On the way — An Elegant Sufficiency

We’d stayed overnight in Lloydminster, which was about half way from Saskatoon to Edmonton, just inside Alberta.

Unusually and possibly for the first time this trip, our room didn’t overlook a car park but a green field!

Not only that, but hearing the unmistakeable sound of the railroad, my Hero realised he could enjoy a little train spotting from our room too!

No time to stay though, for we had miles to go yet (km actually, since we’re in Canada!)

We had replenished the nibbles when we were filling up the car this morning and off we went, fired by gummi bears and jelly babies.

It wasn’t long before we passed the first grain elevator here in Alberta, (painted green, not Saskatchewan red).

We saw many many more during the day, though that was the only old wooden one we passed. All the others were the modern replacements.

Our road trips frequently include the weird and wonderful and as we’ve driven along railway lines during the last two weeks, we’ve noticed that occasionally, a road vehicle appears to be driving along the rails. This morning, as we turned off the Trans Canada Highway, we noticed one coming towards us, so I grabbed my camera. Curious, n’est-ce pas?! (As long as there isn’t a train coming!)

We had left the highway at Vegreville, where there’s a large Ukrainian community. The doors to the Tourist Office had been painted to reflect that, as was the door to the Ladies loo.

Of course, we hadn’t come here just to see a couple of doors, had we? Not at all!

We had come to see the World’s Largest Pysansky egg! There it was, spinning on its stand…we looked, we photographed and we left!

Thank you Vegreville.

Following along the Yellow Highway on the map, our next planned stop was going to be Mundare, where there was another “World’s Largest”. Perhaps you can guess what it is from the feature photo today? Or the marker on the map above?

Mundare has claim to the World’s Largest (replica) Sausage! Perhaps someone else claimed the World’s Largest (real) Sausage? I might add that we were a little underwhelmed by this. Well, it’s hard to get excited by a loop of concrete, isn’t it?

Rejecting a detour to see the World’s Largest Pierogi, we continued on our way to a “real” reason to stop and take a look.

The Elk River National Park was accessible right off the highway and seemed a great way to spend a couple of hours.

Here, it was possible to see Elk, White Tailed Deer, Mule Deer, Plains Bison, Wood Bison, and Moose.We might also see beavers and other wild creatures too. (We learned that we were unlikely to see any Wood Bison, since they were in the section on the other side of the Highway, but hey, we’ve still got the Big 5.

Come on! Let’s go.

Sydney, the Ranger, explained where we were most likely to see bison, so we turned off the main artery road onto a small loop. Did we see anything? No.

Along the way, we peered into the ponds and the woods around them for anything taking a drink, or hiding in the trees. Did we see anything? Well, beyond the odd animal shaped tree trunk, no.

Then I spotted the water moving…ripples…was there something there?

Well yes. A couple of ducks. No beavers. or anything more exciting.

We decided to get out of the car and take a little walk along the boardwalk by the pond. Maybe we’d see something more easily like that.

We hadn’t got very far though, before it began to rain. Grrr.

We jumped back into the car and continued to look but also noticed the sky, which wasn’t looking so great.

Maybe it was time we were heading on into Edmonton. It was unlikely that we were going to see anything now, but we’d enjoyed our afternoon here regardless of that.