Most people fly when they visit other cities in Canada because of the distance and the time you need to commit while driving. But you miss so much that way.

It is not just the vastness of the country. I know you kind of realize it when you are flying at 850 km per hour and it still takes hours to get anywhere, but you have to drive to see how huge it is.

What you miss in a flight, is the beauty and grandeur that you see at ground level.  Mount Robson on a sunny clear day driving east, is breathtaking.  The elk and mountain goats at the side of the road (or in our case in the middle halting traffic) you do not see from space.  Granted you have to be a retired person with no particular schedule to appreciate wild animals blocking the highway.

Then you come out of the spectacular mountains to the big sky of the Prairies.

In our case a bit a bit restricted due to the smoke from Ft McMurray, but still, a different perspective from the mountains.  We did get to experience clear blue skies with those little puff balls of cumulus clouds to the horizon ( that we never get to see on the coast) on our drive to Saskatoon.

Granted we did not drive across Canada.  We stopped at Saskatoon about a third of the way and then turned back.

Now everyone should know not to visit Calgary for the Victoria day weekend. Historically a bad time.

We left Saskatoon at 28 °C and arrived in Calgary at 7°C.  A couple of days later we had a snow blizzard.  The only guarantee for Calgary is that it will snow on Victoria Day weekend and (despite drought conditions) will rain during the Stampede. But then, that is part of the Potpourri of living in Canada.

We escaped back to BC for sunshine and arrived home in Paradise.  Great trip