I’m speaking to you tonight from Indian Head, Saskatchewan where we are at a KOA after trying several campgrounds closer to Regina that were filled up with workers from the city. The fact that it is Friday may not have helped. We got this site only after being told this camp was full when someone opportunely (for us) decided to move to share with their extended family.
Slept well last night and began today in a leisurely fashion in part because of an early thunderstorm. When the sky cleared, we found breakfast nearby and headed east again.
We stopped at a museum outside Moose Jaw, another old time village, this one on a much smaller budget than Calgary’s. The centrepiece was an unfinished boat, the creation of a Finn named Tom Sukanen who built it early in the last century with the intention of sailing back to his homeland by way of the Saskatchewan River, Hudson Bay and Iceland. The poor man died in an insane asylum and is now buried near his ark. When I first misread the listing in the tourist guide, I thought it referred to a sunken, unfinished ship but it turned out to be Sukanen’s unsunken, unfinished, Finnish ship. (Move over, Tom!)
It is interesting that Moose Jaw is built primarily in a little valley with newer portions extending up onto the hills around so that there are now both an upper and a lower “Jaw”.
Moving right along . . . as we did to Regina where we browsed an area called “The Village”, a sort of quieter version of Toronto’s Beaches with lovely shops where I found more yarn as well as some paper products (for collage and mail, not housecleaning). Supper was tacos from a street vendor for a pleasant change.
Once settled in, I interrupted my e mailing to watch a brief appearance of the Northern Lights. I haven’t seen them since I was a kid and didn’t expect to see them this trip what with short, bright nights further north and wouldn’t have expected them at all this far south. Worth a few extra bites!
We crossed another time line when we entered Saskatchewan yesterday but this province does not observe Daylight Savings Time so its Central Standard Time corresponds to Alberta’s Mountain Daylight Time. All that means that there was no change at all and we are still two hours behind Eastern Daylight Time. Manitoba will be on Central Daylight Time, putting us ahead the one hour and Ontario will bring us back in sync with home.
I still think time is essentially meaningless and still don’t have a clue what “time” it is most of the time . . . but I suspect it is time I went to bed.
do you have an ETA on your return to the ‘ole homestead? I can hardly wait to hear of your adventures!!!Happy trails!!!
I was looking up the meaning of “badlands” and read that there are abandoned coal mines in the badlands (at least near Red Deer). Apparently wind and water erosion over the years exposed coal seams that were mined years ago. Did you see any of them? As for Barney’s adventures (your previous post), I chuckled to myself when I pictured him writing his own parallel blog. You and him sharing a candle late into the night. I wonder what his blog would be called. Well, I’m off through our own badlands (Church between Elliott and Wyandotte) on my way downtown.