Regina

Mrs. 500 Words and I are just back from a long weekend in Regina, Saskatchewan, attending the wedding of my cousin's son. We had a great time with a bunch of lovely people. But it was our first time in Regina – our first time west of Winnipeg in Canada, in fact – and I thought I'd share some of my impressions with you.

Yep, it's flat. Big sky flat. Rolling along a gravel highway toward a stop sign five kilometres ahead flat. Which you can see. Because the road is dead straight. If you come from the rolling countryside north of Toronto like I do, it takes a little getting used to. From the air, we could see fields of wheat and canola, dotted with sloughs, which are small ponds. And I was told all the trees we saw were planted, too.

And the main roads are wide. And full of pickup trucks and double-long transport trailers, which are pretty rare here in Ontario.

We drove out of Regina south to Rouleau, a small town about 40 kilometres away to see the place where the TV comedy Corner Gas was filmed. We toured the site of the Ruby Café and Brent's gas station, which now houses a gift shop, and I bought a coffee mug. And we drove around the town of about 450 and took a picture of Emma and Oscar's house.

Our last day in town, we visited the RCMP Depot Division, the force's cadet training facility and museum. We toured the museum, which is modern and has room to grow, attended the Sergeant Major's parade, and viewed a film on the 24-week training program completed by cadets. And my wife bought a Mountie T-shirt for our grandson to go with the Saskatchewan Roughriders hat I'd bought him our first day in town.

All in all, we had a great three days in Regina.