SASKATCHEWAN

On August 3rd we made it to Saskatchewan.  We went into Cypress Hills and took the very rough country road to Fort Walsh.  Whenever you go to Fort Walsh think of me driving the motorhome up that steep, twisty road, yes, I did question my sanity as I was driving.  There is a warning sign at the base of the hill claiming you could park your trailers there and it made me second quess my decision to show the girls this part of the country, but I am stubborn and I continued on, I must say it was worth it.

This picture is looking down to the Fort. 

We went into the fort which is not original but an exact replica or close to it.  The guides there were dressed in period costume and gave us a very informative tour.  The girls went and joined the children's tour which meant they play acted being young North West Mounted Police recruits and they arrested some of the adults in the group and of course the girls chose their mother to arrest.  All in all it was a fun experience.

We left Fort Walsh at 5:00 and tried to make it to Swift Current in time for meeting but we arrived there at 8:00 with no name or phone number of any of the friends so we missed meeting.  I had wanted to take the girls to the Great Sandhills of Saskatchewan but time did not allow.  We looked on-line and found a campsite in Moose Jaw for the night.

After a morning to sleep in, do some house cleaning and laundry we were very excited to meet Mom and Dad.  They came down to Moose Jaw and we did the two Moose Jaw Tunnel Tours with them.  The tunnels were very interesting and highly recommended for anyone coming through the area.  It was very interesting to see how the Chinese immigrants were received and treated in our country years ago, definitly not a bright spot in Canada's history.

We met the Roy Howden family down at Echo Lake and had a birthday celebration for Laura at the campsite with fireworks to follow out at the farm.  It was great to see everyone and the girls even got to go for a tube ride.  We left the lake and went on a tour of Fort Qu'Appelle and Dad showed us the hospital he was born in, where he went to school and the home farm.  We even took a little side tour through the Fort Qu'Appelle museum.  While in the museum we found the grad class photos of Joe, Alex, and Norman - fun to see your dad in the museum. :) 

The school were Dad started grade 9 - this school was built in 1911.

The Hudson's Bay building in Fort Qu'Appelle.

We went on to Weyburn and Mom showed us all around her home country.  We had the privilege of seeing Brad and Deanna and Nona and family, we really enjoyed seeing family we don't have the oppurtunity to see very often.  It was amazing to see the flooding down in this area - normally such dry country and this year we saw roads covered with water, ditches full and little lakes in the middle of what should be fields.  Devastating to see the fields barren where no one was able to even plant seed because of all the moisture.

This was a dirt road we drove down in the morning to get to Weyburn from Uncle Brad's there was a rainstrom around supper time and this is what the road looked like when we tried to come back that evening.

We had a wonderful Sunday morning meeting at Shawn and Tammy's and the girls had a grand time playing with the Howden children.  We have been treated royally everywhere we went and each spot is hard to leave because all the people are so great.

As we drove down the roads we enjoyed seeing the BIG sky.  The prairies definatly are unique and really beautiful.