Google Earth measurements (straight line between locations)
Distance from Vancouver: 1332 km
Distance from Kingston: 2214 km
We started the day with a yummy free hotel breakfast, which included hot items like cheese omelettes, cinnamon rolls, and sausages! The Holiday Inn definitely has the best "free" (probably included in our room cost) breakfasts and their rates can be very reasonable if we book in advance!
We then drove to Rouleau, the town where they used to film the exterior scenes of "Corner Gas". Almost all of the interior scenes were actually filmed at a studio in Regina. Rouleau is not that far out of Regina, but all of the direct roads are very small unpaved farming roads. Sticking to the paved roads, it took almost an hour to drive there!
There are many buildings in Rouleau labelled "Dog River" and the exterior sets of the gas station and the Ruby are still standing on the outside of town, preserved in case they want to film more Corner Gas. The "Dog River Police Station" is actually a coffee/souvenir shop. They also sell food but only on weekends when they have more visitors. There was one other group visiting the town as well. Everything in Rouleau was much more expensive (the Corner Gas branded clothing prices rivaled the UBC Bookstore)! For a souvenir, we bought a Corner Gas bottle opener which also doubled as a fridge magnet.
On the way back, we picked up essentials such as bug spray, juices and some snacks. We also visited the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly. We had to take a free tour to walk past the front desk but we were the only two people on the tour! The tour and building was very much like BC's Legislative Assembly (both had a large number of different types of marble or limestone or something). During the tour, a random Saskatchewan MLA greeted us and introduced himself. It seemed like he was trying to win our vote until he found out we weren't Saskatchewan voters!
We couldn't actually see the room where all the MLAs sit because there was a Parliamentary Conference going on that week. But we did get to see their very large library and we learned that Regina residents are very big CFL fans! Football seems to be the most popular sport here! Even the Shoppers Drug Marts sells Roughrider themed candy.
For dinner, we decided to take a risk and try a Japanese restaurant in a landlocked province. We weren't crazy so we stuck to fully cooked items only. Overall, the food was neither terrible nor great. Laura tried their California Roll and found it pretty bland tasting. My Chicken Teriyaki (on rice) was okay, but the teriyaki sauce did not taste like what we were used to at all. It tasted like my mom's pineapple chicken which is good but not what we expected. Also, the chicken was cut into thin slices instead of the usual strips that we were used to, so the texture was very different. We also split the "Regina Roll" which had smoked salmon, fake crab, cucumber, avocado, and topped with fried yam strips and honey mustard sauce. It was pretty good but the honey mustard kind of overpowered any of the other ingredients! We weren't expecting it to be like Lower Mainland Japanese places so we weren't really disappointed, and it was a nice change from the usual food we have been eating.
Tomorrow will be our last day in Regina and we plan to visit the RCMP Depot and Museum. Also, we just got back from a star gazing adventure but it's late so come back tomorrow for the details!
The Police Station (actually a gift shop)
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