“We hit Saskatoon
On the last day of June”
This could be the first two lines of a new hit song. Don’t steal it. But before that we crossed into Saskatchewan in the middle of the city of Lloydminster, and stopped at a tourist information place to get some Saskatchewan info. as well as flags, pins, etc. for Canada Day. We then continued east to Battleford and North Battleford. The Fort Battleford National Historic Park was closed for the day, but we walked around the outside of the old fort and looked through the wall at various points, and the dog had a good romp in the tall grass. The river was in flood and both campsites in town had lots of ponded water, which looked like prime mosquito habitat, so we decided to carry on to Saskatoon, not expecting to find much on the Sunday of a long weekend. Rhonda phoned the city-owned Gordon Howe campground, and they had space in the overflow area for Sunday night and lots of space on Monday night, so we booked that as I felt that we desperately needed to spend two nights in the same place to allow us a chance to spread out from our crowded motorhome, get the lawn chairs and bikes out, etc. Shortly after we got there they came and told us that somebody had just left, so we moved into a fully serviced site for the two nights.
So how do you celebrate Canada Day in Saskatoon? It turned out that most of the activities were taking place in a park almost directly across the river from where we were camped. In theory we could have biked into town along a riverside trail to the first bridge and then back along the other side, but we were told that the trails on the other side in particular might be flooded. Besides, by the time we were ready to start biking, we had missed the pancake breakfast and much of the festivities. So we painted on our Canada Flag tattoos, put flags on our bikes, loaded up with water (it was a hot day), sunscreen and bug spray, hitched the dog to my bike, and rode into town to enjoy some of the free music at the last day of the jazz festival. After/during dinner, Rod and Debbie Olson (friends from Rhonda’s teaching days in North Vancouver) came over for a visit along with their son Jeff and his wife and young child (they live in Saskatoon) and an exchange student from Ecuador. Later, we climbed up onto the roof of the motorhome, which offered a great vantage point to watch the fireworks from across the river, which we enjoyed despite being eaten alive by mosquitoes.
Tuesday turned out to be another long driving day. After leaving Saskatoon we continued east towards Manitoba, but had to turn into a tiny village with dirt streets called Mozart, as Rhonda had read that all of the streets were named after classical composers. We stopped to make lunch at the side of the road in another little town, then continued east to Yorkton. At one time we had thought of camping near here, but I really wanted to get to Clear Lake in Manitoba, so we continued east, crossing the border in the late afternoon by a lake on the Assinniboine River west of Roblin.
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