After a quick stop for fuel at the eastern side of Edmonton, we drove for about an hour to the Ukrainian town of Vegreville, the home of the Vegreville Egg.
The sculpture of a Pysanka, a Ukrainian-style Easter egg is 31 feet long and 35 feet tall. It is the second largest pysanka in the world, after another built in the Ukraine in 2000.
The pysanka has existed as part of Ukrainian culture for thousands of years, dating back to pre-christian times and the colors and symbols have special significance. Bronze represents Mother Earth, White suggest purity, and yellow universally represents prosperity and happiness.
The Sunburst on the bottom of the egg symbolizes eternal life, growth and good fortune. the combination of golden triangles forms church-like symbols representing a trinity associated with the familial unity of man, woman, and child. The straight white line circling the egg near the bottom repeats the idea of eternal life. The large sawtooth design carries the message of protection and security afforded the early settlers of this area by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the central six-pointed star of gold and silver represent windmills, which symbolize a rich harvest. Pretty cool, huh?
The egg was made of anodized aluminum, and was the first structure built according to a computer program defining the surface area as a computer algorithm. Until it was dedicated in 1975 on the centennial of the RCMP, a two-dimensional surface had never been assembled as a three-dimensional object. Incidentally, the software used to guide the lasers which cut the Pysanka's tiles was purchased and used for the cutting of the exterior tiles of the space shuttle!
Driving east we found out what the word "Prairie" really means:
Thousands of acres of Lavender (above) and thousands of acres of yellow Canola carpet the rolling hills with a startling splash of color.
Near the town of The Battlefords we were really, really, really driving through some flat, flat, flat land.
With little wind, and a light throttle, we navigated the 325 miles to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and Campland RV Resort. Incidentally, we managed to achieve a mileage number of 10.5 for the days trip, one of our better numbers. Oh, I know, it's nothing compared to an automobile, but it's great for a vehicle that weighs over 45,000 pounds!
Campland is a pretty typical Canadian park: dirt/gravel interior roads and sites, with some grass and small trees. The difference is that it is located a half-mile off the highway on a local road paved with....dirt/gravel. Large trucks roar up and down the (county?) highway sending clouds of dust over the campground. Hmmmm. The wifi is nonexistent at our site, and unusable near the office, and the cell signal is marginal at best. Guess we'll have to go to Starbuck's for free wifi!
Today, Saturday, we went into downtown Saskatoon (called Sask around here) to visit the Farmers Market. This seven-day-a-week facility expands on Saturday mornings to include many local vendors. It was advertised as the premier event in Sask on the weekend, so we had to check it out. As it turns out, it only required about an hour to go through the market, buy a couple of home-grown, grass-fed steaks and a jar of alfalfa honey. And this includes walking from/to the car, which was parked 4 blocks away due to the exorbitant parking fees charged near the market.
We drove around and about town a bit, did some grocery shopping, and returned home. An otherwise quiet day was spiced up when a new neighbor moved in. Can't miss this one! We've had to close the curtains early!
This morning, the weather prediction was for thunderstorms and 3-5 inches of rain. None of which materialized. Tomorrow the prediction is for t-storms and little rain. Who knows? We do know that the ambient temp at 4 pm this afternoon was 83 F, and tomorrow 93 F is expected! Hold on, a/c, we need you!
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