Isy and I were at Big Dave's Diner one morning when I mentioned that I was going on a March trip prior to our planned April trip. This of course seemed a bit silly and over the top, but a few arenas were threatened with closure, Aeroplan points were burning a hole in my pocket, and it's always a good idea to escape Corner Brook for as much of March as possible.

With that, I was off to the Prairies & Great Plains!

Using Aeroplan to save every last dollar, the only Deer Lake to Regina itinerary had an overnight layover in Toronto.

Thankfully I was able to find an alcove next to an area closed for renovations, where it was so dark that the picture came out blurry in the morning. Or maybe I was just groggy and discombobulated.

I'd been watching weather forecasts and studying climate data for Saskatchewan, Montana and North Dakota for weeks, and while I predicted a break from the white stuff in Montana and North Dakota, I wasn't so sure about Saskatchewan. As I opened my airplane window on approach to Regina, my fears were confirmed.

Which is why I was also alarmed when I picked up my rental and they gave me a powerful, rear-wheel drive Ford Mustang. There weren't any storms predicted, but it would have been nice to get something that could handle even a little bit of snow. I guess that's what I get for booking the manager's mystery special?

I'd get the last laugh though, as some of the employees were breaking balls about my golf bag and how they "didn't know where I thought I was going to go golfing!" Little did they know it was actually a bicycle and its sharp pegs, pedals and handlebars were going into their rental.

Nearby was the 306 Skate Shop, which had a small yet fun skatepark in the back. Coupled with the sunny skies, this is why I didn't really care about there being snow on the ground in Regina.

It was so strange to go from blowing on my hands and avoiding sharp turns while riding outside with icy patches, to riding inside comfortably and free in a t-shirt.

So I was still a bit rusty and struggling with doing anything notable. It's at this point that the owner came in with some random people who wanted to see...the shop's skateboarding pitbull?

I was in here all by myself as it was early in the day, then suddenly I was standing around as four people enjoyed this dog dropping in and retrieving its board to go back up the ramps. It was unexpected and for some reason, I didn't think of taking a photo or any video. Thankfully Tirtyl is remarkable enough that there's footage of him skating on Instagram.

Following the session, I had to head up to Saskatoon as the Western Hockey League's Saskatoon Blades were in action tonight.

Tackling the 2.5-hour drive, thankfully there was only a minor amount of blowing snow which didn't do much except keep me out of the passing lane. Eventually getting used to these conditions, I settled in and savoured another place that satisfies that love I have for the bleak emptiness of places like Nebraska and West Texas. It had been about 15 years since I'd been in Saskatchewan and it was good to be back.

Attending a Saskatoon Blades game presented a unique problem in that I didn't want to pay the inflated rate of the only nearby motel. As the Sasktel Centre is on the far edge of Saskatoon, the Motel 6 is most people's only option if you don't want to drive after the game. I considered the motel's about an hour's walk away, but it didn't look like a very pedestrian friendly route through office parks and along highways - not to mention that the predicted low tonight of -33°C/-27°F.

Seeing as I planned on having a couple beers at the game, especially as it was the first game of the trip, I eventually relented and accepted that it might be dangerous to tackle an hour's walk after the final buzzer. Accepting my fate at the nearby motel, I questioned how many people even walk over from the Motel 6 as the sidewalk was uncleared and I didn't want wet shoes for the next three hours. Trying to dip in and out of the roadway to let traffic by, I hit the jackpot when some old timer came up doing about 5km/h (3mi/h), allowing me to speedwalk and tail his car like a member of the secret service.

Finally reaching a turnoff for a snow-cleared parking lot, here it was, the SaskTel Centre! WHL arena #2!

My first impression was tied into the fact that Joe Louis Arena was my NHL arena growing up and like any new arena, it strived to be impressive when it opened - and even though the Sasktel Centre was built eight years later, it felt rinky dink in comparison to Joe Louis.

Why was I comparing a WHL arena and NHL arena? Well, this was the place that was supposed to steal the St. Louis Blues in the early 1980s.

Bill Hunter was a native Saskatooner who helped bring professional hockey to the City of Edmonton and once done with that, set his sights on bringing a team to Saskatoon. He stepped in to buy the St. Louis Blues from the struggling Purina dog food company, with plans to move the team into a new Saskatoon arena that would be "the most magnificent hockey building in North America." 

Hunter went as far as securing a $20-million sponsorship with Molson & negotiating new flight routes with Air Canada from major cities to Saskatoon. Toronto Maple Leafs' owner Harold Ballard remained unimpressed and suggested the only way for teams to reach Saskatoon would be by dogsled. Hunter for his part, said that Maple Leaf Gardens was the worst arena in the league.

Even though the Bill Hunter-led group paid $11.5-million into a fund to secure the Blues upon league approval, only three of the 18 team owners approved the sale. Purina dog food was so unimpressed that they actually abandoned the St. Louis Blues to the league and this led to the Blues not participating in the 1983 draft (the only time in history an active team has sat out the draft).

The dream of NHL hockey in Saskatoon was dead.

Saskatoon's first winter sports arena was the Auditorium Roller Rink, a wooden floor roller rink that could be converted for curling use in the winter. This was built in 1910 and burned down in 1914.

At the same site on Spadina Crescent East, Saskatoon's first indoor ice hockey arena was built in 1920. This was the Crescent Arena, home to the Saskatoon Sheiks, then the Saskatoon Crescents, then again the Saskatoon Sheiks. Crescent Arena was torn down in 1932 due to the construction of the Broadway Bridge (this is the bridge in the background in my 2001 biking section).

Saskatoon finally got serious about arena building with the construction of the 3304-seat Saskatoon Arena in 1937. It was touted as the only artificial ice hockey surface between Winnipeg and Calgary at the time.

The Western Hockey League was born in 1967 and one of the first seven teams was the Saskatoon Blades, who played out of the Saskatoon Arena. Through the 1970s, there were already calls to update or replace the old Saskatoon Arena, but this increased when Bill Hunter wanted an 18,000-seat arena for the Blues to move into. One problem was that there was nowhere downtown to build an arena of that size and another problem facing a new downtown arena was a citizen vote which forced them to build north of town instead.

In February of 1988, the new home of the WHL Blades opened with 9000 seats - a reduced number following the failure of Saskatoon to secure the NHL Blues. 2000 seats were added in a 1988 expansion of the arena, as well as another 2981 seats in advance of the World Juniors coming to Saskatoon in 2010. The seating capacity of the SaskTel Centre is now 15,100 (they added some more seats along the way somewhere).

And now, Saskatoon is once again looking to build a new arena, this time due to the poor location chosen by citizens and how the SaskTel Centre's roof isn't high enough for the flashiest travelling acts. It seems like a silly reason to go forward with a new $1.2-billion arena and convention centre; and it seemed even sillier in person as I walked around the well-maintained and modernized SaskTel Centre. Normally an arena they're looking to replace is rundown, home to cramped concourses, or dated, but this was a new one with a totally serviceable rink about to be closed and demolished because citizens don't like the location and Garth Brooks had some trouble fitting in his stage show.

The new arena had been approved but the project was paused earlier this year, thanks to Justin Trudeau stepping down, Donald Trump's on-again off-again tariff announcements, and the province of Saskatchewan asking its municipalities "to prioritize Canadian vendors or contracts as a goal of reducing American procurement." (Saskatoon was partnered with Denver's OVG Arena Group to get this new arena built).

It sounds like I may have still had a few years to see the SaskTel Centre.

As for my specific visit, this was a Wednesday night game with cold enough conditions that I have to assume it kept at least some people away (I don't need a lecture on prairie toughness, thanks). So while the atmosphere wasn't the best, it was easy enough to move around and I enjoyed a white cheddar jalapeno grilled cheese sandwich while doing so. The only beer brand seemed to be something called Original 16, which sucked because they only had three types of beer and none of them were very good. If only they still had that Molson's sponsorship that Bill Hunter secured.  

The Blades won 4-3 in overtime over the Lethbridge Hurricanes. The announced attendance was 2426.

Exiting through the doors after the game, I was hit upside the head with the fact that it wouldn't have been a very good idea to walk an hour through pedestrian-unfriendly industrial parks, just to save $21 on a motel closer to the action of Saskatoon.

I felt the bitterness of the cold in body parts that I didn't realize could bark for warmth. The meat of my ears, the bridge of my nose, my hamstrings. This was easily colder than my previous bar for low temperatures (walking on frozen Lake Champlain in February).

Something glorious almost happened the next morning, as I texted Roachie about the game and he told me that Whitfield was only over in Edmonton. Quickly Googling, I saw this was only five hours away!

Suddenly I hoped he had assignments all over Western Canada and maybe we could meet up, but then the text came that he was headed back to Ontario tomorrow. I paused my remote work and contemplated adding an Edmonton day here, but that would mean adding 10 hours of sketchy winter Mustang driving.

Instead I was left to wistfully peer out over the above view.

Needing lunch and to work a few more hours, I first went to the main library branch but it was a total shitshow of people yelling and people who weren't black referring to each other by the n word while Young Jeezy played on portable speakers.

Deciding to instead tackle lunch, I was pretty psyched when I saw a place with both Hoegaarden and Leffe signs. Except that when I asked the waitress for "a Hoegaarden? a Leffe?" she looked at me like I had three heads. Then pointing at the sign, she said she had no idea what those signs were advertising.

At least it was a nice, dark pub where I could get some work done.

As much as I was happy to see the SaskTel Centre before it goes away, I dearly wished I was here a couple years earlier to see the University of Saskatoon's Rutherford Arena.

Built in 1929, Rutherford was a total throwback to the times when there were absolutely no amenities and those who wanted to watch hockey live had to put in the work to watch hockey live. People wore winter coats to games, there were very few concessions, there were tiny entrances, professors sat in lawn chairs along the glass, and there were "rust delays" whenever a player hit the rafters with a puck and knocked crumbled rust down onto the ice.

I've looked through most of Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada when it comes to university level hockey, but it was dumb of me not to look into Western Canada earlier. It sounds like I missed a real special experience here at the Rutherford.

The old arena's replacement, Merlis Belsher Place, opened in 2018 at a cost of $51-million.

Rutherford Arena was demolished in November of 2022.

It wasn't as brutally cold as last night, so of course a Shorts Guy was out. After all, today's high was -14°C/9°F.

Moving to accommodations near the University of Saskatoon to escape the cost of the Motel 6, I was now within striking distance of Saskatoon's Nutana neighbourhood - the first area of settlement in Saskatoon and home to some of the oldest buildings in the city. It was going to grow frigid yet again tonight, but I was only walking 15 blocks and this was going to allow me to experience a different Saskatoon neighbourhood than the Sasktel Centre's neighbourhood of truck scales, Subway and an Esso.

The Nutana and Varsity View neighbourhoods were full of big houses that I assumed were priced at boomtown levels out here in the west; so I merely appreciated them without measuring how much I'd like to live here.

(I'd pick Swift Current or Regina if I was going to move to Saskatchewan, because while I do like the province, I'd like to slightly reduce my -33°C/-27°F nights.)

I initially planned to stop at a brewpub in an old 1911 fire house, but it was bumping and there was only one seat available between two large men at the bar.

Thankfully I didn't force that, because instead I ended up at a pub that was much more on my level in terms of volume and excitement, and one where they were doing a Ukrainian dinner to support the Ukrainian people.

I had to laugh when I looked up and a painting of Bay de Verde, Newfoundland was right there in front of me.

At least the painting was of one of my top ten favourite towns in Newfoundland.

It was another freezing cold night and with a 20-minute walk home, I realized how much you have to exercise self-control here, as you're done for if you decide to have a little boozy nap on someone's front lawn.

There was also a peacefulness, one that I sometimes feel in Newfoundland in February, where the winter keeps people inside and then the windless night creates no other noise.

I had one last order of business in Saskatoon as I could see the steam coming off the South Saskatchewan River from my accommodations and I needed to pop down into the riverside park for a picture.

Okay, maybe there were two last orders of business in Saskatoon.

It was now time to head north though.

Continue to Part 2...