Sept 6-11

 

Sept 6-11

 

“The trike family”

So before leaving Edmonton, we stopped at a Recumbent bike shop in Leduc, south of Edmonton.  

 

This shop specializes in recumbent trikes and Jerry bought what is necessary to convert Elizabeth’s old trike to an e-assist for Jerry.  So…when Jerry figures out what to do and actually does it, we will have two e-assist trikes for two 70 year-olds!

Harvest, Crooked Trees, Bells and Biking

 

 

It’s been so long since we’ve written our blog that I can’t remember where we left off!

 

We have had some beautiful fall weather and driving through the prairies during harvest time is quite fascinating.  We’ve passed several huge combine harvesters. These vehicles are so large they take up 3/4 of the road in width and I don’t even know how long they are. But the countryside is absolutely gorgeous and we’ve had some delightful weather.

 

We think the next stop after the last blog was The Battlefords in Saskatchewan. Our drive there was uneventful and we arrived at a nice campground run by the municipality.  It was right next-door to the National Historic Site, Fort Battleford.

 

Eiling Kramer camp in Battleford SK

 

While we were there we enjoyed lovely bike rides on their trails.  We headed to the fort first, only to discover it closed on September 3.  That’s something we’ve found about travelling outside of July and August, lots of places are closed.  It is really too bad because the weather is good, as far as I’m concerned better, in the Spring and Fall and there are still lots of people out and about.

 

 

There is a Baseball Hall of Fame in Battleford with a large bat.  When we saw the sign for the world’s largest bat I was expecting the winged kind.

 

We went out for dinner at the Beaver Grill. This restaurant got rave reviews on TripAdvisor. We put the address into the GPS and set off for North Battleford (there are two communities called the Battlefords).  The GPS is not always our friend, we spent at least 20 minutes driving around big box stores while the GPS was telling us you’re at your location on the right. We gave up on the GPS and looked on Google maps still no help. We finally broke down and phoned in restaurant. It turns out they’re above the curling rink that’s located in a huge community complex.  In addition,  their sign was obscured by a large tree. Nevertheless we had a delicious dinner at the Beaver Grill that specializes in Thai food. Wow!

 

While we were waiting for our meal at the Beaver Grill we spoke to a couple of local women at the table next to us. They asked if we’d seen the crooked trees.  We had not, although Jerry had heard something about crooked trees. They said the drive was worth it to see the mystical trees that grow in tortured shapes instead of straight up the way Aspens are supposed to grow.

 

The next day we made the trip to see the grove and the drive, even though it was about an hour and a half, was fabulous. I was truly enchanted with all of the colours and textures and the wonderful shapes of the fields that we were passing through. Harvesting the wheat creates wonderful textures on the land and the colours are truly amazing – rusty wheat, pale yellows and greens so light they are almost white between the rows of hay.  Other fields not yet mown are wonderful burnt oranges, burnished rose gold and creamy butter and against a glorious blue sky. Saskatchewan‘s logo is the land of the living skies and it’s so appropriate there is so much sky to see and wonderful stretches of fields outlined by green shrub-like trees.  Many fields had the appearance of wide whale corduroy.

 

 

 

We also encountered an older Ukrainian church. I’m pretty sure it was Ukrainian from the shape of it. But we think it was still being used, even though it looked rather in need of some TLC, because there were new steps up to the front door and the stained glass windows were intact.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just down the road from the church.

 

Can you see the deer?

 

 

The roads to the Crooked Trees turned from paved to gravel to narrower gravel to the last bit that was like a forest trail.  Clifford handled all the terrain in style.

 

It took us about 3 minutes to walk around the grove of weird and eerie trees.  The small area is protected and as far as we know, no one knows why they grow so weirdly.  Is it the soil or a curse or an evil lair?  It would be a good place for a Hallowe’en Party.

 

 

 

On the way back we drove through Mayfair, an historical hamlet where both the CPR and the CNR ran through but there are no longer any railway tracks.  There is an old grain elevator.

 

 

Along the way, we saw several very old abandoned buildings near a small body of water and just a field away there were at least a dozen bright and shiny silos.

 

 

On the drive back we listened to a CBC tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and we passed the big Coffee Pot in Davidson, which we’d seen before on our 2018 trip.  This Coffee Pot has been on a Canadian stamp.  It represents the friendliness of the community, they want you stop by for a coffee anytime.  They figure the pot could hold about 150,000 cups.

 

 

In Regina, we stayed at Buffalo Lookout RV Park about 15 minutes outside the city.  The owner was clever, his fire pits were old washing machine drums and the many holes in the walls allowed lots of air to get to the fire.

 

I really like Regina, it is a lovely city.  We biked on the paved trail around Wascana Lake and Park on a lovely sunny day.  The city was holding their annual Marathon which involved closing all of the roads into the park.  We managed to find a parking spot and rode our bikes into the park.

 

The trail took us into the grounds of the university and past some great sculptures.

 

The technique for the above casting is the "disappearing styrofoam". Similar to the dissapearing wax method, the sculpture is cut out of styrofoam, made into a sand casting and when the bronze is poured into it, it is the styrofoam shape but the styrofoam is burnt away by the molten pour...at least I think that's how it works.  We'll find out from the artists in the group of friends we have if they actually read this LOL.

A highlight was a visit to the Queen Elizabeth II Gardens.  The flowers were beautiful and there are plaques briefly describing each visit she made to Regina.  The Queen visited the city many times.  Her favorite horse, Burmese was born and raised in Fort Walsh, Saskatchewan and we all know how much she loved the Mounties.

 

 

 

 

As we drove through the city to go back home, we heard the bells tolling for the Queen.  Here is a description of the event.

 

“To commemorate Queen Elizabeth’s 70-year reign on the throne, bells will be ringing in Regina this afternoon.  The Regina Bell Ringers will perform their traditional duties of sounding the bells to recognize the passing of a seated monarch.

 

The Darke Memorial Chimes at the Knox-Metropolitan United Church will toll 25,301 times, once for each day of the reign of Queen Elizabeth.  The ringing of the bells is expected to last approximately 9 hours and 30 minutes.  The first chime will be struck at noon and the ringing will end around 10 p.m.

 

Mr. and Mrs. Francis N. Darke commissioned the set of 12 bells in memory of their son, Clifford Albert Darke and presented them to the church to be held in trust on behalf of the people of Regina. They were dedicated in October 1927.”

 

 

Well that’s all for now.  Our next stop was in Brandon for one night on the way to Winnipeg, once again.

 

So long for now.

Love from,

Jerry, Elizabeth, Misty, FJ (Flat Jesus), the Guys, Miss Adventure Too, and Clifford the Big Red Truck.