Just inside of Alberta

In Saskatchewan, you notice the sky.  I've got a few shots of this.  Maybe it's because it's the biggest thing you can see.

But there's patterns and eye-catching man-made structures out there...

Make an offer...

I was watching the clock pretty closely...although it was off by an hour.  I was going to try and get to Biggar, SK for church...but ran out of time.  So, I went to an RC church in Asquith.

The people, small in number, were really friendly and welcoming.  I joined them for lunch after the service and (thanks to Bob) I had my lunch for free.  Lots of great stories.  Did you know that there is up to 3000 feet of sand below the surface, in some spots?  The soil on the surface is judged by its alkali nature or the "gumbo" effect.  Some of the older folks had been settlers in the early 20th century.  It's been a struggle ever since.

Lord Asquith, a Prime Minister of Britain, was on a tour of Canada and was stopped at the watering station in this town. Upon asking where  the h**l he was, a local replied, "You're in the centre of the British Empire"and it stuck.  See photo above.

North out of the "Battlefords" I encountered a few storm cells.  One, I rode through and another I just observed and stayed behind.

Some of the roads in SK are built on either mud or sand.  So, you get some pretty interesting road obstacles...

I went for about 45 minutes standing up on the bike to avoid the hazards.  It felt more like a paved single-track, off-road ride.  I didn't get too many pictures of the road, but it was bad enough that I would have thought I was risking the integrity of the rear shock on the bike if I had to ride much further.

This was new, five days ago...

I made it to Bonnyville,

which is near Cold Lake (Imperial Oil, fields) and the Air Force bombing range.  There is lots of work out here for electricians, mechanics, etc. judging by the signage everywhere.