Alberta Bound

Thursday, June 1: Weyburn, Sask.

Not a whole lot to report today. About a 4 hour drive from Portage to Weyburn. We did ditch the Hwy 1 for much of the way, which meant trading for more peaceful driving, but rougher roads. We are in a lovely green municipal campground across the river from downtown Weyburn. If the town sounds familiar, it was home of W.O. Mitchell and Tommy Douglas. Today it is quite a commercial centre with endless repair shops, warehouses, service yards. The downtown looks a bit sweeter with older brick storefronts, and treed boulevards. Will take a ride in later this afternoon.

After I posted yesterday from Portage, we found a very nice bike trail along the riverside with a few old stately houses marked with the history of the town founders who built them. At one point we were stopped by these goose families.... amazing... one pair had 30 goslings and the other pair had 15. Never seen that before! And a photo of the peaceful little campsite...

 

... and a couple of on the road photos... the first one is a typical little pull off spot where we make coffee in the morning. The second is just proof that Pat takes the wheel now and then.

Took a little ride around Weyburn this afternoon. Nothing to write home about (oops, I just did!) But we saw some pretty tall grass and I visited an old buddy.

We had a nice little bike rise along the Souris River by the campground, and watched these clouds loom in. We got quite the prairie thunderstorm as we went to bed... constant sheet lightening, just flash flash flash every second or two for at least an hour, with accompanying thunder. The rain came as we were dozing off, but not particularly torrential.

Friday, June 2:  Moose Jaw

Moved on to Moose Jaw this morning... roads so straight I may as well have attached a bungee cord to the steering wheel. Our Driftwood Players friend, Sandi, is here visiting family for a couple months, so we arranged to have lunch with her... always fun, and a chance to chat about non-theatre things such as local arts and family.

Along the way we watched for some of the traditional old grain elevators. This is the closest we got, and then a photo of the modern replacements.

Bill, of course, keeps his eyes peeled for interesting cars. We did just miss a car show near Sudbury, and we've seen only three other VW Vanagons, two apparently non-operational, and then one just like our Bluwesty passed us the other direction in northern Ontario.

We did follow this one into Moose Jaw today... stars to anyone who can give the make and year:

We are in another lovely little town operated campground at Gull River tonight... so much nicer than the private ones. This one, for example, has only five other parties, basic but clean washrooms with free shower and wifi, and only half the price. ($25).

Saturday, June 3: Medicine Hat and Medalta Ceramics

So, Moose Jaw yesterday and Medicine Hat today. Apparently Moose Jaw has nothing to do with a Moose Jaw, but the name derived from a similar sounding place name of the Blackfoot people. However, Medicine Hat really was derived from the legend of a hunter who saved his people from starvation. He was granted a Saamis, translated as a medicine man's head dress.

It rained much of today... indeed so strong on the drive from Gull River to Medicine Hat that we retreated to a rest stop for morning coffee.

Our goal in Medicine Hat was the Medalta Ceramics museum set in the old ceramics factory which churned out much of the commercial brick and clay works for Canada through the first half of the 20th C.

The power was out as we arrived, probably a result of the torrential rain, but the reception let us in anyway. It was actually kind of interesting because we experienced the old factory in the natural light from skylights and minimal electric light from the emergency lights, as it would have been in operation. The first area was a huge collection of the kinds of commercial products they created, and a look into the huge circular gas kiln rooms.

And then on into the machine rooms with the crazy complex of pulleys and gears typical of early 20th C factories. The first big room operated the various pug mills and mixing machines that produced the clay, and the next big room operating the presses and turning machines that produced the various large crocks that were their main product.

As we returned to the van, we said hello to the people next to us who had BC plates on their car. Turned out Pat and Jamie Hibberd knew each other from a pottery workshop they did together in the 90s, so we ended up with a good long "shop talk" in the parking lot. His friend who he was travelling with turned out to be a cousin of the Longmans in Gibsons.

It was mid afternoon as we moved on, so we did a quick drive through downtown Medicine Hat, which has some degree of charming historical buildings and interesting public art, and then continued westward to settle in another pretty little municipal campground ($25) at Bow River... still raining but expected to clear up overnight.

We should be in BC tomorrow, through the Crowsnest Pass route into the Kootenays, and only 3 or 4 days until home.