July 21 On the road to Winnipeg

When we started the day, we thought there would be nothing but a long, boring drive.  This was somewhat true; the only pictures we took along the road were attempting to show how hard the wind was blowing.  Fortunately, it was a tail wind coming from just about straight behind us, so we got better gas mileage and we didn’t get blown around.

At one point, we both needed a potty break and saw a sign with a green circle with an I in it that Canada uses to mark all the tourist information places.  Nearly all of these had washrooms, to use the proper term, so we headed off the Trans-Canada toward the town of Broadview.  The “I” signs led us to a complex of small buildings that claimed to be a museum.  There was an outhouse for our use.  Inside the men’s room was a sign that Jim thought was rather pretentious.

We decided we could stand to walk among the smaller buildings and get a bit of exercise.  We first went into the one-room school house.  Many of the desks were like the ones we had used in elementary school.  They had a lot of pictures from old schools in the area and a lot of the books that they had used.

Jim always enjoys train stuff, so we poked our head in the old train station.  He was happy to see a Model 28 Teletype that had been used to send messages up and down the rail line.  He had lots of experience with the Model 35, the successor to the 28, in the early and middle 1970s.  They were really workhorse machines.

There was also a former post office to poke through.  None of these buildings had anyone in them.  We assume the Canadian prairie is relatively crime free.  We decided we might as well go in the “main building” – a very long Quonset hut.   When we entered, one of the teenage girls said “Come and enjoy our museum, we are having Kids’ Day”.  The local kids were designing and building a model of the town circa 1905 from sheets of paper and miscellaneous scraps.

The museum had a wonderful collection of mostly everyday items, most from the late eighteen hundreds through the mid nineteen hundreds.  Ardith especially liked the collection of wedding dresses.  There were wedding photos showing them “in action”.

Jim enjoyed seeing the old stoves, because the blue one was the same as he inherited, except his has black trim.  Jim’s mother’s mother’s mother had been given the stove from a “rich lady” for whom she did domestic work in Philadelphia.

There were probably a few thousand items in the museum, both large and small.  They were well organized and reasonably well labeled, but not professionally curated.

One sad piece was a wreath made to commemorate 3 young sisters who died on the same day in 1886.  It included a piece woven of human hair.

A fun thing was the explanation of the Saturday night bath ritual.  The reason for this was that it was difficult obtaining enough water, so the labor fell on Saturday.  Everyone on the family took a bath in the same water, starting with the youngest child and ending with parents.  The water was then used to soak especially soiled clothes.

There was still more to see outside, including a lot of farm equipment and a sod house.

Jim changed his mind about the claim to being the “finest little museum on the Prairies” as pretentious.  It was quite fine for non-professional museum – a special treat in a long drive.

When we checked into our hotel in Winnipeg, we were informed that we were (again) upgraded to a suite.  This was two adjoining rooms, one set up as a bedroom, the other had couches, a desk, TV, refrigerator and microwave.

Dinner was at an especially yummy German restaurant.  The atmosphere there invoked our memories of Germany, but without being a caricature.

Jim started with Blätterteigpastetchen, something hard to pronounce, but very easy to eat.  It is veal and mushrooms in a puff pastry, topped with fresh asparagus.  That was followed by a plate called Schinkenteller Westphalen Art - thin slices of dried, cured ham and dried salami, with silver onions, pickles and pumpernickel bread.Ardith enjoyed Baroness Schnitzel - veal topped with mushrooms in a cream sauce and fresh asparagus with hollandaise sauce with pommes croquettes and veggies.

July 19 and 20: Through Medicine Hat to Regina

We have seen the end to narrow, twisty roads, but also the end of the magnificent mountain scenery.  Most of the rest of the Canadian potion of our return will be on the 4 lane divided Trans-Canada Highway.  This is essentially all prairie.  We are seeing still larger fields of canola and other grains.

Grain elevators, both modern and old fashioned have replaced mountain peaks as the highest points along the way.

There is a huge amount of land here and farmers make the most of it.  They even farm hay in the median of the Trans-Canada!

Sixty years ago there was a huge oil strike in Saskatchewan and there are still many oil wells visible along the highway.

There are a few “special” sights along the highway like the world’s largest tipi frame in Medicine Hat, Alberta and Mac, the world’s tallest moose in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

We stopped in Medicine Hat to search for a place to eat lunch.  When we found the historic downtown and began walking to find a restaurant, we saw about 5 or 6 young men dressed in similar outfits that included cowboy hats.  While we were sitting in the sidewalk cafe of Twist Tapas Bar and Restaurant, we saw 4 women dressed in nearly matching conservative clothes.  Two of them split off and joined 3 of the guys.  We speculated if they were local Mennonites.  There are a decent number of them in Alberta. 

We had very pleasing food there – Ardith’s chicken, pear and brie panini was a big hit and Jim really got into his Benedictine Blue Cheese Salad that included pears, pecans and dates.

We had been caught off guard by time zone changes before and while we were driving today, we speculated where the change from Mountain to Central time would occur.  When we visited the Saskatchewan welcome, there was a sign on the door stating that time in Saskatchewan was the same as in Alberta.  We were good for another day and a half.

We spent the morning and part of the afternoon of our full day in Regina, Saskatchewan’s capital, ath the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Academy and Heritage Centre.  The Heritage Centre is a museum telling the story of the Mounties who were formed in the 1870s and were called the Northwest Mounted Police for several decades.  Displays in the museum included uniforms issued throughout its history.

They also had displays of early weaponry.  In their earliest campaign, they dragged several cannons from the East into the western parts of the country.  These were totally unnecessary for the situations they would encounter, but the government officials felt it would add a commanding presence.

They also displayed means of transportation from dog sleds to modern vehicles that can go through deep snow.

A car in the display brought back memories to Jim.  When he was a kid, his family went to visit extended family in the Buffalo-Rochester area of New York.  They always made an excursion to Niagara Falls and made sure they went to the Canadian side.  Jim was very much into cars from about 7 years old until past the time he got his license.  He was always fascinated by the Canadian cars that were “hybrids” of US cars.  The police care below was a Meteor. That was basically a Ford with a variant of Mercury trim.  There was also a Monarch that was a Mercury with trim very similar to that of a Ford.  The Crusader, Regent and Mayfair were blends of Plymouths, Dodges and DeSotos.  GM was not to be outdone; the Lauerntian was a spiffed up Pontiac.

There was also a section on forensics with several interactive displays.  One had you look at bullets under magnifiers to see which were fired from which gun.

The RCMP Academy, known as the Depot to all Mounties, has been their main training center since 1885.  It is currently also used to train a variety of other special Canadian security agencies.  Every new recruit to the RCMP comes here for an intensive 24 week course of training and study.  He or she is part of a 32 person troop that moves through the training together.  While we were there, 4 different troops were in various stages of training.  These stages can be discerned by their uniform.  They earn new pieces as a group.  If one person fails, the group fails.  The first piece beyond the basic uniform is black, low boots.  Before that, they wear sneakers.  Next, they earn a stripe for their pants, then large boots.  Graduation day is when they first get to wear the iconic scarlet coat.

We took a tour of the Academy and went in places like the drill hall and the chapel (the oldest building in Regina).

We also saw the outside of some of the classroom and training buildings.

We watched the candidates practicing for and participating in the Sergeant Major’s Parade, which is held in the early afternoon, 3 days a week.  This includes a roll call and inspection and is accompanied by the Cadet Band.

There were a few pieces of fun available.  We bought small animal Mounties in the gift shop for our granddaughters.  Jim modeled them next to their big brothers.

Next stop was the laundromat.  We found one that was quick and clean.  They took in a lot of laundry that was dropped off to be picked up later.  That made sure they kept their equipment in tip-top condition.

Next we went to Government House which is the official residence of Saskatchewan’s Lieutenant Governor.  This is very different than the position of the same name in most US states.  This person serves as the Queen’s appointed representative in the province and is “head of state” where the head of the government is the premier, and elected position.  The duties of the office are primarily ceremonial.  After a few decades of disuse, the building was restored to its condition in the early 1900s under period under Lieutenant-Governor Amédée Forget (pronounced forzhay).  Much of it is a museum and is often used as a hospitality facility for government and non-profit organizations.

There was a lot of furniture that was in the house at the time, including a fainting couch.

Jim liked the photocopy of the 1906 phone directory that included rules and regulations ans well as listings for probably a bit over 200 subscribers.

The Forget’s didn’t have any children, but had pets in the house, including a monkey named Jocko.  They now have a stuffed monkey that resembles Jocko.  The staff regularly hides the monkey in new places and children and folks like Jim are challenged to find him.  Jim failed on his own, but enlisted the help of a boy who was about 10 who spotted him hiding under a bed.

The Lieutenant-Governor had toys to distract the monkey who could otherwise be a handful during official functions.

Another fun thing in this place filled with nice furniture and plumbing fixtures was a U-shape table where there were cardboard cutouts of all the prior Lieutenant-Governor’s.  They spotlighted pair of them and had simulated conversations between diverse historical figures.  Some were somber, some witty.

We ate great meal at LaBodega Tapas Bar and Grill.  We shared each of the plates.  The first to come out was our favorite, the Brie Plate.  It had slices of crostini for spreading the freshly roasted garlic, brie, apple slices, walnuts and sea salt.  The combination was yummy; the garlic was the real key.  That was followed by Steak Frites with a red wine glaze and Grilled Asparagus with Parmesan chese and olive oil.  All were elegant and excellent.  This was another place where we were just barely first for dinner and got the best seat in the house.

July 19 - Calgary

We got into Calgary, Alberta the day after what is probably the world’s biggest and best know rodeo and much more, the Calgary Stampede, closed its 10-day run.  Jim had looked this up during our early trip-planning stages, but we were initially going to use a different route.  Ardith wasn’t disappointed that we missed it, but Jim had a bit of a twinge of not being able to see a tiny bit of it.  We drove by the grounds, but barely found a place that was photo-worthy.

The Canadian Pacific Railway has its headquarters in Calgary and its tracks run parallel to the city’s main street just 2 blocks away from it.  We saw a train filled with the beautiful canola grain passing under us.

Nearly all our time in Calgary was spent at the Glenbow Museum.  When we approached it, we thought we were at the right building since there was interesting concrete on its exterior.

When we opened the door marked for the museum, we were a bit doubtful.  It opened into the lobby of a big office building, but we looked across the lobby and found the museum entrance.  The interior had a spectacular staircase spanning its 4 floors.

We started on the top floor and worked our way down.  The mineral collection urged us to start there.  Jim’s second favorite place in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum is its mineral hall and this collection was nearly as good.  Proportionately, the Glenbow had more samples of the mineral Smithsonite on display than the Smithsonian.  They also had a sample of the world’s oldest rock – nearly 4 billion years old – from Canada’s Northwest Territories.

They also had a nice collection of fluorescent rocks that glowed when the lighting changed from incandescent to ultra-violet.

They also had several samples of ammolite, one of the rarest gemstones.  It is formed in fossils of ammonites, extinct sea creatures.  Most of the world’s known ammolite has been found in Alberta.

They had a temporary exhibit on West Africa.  There were many exhibits spanning several cultures, but Jim was a tiny bit disappointed because there was nothing from Senegal or The Gambia, the two places in West Africa he has visited.  Those countries were on the map at the start of the exhibit.

The next exhibit area featured native peoples of Western Canada.  Jim was intrigued by the fact that tipi cover designs were, in effect, copyrighted by tradition.  A father might grant his design to one of his children, who might make some modifications to it.

We were surprised at how well we liked the military history section.  They focused on single topics such as body protection and showed how that was carried out across various cultures and times, including medieval Europe, Samauri Japan, native Americans and modern Canadian Forces.

Similar treatments were done for musical instruments, swords, knives, firearms, troop formations, women combatants and the spiritual aspects of warfare.

Our favorite part of the museum was the exhibit called “Mavericks – an incorrigible history of Alberta”.  It tells the stories of over 40 far-sighted, risk taking individuals who shaped life in Alberta.  Some of the folks depicted were the inventor of blasting techniques used in mining, the head of the first RCMP (mountie) troop in the area, a great barnstorming pilot,a farm equipment pioneer,  the first Native in the Calgary Stampede (who was the first person to successfully ride the legendary horse Cyclone),  a family of photographers, and a woman responsible for recruiting women into Canadian Women’s Army Corp during World War II. 

The descriptions of these people and their acts were not hero worshiping, but told how their life paths evolved into making a difference.  Many of the subjects included statements of First Nations perspective into the particular issue or act involved.

We struggled a bit to find an independent restaurant. Our first two attempts were closed (it was Monday), but we found a rib’s place called Big T’s.  The place had a western decor and played blues music.  It was filled with locals (we got the last table) who appeared to all big eaters.  We saw a bunch of huge platters go by.  When we first glanced at the menu, Ardith said she might like a full rack of ribs that was on special.  Jim convinced her to split the order.  It came with mashed potatoes, cole slaw and baked beans.  Jim added a salad with sun dried tomatoes, asparagus, figs and lettuce.  That was plenty for us, while leaving room for us to split the last piece of their special dessert – white truffle cake.