Fort Walsh and Cypress Hills

JJ and I drove to Fort Walsh National Historic Site in the Cypress Hills on the Saskachewan side of the border shared with Alberta. Our visit was two fold: research for my Mountie story, and to see if I could find a Mountie to use for promotional purposes with my story. The Cypress Hills are the highest land elevation east of the Rocky Mountains. (I can't remember at the moment if the Laurentians in Quebec are higher.)

Fort Walsh was part of the Old Forts Trail which ran from Fort Benton, Montana up to Edmonton, Alberta and other places.

To get to Fort Walsh, we had to go down this hill, across the valley, and up a steep, winding road. This road with hairpin turns is so steep, you're advised to unhook your trailer/camper and leave it in a designated parking area for that purpose. Once you get to the top of the hills, you cross the wide plateau you see at the top of this photo. After several kilometres, you find the visitor's centre with the actual fort down in the valley below.

We took a bus from the visitor's centre down to the fort where two young Mounties greeted us. They really look young and yet this is the age of most of the recruits back in the 1870's which this fort represents.

This is the fort guardhouse, of particular interest to me because of my story. If you look closely into the cells, you'll see they are only the length of a bed - or a mattress - and back then, people were smaller and those beds were short!

JJ tried out the cell for size.

See what I mean about the height?

Not sure if I like him in there, though.














This is an authentic cooking tent for when they were on the road. Inside is a box stove where the staff created cinnamon buns as a treat for us visitors. (Small piece, but great taste.)

An exciting part of the day was this mock trial using visitors as law-breakers. Very entertaining. The Mountie presiding over the court was an excellent actor and kept the crowd in stitches. This staff operates on a minimum staff and I was amazed at the multi-tasking and role-playing of these members. Not to mention once court is over, he does a quick change out of his uniform and into civilian clothes and then drives the bus.

JJ took advantage of the offer to test out the Mountie beds for softness. NOT!

The barrack building consists of sleeping quarters as well as a mess hall for dining and recreation.



Lookee here... I finally found someone who looks like the fictional hero of my Mountie story. His name is Michal (Me-hal) and he'll be used in all my promotional material for the character, Remy Bisset.

Thank you Michal for taking the time to pose for pics. Someone has already asked me if you were a model in your former life. *grin

This is a scale model of Fort Walsh. They have a legend with little buttons that you push and a red light will glow to show the corresponding building. Excellent workmanship but I didn't get the modeller's name.

We missed the bus after we finished taking photos and instead of waiting an hour for the next one, JJ and I walked back up the hill. As you can see, it's about a mile up. That was my exercise for the day on top of all the other walking around.

We left Fort Walsh behind and headed over to Conglomerate Cliffs to take a few photos from the top of Cypress Hills looking east...



... and looking northeast. What an exceptional view!

The trip to Fort Walsh and the Cypress Hills was so worth our time. The staff - especially Tracy and Michal went beyond any employees I've met anywhere. They spent invaluable time with me ensuring the research for my Mountie story was accurate. But the rest of the staff both down at the fort and up in the visitor's centre were welcoming and attentive to our needs. Kudos going out to the Fort Walsh National Historic Site.

From Coin Shows to Kilts

My weekend went the gamut from wonderfully satisfying to frightfully awful.

On Friday, I headed down to North Dakota to pick up my mail, exchange the free books at the Crosby Library and visit a bank for some state quarters. I listened to writing podcasts while I drove. A tiring, but satisfying day.

Sat morning found the kids and I packing the van with our overnight bags and heading to Regina. First stop was the Regina Coin Club’s Spring Coin and Stamp show where my son, JJ and I set out our displays.

JJ’s display of Dinosaurs contained Coins and Tokens.

I entitled my display ‘Motherhood’ with the description: On these coins, bank notes and medals, you’ll find mothers nursing, rocking and playing with their babies. And yes, even protecting them.

Once the set up was complete, we headed off to do a bit of shopping as Jessie needed an item for her recital costume. At noon, I dropped her off at the Royal Conservatory of Music and took the 2 boys back to the Coin Show.

First up was selling 30 old worn quarters that were no use to a coin collector due to holes and scratches. You couldn’t even make out the date on one of them. I headed over to the George Manz table and handed over my scrap quarters worth $7.50 if I brought them to a bank. A few mins later, I walked away with a cheque worth $54.65 in my wallet and a smile on my face.

We headed across the hall to where JJ’s CoinHawk mtg was about to start. This is an excellent coin club for kids up to 16. The club provides the young numismatists the required books and a binder to hold the info given out each month. As well, they usually hand out free coins, etc to every kid who attends the mtg. JJ has also rec’d 2 free magnifying glasses and the 2x2’s to hold his new coins. And membership in the club is FREE. It’s worth the trip into the city every month to give JJ this wonderful education of a hobby I’ve loved my entire life. And, the free coins sure help, too.

Anyway, we were half way through an interesting discussion on Canadian 25 cent pieces when the cell phone in my pocket vibrated. Jessie’s recital was over. I left the boys at the mtg and drove over to pick up a smiling Jessie. Her recital had gone well and her instructor had been pleased with her performance.

By the time we got back to the Coin Show, it was 3 pm and JJ’s mtg had just ended. Nick waved a new 1949 silver cased dollar at me which he’d won as a door prize. Plus they showed me the free 1999 and 2000 series coins sets (12 coins in each) which they rec’d for being CoinHawk members. They were happy but wanted to get to the pool.

First, however, I had an assignment to complete. I’d been hired by a Consumer organization as a Mystery Shopper. It took just over an hour to complete the assignment and I know you’d love to hear about it but that’s a topic for another post. J By the time we got out of the store, it was near 5 pm and the kids were antsy. After a trip to SuperStore to buy pepperoni sticks, snap peas, snacks, pop, muffins, juice, etc, we headed over to our hotel.

Once we hauled everything up to the room, the kids got into their swimsuits and waited for my nod. I tried to get onto the internet to check in with the Prairie Chicks blog where Victoria Bylin was guest blogging, but I couldn’t get on. I asked Jessie to try while I was gone and give my go ahead for the pool. Man, those kids disappeared fast!

I headed back to the Coin Show for the evening auction. Bidding started at $2 and ran the gamut up to $5,100 for an 1872H Canadian 25 cent piece. Wow. I spent $24 on some trade dollars and 25 cent pieces.

Satisfied, I arrived back at the hotel at 9 as the kids were coming up from the pool, wet and happy.

That’s when my fun ended and my troubles began as I spent the next 4 hrs trying to log on and stay on the internet. Horrendous! Lots to talk about here but that’s another post.

Sun morning, the kids enjoyed a morning swim before we headed off to the coin Show. Being a CoinHawk, JJ did his stint at the registration table handing out free coins to any kids coming through the door, member or not. It was neat when they called the next door prize number because it was JJ’s and he was sitting right there. All he had to do was stand up and smile.

After an hour, we finally left the table and started shopping. None of the fancy cased stuff for me. No, I head for the buckets of mixed coins where my fingers turn black from who knows what after an hour of digging. There’s so much to see, I only stayed 30 mins or so at each dealer. Still, I missed one. Yes, I would’ve had more time if I hadn’t let the kids go for a morning swim, but that wasn’t an option.

The Show was over at 4 pm. With the judging completed, JJ and I headed over to pack up our displays. They informed us JJ had won the Junior division. Yay! As for the adults, they said the winner would be announced at the next mtg. However, they pointedly asked if I would be attending. Hmmm...

Within half an hour, we were on the road, 7-Eleven Slurpee’s in hand. But we couldn’t go home just yet.

The kids’ youth group was hosting a Scottish Fundraiser for the kids going on a mission trip to Scotland this summer. Here’s Samantha and my Jessie (on the right) after serving the meal to 30 people. Once the clean up was done, Jessie and Nick were free to leave so we were back on the road, heading south to home. Nelson had joined us for the meal but was already home sleeping since he’d been up since 4 am.

Finally, just before 10 pm, we drove into the dry yard and unloaded the van. It sure was nice to be home.

And how was your weekend? Do anything different? Exciting? Come on, tell us...

Land of the Sleeping Giant

Okay, so here are the photos of my recent sojourn to Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Thunder Bay is known as the Land of the Sleeping Giant and this photo of him was taken from Crescent Park on High Street. You can see the calm harbour in the foreground with the rough waters of Lake Superior behind the breakwater.

This pic is what you see on the right side of the Port of Thunder Bay. It's rare to look out over the harbour and not see a freighter.

I spent many years of my childhood in this city which is a combination of the Port Arthur and Fort William. I remember when the twin cities amalgamated back in the late '60s.

I was in Thunder Bay to visit my mom and my other relatives. My mom's parents were both from Finland and came to Canada as young adults. Thunder Bay has a huge Finn population and one night, we went out for supper at the Finlandia Club where Finnish cooking is their specialty.

From left to right:

Torsti (Mom's hubby)

Mary (my mom)
Uncle Paul (Mom's bro)

Nancy (my cousin)

One night, we went to visit my brother Johnny and Cathy. Squeeky - I know I said I'd use the other photo but finally decided on this one since everyone was smiling and looking at the camera.

It was the last Sunday in Sept and we decided to go for a walk. This is the walk my mom and Torsti make every few days on a regular basis although they've been told to never walk it alone. It's 2.5 mls from the Finnish senior's housing complex they live in to Tim Horton's and back again. They've been told never to walk it alone, due to dangers posed both by 'bad' people and wolves that frequent the area feeding on the deer population. (Yikes!)

Here is the route:

We went down the road...I'm not sure what Nancy's doing...

I followed Uncle Paul, Mom and Nancy over the bridge.

There had been a heavy rain the day before and the water under the bridge flowed fast. Here you see it head under the hwy. To the left is the pedestrian tunnel under the highway.

This is the tunnel under Hwy 11/17 which is also known as the TransCanada Highway No. 1.

It was weird walking in the tunnel because you have no sense that freightliners, logging trucks and countless other vehicles are crossing over your head.

Or was it that I was so used to them, I wasn't aware of them?

I'm sure you've heard the expression 'The Light at the End of the Tunnel' well...here it is...

Walking along the path with the fast flowing water gurgling alongside.

These Mountain Ash berries were still attached to the branch but they hung in the water - bobbing along with the flow.

It was Sep 28th and plants were completing their cycle all over the place, but these Forget-me-Nots were still flowering.