Saskatchewan Hospitality and History

We crossed the border into Saskatchewan Aug.31 and spent the first night by the giant Mountie at Redvers. The tourism office is in a log cabin where they serve the best Saskatoon pie. Of course we had to add another shot of Pali and a giant with the Mountie.

Carlyle has been one of our favorite stops in past trips so we wanted to look up our friend Judy but unfortunately didn't get a chance to see her. Rather than pay for a campsite when we knew we were going to be camped for the long weekend, we stayed in the Bear Claw casino north of there at Kinosee. Interesting watching people saunter in and slowly come out later heads down.Guess the slots were not kind to them. A beautiful sunset over the casino was all the lottery we needed.

Assiniboia was our destination for the weekend. We were so ready for a few days off the road. There is a small campsite with full hookups behind the arena. Each spot is ringed with trees and with few campers in there it was really quiet. How wonderful to just sit and know we weren't going to be off finding another spot to sleep for 3 nights. But we did go to the tourism office and their African safari exhibit of beautiful animals. Personally I don`t know why men need to kill such beauty just to mount its head on their wall.

We set out the next day to explore in the car the area south of Assiniboia which heads into the foothills of SK. Beautiful rolling fields of rolled bales of hay flank the highway. Willow Bunch, a tiny town has a museum with the giant standing outside. In this case the man really was 8`7`tall. Edoard spent a short miserable life ending up as a freak show for Barnum and Bailey and died of TB when he was 23.

At St.Victors Petroglyph park we stood on top of what felt like the top of the world. A rain storm had just blown through so the air was sweet with the aroma of sage. The Indians called this a sacred spot and I certainly felt like we were standing somewhere special. From there we could see forever, what a view. We saw the rock art chiseled into stone thousands of years ago. I didn't want to leave the blessed quiet.

Our friends in Mankota, a teeny farm community of 150 were waiting for us. It didn't matter that Diane just had surgery, nothing stops that lady. Grant and Dave are great friends and Pali acquired 5 new buddies to play with. He is in heaven. They took us for a drive to meet the psycho. Turns out he is a pheasant who is very territorial and chases everything including cars. With his gorgeous red mask on he chased our van like road runner.

Last night their friends invited us out for dinner. Can you believe you can buy a home here for $9000. They did and it is so cute and well built. Many BCites are buying here because it is so affordable and the people really look out for one another.

Today the Martins arranged for Neil to take all of us on a guided tour of the area south of here. We drove for 6 hours finding things like the Earth Village from thousands of years ago, trilobite fossil, rock work done by nature, black widow spider webs,prairie dog colonies, and miles of rolling grassland that make up Grassland park. Neil is wealth of knowledge so we learned much about the area and its history. It`s been a visit full of new and old friends, good food and better times together.

Tomorrow, the 7th we head for my cousins sheep ranch at Success, Sk. We will be at a farmers market in Strathmore, AB on Friday. I have committed to being at the Metis BC AGM to represent the Powell River community Sept.24-26 so we now have a definite date to be back on the coast. Still not ready to be in Powell River but there is work to be done and routine to get back into. It has been a most interesting summer.

Hugs and puppy kisses, The Rees gang

Sep 6, 2011

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