The Prairies

I have travelled through the Canadian prairies several times now. The Canadian prairies consist of the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. While travelling through the prairie provinces, I enjoyed myself very much. You might be asking yourself what is so good about the prairies and why would I like it so much?

The reason I like the prairies is for the openness, the feeling of freedom, the vastness and the flatness. I remember the first time I drove through the prairies, which would have been in 1998. I remember how flat the road was and how flat the surronding land was and how I could see for miles ahead of me. I remember the vastness of the grasslands, the miles and miles of wheat fields and the large grain elevators.

I liked the feeling the prairies gave me, the feeling of freedom. Out on the prairies, I felt free and alive. There weren't thousands of people watching me, there weren't thousands of buildings everywhere I looked. There weren't even any smoke stacks for miles around.

When I was out on the prairies, I remember seeing a small funnel cloud a few miles behind us. I remember we were grateful that by looking out our rearview mirror, we could see this cloud coming. I remember we pulled into the nearest gas station a few miles ahead of us and watched the small funnel cloud drift off in another direction.

I got to thinking about that funnel cloud and how it would be so nice if we could see everything around us for miles around. If something were to happen, you would have time to prepare for it, time to get out of its way.

One thing I really enjoyed about the prairies was watching the sunset in the evening. I remember there was a huge red ball in the western sky and it looked like it was going to fall off the side of the earth.

I remember we got up very early one morning to get a head start on our trip and while my husband was putting gas in the van, I stood out in the middle of the highway. There were no cars in sight in either direction. If I looked west, I could see the road going forever and if I looked east, I could see the sun starting to rise and the road going forever.

The one thing that always sticks out in my mind about the prairies is the one day that I saw two crows on a train track. One crow was facing west and the other crow was facing east. It was like they didn't know which way to go. I have felt like that so many times in my life. Will I go west or will I go east? If I had my way, I would travel east and then come back out west again.