Day 11,12,& 13...Our Cross Canada Trip....East to West

Day 11, 12 and 12

We arrived in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan's, "City of Bridges." Here we called Richard's nephew Tom and his wife Pat. We checked into Saskatoon 16 West RV Park, where they were camping for the summer, for a few days of rest, relaxation and visiting. This campsite was very very nice, and it's web site is: www.saskatoonrvpark.com

It was a great time to be in Saskatoon, for they were celebrating their 100 birthday. During our stay Tom and Pat took us on a tour of the city. Here we discovered that on May 26, 1906, 4,500 people formed the city and derived it's name from the purple berry the Cree Indians called mis-sask-quah-toomina.

Saskatoon has been named the 2006 Cultural Capital of Canada for communities with a population greater than 125,000 by the department of Canadian Heritage. One of the cities colorful characters from the past was Gabriel Dumont who's statue stands in Friendship Park to honor him. Dumont was one of the men from the North West Rebellion. He escaped capture by going to the United States where he joined Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show. To learn more go to www.schoolnet.ca or www.library2usask.ca or just google Gabriel Dumont. The entire history of Saskatoon is worth a look at their web site www.tourismsaskatoon.com

Tom and Pat took us to the residential area where their home is. It is an older part of Saskatoon and the elm trees are majestic, making the area wonderful place to live. The city is battling the Dutch Elm disease among these trees, I do hope they are able to subdue the spread of the disease otherwise it will change the face of this area.

Day 13

We crossed over into Alberta around noon. The lay of the land changed immediately. The land began to roll and roll.

We drove all day and at 4:30p.m. we arrived in Edmonton. We seen an information symbol on a sign and followed it. A map of Albert was the only map we did not have yet. Anyway, we made this turn and that turn according to the ? sign. Then the signs stopped and no VIC Centre. We were lost and it was raining to boot, we stopped at a service station and got directions on how to get back on the highway leading west to Jasper.

But I wanted to see and visit the West Edmonton Mall and we had already passed signs directing us there. We decided to look for a campsite for the night and go back in the morning. We soon found one called SHERKS, oh man what a place, morning won't come quick enough.