This is clearly the "bread basket" of Canada.  Much like the middle of the USA, central Canada is all about growing food.  As far as you can see in many places, some kind of grain, grass, seed, or other commodity is growing. One of the most amazing aspects of driving this route is recognizing the precise symmetry involved in large scale farming.  The straight lines formed by rows of crops, and the textures created by the harvesting of these crops, creates some very beautiful patterns, that make the otherwise boring drive across fairly flat country worthwhile. We stopped for lunch in a place called Brandon, MB, that actually had an American NFL game on TV.

    One of the fun things observed about different regions is how they tend to bale their hay.  Some roll it into large rolls that are left on the landscape, either to be picked up at a later time, or to be left I presume for animals to feed on when snows come. Others stack these rolls neatly in rows. Some wrap them in shrink wrap to keep them dry. Then of course there are those that do the rectangular shaped bales, with the same variances in stacking, wrapping, or storing. How or why one farmer chooses a particular method over another baffles non farmers like us.  But it was fun to wonder how it took place.

    At one point, as we were cruising along, I caught out of the corner of my eye, the "birth" of one of these big rolled bales of hay happening out in the field.  We literally turned around at the next intersection and returned to observe more of these "miracles" happening!  We watched in amazement and joy as a machine towed behind a tractor popped these babies out like no tomorrow.  Photos don't capture the excitement, but now you know the rest of the story.

    We crossed into another Province - Saskatchewan (SK) which looked much like Manitoba from the highway.  We headed into the Provincial capital of Regina, and could not help but giggle a little bit as we heard the locals pronounce the city differently than we thought it would be. We were thinking "RegEEEnna" but they were saying "RegIIIInna" rhymes with.... well you know why we politely smiled and avoided saying it outloud any more than we had to.

     One of the interesting things we have noticed so far on this trip is that many of the campgrounds (about half so far, including those in the USA) have not had cable TV. It makes getting news or weather forecasts a little more of a challenge, but in some ways helped us relax and enjoy other things. Plus, we missed a lot of the political ads that filled so much of the airspace in this election year.

    Night 10 was in a campground outside the Provincial capital of Regina, SK.