Gangsters and the Prairies

This morning I drove to Moose Jaw to visit the somewhat famous Al Capone Tunnels. Everyone’s heard of the big crime boss Al Capone selling booze during prohibition in New York, then Chicago. But did you know he had a series of tunnels made in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan? Our tour guides showed us around the tunnels which had Capone’s office, bedroom, an illegal underground bar, and of course the storage of the illegal booze!! While it was entertaining, I wonder how often Al Capone himself actually came to Moose Jaw? Once? Maybe twice? I’m also inclined to think that those “offices” and most of the tunnels were built long after Capone was gone. But nonetheless I was entertained, and thought Moose Jaw was a cute little city.

Driving through the prairies has been pretty dull, I’m not going to lie. It’s flat, dusty, with fields as far as the eye can see. You know that song “I can see for miles and miles… I can see for miles and miles and miles and miles…and…miles…and…miles”? I couldn’t stop singing that song, which is a good thing because it kept me awake. To break up the monotony, I also stopped off in Regina to have a look around. Apparently as the city was coming together and slowly being built, they also planted many, many trees, because the city itself was like a forest, whereas the rest of the province is mainly field and just a bit of brush.

Right now I’m in a town called… Moose something. Some strange made-up sounding word, or perhaps Native? Moosomin? Moosemen? Hmmmm… I should probably know this. Ah, well. Tomorrow I’m hoping to find myself a lake somewhere in Manitoba so I can do some swimming and escape the heat! My car sadly has no air-conditioning, so whenever I’m not on the highway I’m literally baking in my little tin hot-box!

Funny story: You may remember that as I was entering Calgary my “Check Engine” light came on in my car, and I was very angry and a little worried about it. So, I’m in Regina, and I decide to go through a car wash because I was literally having issues seeing due to all the bug guts I’d picked up driving on all those highways. After I finished with the car wash, I found a place to eat and as I’m starting up my car afterwards, the “check engine” light is off again!! Maybe Pabo was just a little angry because I let him get too dirty? Does this make sense to anyone? How can a washing effect my engine? Very odd.