Saskatchewan

Ah, Saskatchewan. Let's see what you have in store for us.

We thought this looked pretty cool--an old old grain elevator conglomeration...

There were a Ton of dragonflies in this province! So many kinds... little yellow ones, red ones, the delicate little black one, big black and blue ones and others. Keith decided this was basically his new favorite insect. He kept admiring "the engine" they have on their back to move those wings so fast, and how they would cruise through the dusky sky in gangs like raiders chomping down those little mosquitoes. They are hard to photograph, he found, but I really like this one.

Yes, Keith allowed and watched this mosquito suck his blood so he could take a picture of it. Seeing it that close freaks me out, but this is one of the daily realities we face on the trip.

This was an awesome spot we found to camp--we were in Yorkton, quite a big city, and looking for a park to hunker down in. Keith turned into a grassy field area behind a high school and this perfect little nook of mowed grass was just tucked away down it own corridor of trees behind the ball field. We had a nice wildlife experience here--Keith spending an hour or two feeding things to spiders and taking pictures of dragonflies, and catching the Cute wood frogs that were all around this site. In our tent that night we heard the weirdest sound and still have no idea what made it. It was like a loud woof/snort/wheeze and it kept happening in the trees behind our tent. I would have thought it was a bear anywhere else--but not here in basically the middle of this city on the prairies. If you have any ideas let us know. We thought raccoon maybe??

We have seen so many of these very old places looking quite lonely now... whole towns were like this in Saskatchewan with some people still holding on there, but all the businesses a thing of a bygone, more prosperous day. The sign above the door says "Hart's Hi-Way Inn 1956."

Then we would see homes from an even further bygone day... Keith and I got quite nostalgic feeling and emotions actually looking at and talking about these ones here--imagining the way they used to look and the families that used to light them up.

We did something very spontaneous :) While standing on the side of the road taking a break and looking at those homesteads (above) we heard what sounded like really bad rap music floating over the prairie... we listened closer and could tell that it was an auction going on, then noticed a sign just behind us on the road with a small gravel road leading off toward a large beautiful Ukrainian Orthodox church we had been admiring. I really wanted to take a detour and go have a look at this cultural event. Keith agreed to it and we biked about two miles on loose gravel out of our way to get to this auction! I was glad we did--talked to some really nice people who told us about the event and the area, and witness this part of Saskatchewan farming culture played out. Some good characters there!

The auction was put on by an older woman whose husband had recently died. She was leaving the farm and moving to the city (Yorkton) so they were auctioning off all of their equipment and nicknacks, then the house and land even. There were tons of farmers there--mostly for the prized tractor and land we were told. This happens regularly in the area--"this is how every farm breaks up." Most of the land, now, gets bought by farmers who own obscene amounts of land and hire tons of people to help farm it all over Saskatchewan... they wouldn't pick up and move into this farmhouse and live on it like the family before. I found that sad.

"Sold, to the man in the back."

They really had some awesome antique things on their farm. One lady talking to me said, "I don't know why anyone would want all this junk!" Ah, there were such treasures among it!! If I could have, I would have taken a few things home... They were selling it off in piles like this very cheap.

Another nice camping spot in a park in this tiny, but lively and nice town with an Icelandic name, Elfros. They had a sculpture and paintings in this park honoring their Icelandic ancestors who settled here. (Keith tried suspending a space blanket above our tent to keep some of the dew off.)

At this point, we had biked 4,444.4 miles!

We bought a special treat, something I had been craving, but denying myself the whole trip because of the bulkiness and weight--a jar of raspberry jam to put on some bread we had bought. Good thing we were not in bear country, eh? Bouncing around in our little grocery basket the lid had come loose and spilled its entire contents, leaving a gory scene for us to find all over the back of our trailer (all around the rim of the wheel too :( Keith spent a good chunk of time cleaning it all off with a hose at the campground we stayed at that night. We didn't make it to church in Saskatoon this time. We needed a day and a half more to get to town, even with the 100 miles we had done that day.

Saskatooooooon!!!! From the start, I had told Keith I really wanted to go through Saskatoon. I loved Farley Mowat as an author when I was younger and because he grew up in Saskatoon, a few of his books that I had read take place around there and I thought it sounded pretty cool. It was a little out of our way, but we are so glad we came North in Saskatchewan instead of cutting across South. It has been really pretty up here.

In Saskatoon we took a half-day off--did our laundry at a laundry mat, updated the blog, were given a new tent pole at an outdoor store because ours had snapped that week, and explored town a bit (including going to the "Cheese Outlet" where we bought Extra Old Gouda and smoked, seasoned beef!! (Did you know you could smoke beef in a big chunk just like smoking salmon?!) And discovered those two were an amazing combination. We then camped out hidden in the trees alongside a running path by the river and were glad for the extra protection when a lightning storm/torrential rain came an hour later.

This is not in Saskatoon--this is a tiny town about 25 miles from Saskatoon where we found a library to use for a bit while we waited to see if the winds would die down at all. The winds this day were the worst headwinds we have had the whole trip and it was mentally painful to fight against it. We ended up going 55 miles, but this was a nice little resting point for us. Foster's store (sad it wasn't open) is a local treasure, we were told. It has been running there, just the same way since the early 1900s and still has things on the shelves from the 20s on up!

Found a nice spot to camp that night off the highway by these big graineries.

A typical "good-night" view.

Always seeing interesting cloud patterns across the prairies with the big skies... different everyday.

Keith cooking a lunch of perogis (we have grown quite fond of the Ukranian perogis--a cheese and potato mash inside a dumpling of sorts--you can buy frozen very cheap). We usually put a can of baked beans on them for protein and it is so good! This was in North Battleford.