Road Trip

When M and I used to come out to Saskatchewan many years ago, we did a lot of road tripping. We drove miles around this province which was a fun thing to do. We did some geocaching and we searched for large roadside attractions.

It was time for another one of our road trip days. When I stayed in the hotel in Saskatoon, I grabbed the lone copy of the local newspaper as I was eating breakfast. On the front page was an article about a display called "Walking with our Sisters" which was created in honor of the missing indigenous women and girls who have gone missing over the years.

The display was outdoors at a historical site and the last day was Sunday. Hmm - that would be very interesting to go to. It was 2 hours away! No worries - we technically have all day with nothing to do.

We said goodbye to my aunt before we left as she was headed off to the airport.

We arrived at the site only to learn that it was closed to the public at 1:00 PM (totally NOT indicated in any of the information on the website). And that the closing ceremony had started. Shoot - that would have been interesting to be part of that. The volunteer at the beginning gave us a brief overview and we sort of begged to get in.

The display is made up of 2000 vamps from moccasins some that were made specifically for the display and some of them looked like they came from an actual pair of moccasins. They were displayed on a long red cloth that stretched for about .5 km. The display ended at the river where the ceremony was taking place. I think the outdoor display and the length of the display was the best setting of any of the displays. We were very lucky to have been a part of that.

We were allowed to go in, but there were protocols. No photos and no crossing the red cloth. You walked down one side and then went around the path and walked back up the other side.

As we neared the end, we could see the people and hear the speech. We only caught the tail end which was that family members (the women and girls) need to be loved as anyone else. They need to be shown that they are a valuable member of the family. It would have been so interesting to hear the entire ceremony. Oh - I should say that we were not allowed to enter the area until we were smudged in.

After taking a picture at the river (not of the display, but the river), we circled around behind everyone so we could get to the other side of the red path. We then realized that they were getting into a line for the pot luck. ACK! We had to cut right through that line and we were invited to stay to eat. We politely refused but then thought it would have been fun to stay, but we needed to get home.

It was a very moving display and some of the beadwork was exquisite. Some of the work was very amateurish where someone with limited skills wanted to participate. All were accepted. Some had messages which were very pointed. Not being allowed to take pictures was hard, but we respected the elders.

We had a conversation with the volunteer back at the start and then were smudged out.

I'm not sure why or how, but M and I had got chatting about geocaching and we decided to check if there were any in the area. Yep - one right at the gate to the section where we were and one at the main gate to the Batoche Historical Site. So within minutes, eagled eye M had both of them - I didn't even get a chance to look for them before she had called out "found it!"

So that added two more to my list, making me at 393 finds. We decided that we are going to make 400 before we leave tomorrow.

After we all arrived back at my parents and had dinner, M and I scooted out to get two more before it got dark. We are either lucky or good because as we were walking up to one of them, she started the countdown to the location, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and then I called "found it". We didn't even have to search! I'll say it's luck in finding easy ones because we've searched and searched for some and never found them.

Let's just say that the weather here is fresh!!! Holy! I see it's 8 C again this morning which is a wee bit nippy! But I'm OK with that as I have enough clothes to keep me warm.

Oh  - I haven't told you the story of my new car which I got months ago. I'm not going into it today, but I have wanted to play around with Android Car Play which I don't have in my car. I have it in the rental car that I have so M got it fired up and OH MY - we both want it in our cars.

It was slick to get Google Maps or WAZE to pop up on the screen. The media apps like Libby and playlists popped up no problem, but where we had fun was with the texting. A text would come in and the system would read the text. Then it asked if we wanted to respond. We just had to say YES. Then it recorded our text and translated it to typing and sent the text. We were laughing so hard that the system had a wee bit of a time to catch what we were saying. But what a slick feature and TOTALLY hands-free.

I've managed to get the sleeve and two labels on the back of the "hot guy" quilt. I just need to sew the pocket on so the map can be placed inside. Then one more sleeve and two more labels. I better hustle as we leave tomorrow!!!

On that note, we've got more stuff planned for today and I had better get myself organized.

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!!!