). One thing led to another and the waitress, Bea, started to get involved in the problem solving. The final solution was that she had the keys to an empty house, we had our own towels and shampoo, and there were empty beds we could use. There was even a power hookup for the RV. We felt that the whole day had been serendipitous. It ended with real steaks at the Inn, a walk around town and a good night's sleep.