Closer to the mountains tomorrow

A sequel to the last post about the storms in Saskatoon. We heard on the news that the city received 84mm of rain in just three hours. It was the second highest rainfall ever recorded for the city. Flooding has been wide spread and the city is appealing to the Provincial Government for disaster assistance. More rain is due in the next couple of days. We might have to put floats on the rig to get it out of here on Sunday.
On Canada Day, Yorkton received 100mm of rain in less than 2 hours. Flooding is bad and traffic is being re-routed around the town. I’m writing this on Friday evening (hope to post tomorrow) with severe T-Storm watches on the weather radio. Thunder and lightning all around us and raining hard. On top of the rain we had the other day, this place could be a lake by tomorrow morning.
Now, to nicer things.
Spent the last two days being tourists. Drove around Saskatoon and got to know the city quite well. This place is very clean and neat. Found a major shopping mall for groceries and a couple of other things we needed. We were impressed with the staff in all stores we visited. They were polite and in most cases went out of their way to help us find what we were looking for.

We spent an interesting 1/2 day at the Wanuskewin Heritage Park. It is located about 5KM north of the city. It is a beautiful location that gives a history of the plains Indians, their lifestyle and history. The center has both static and animated displays. We were able to watch the prairie chicken dance conducted by a native Navaho (Dene) originally from Arizona. He was in full regalia and accompanied by a local drummer singer.
I had an interesting discussion with him after the performance. I had always associated the Dene clans as being northern prairie, North West Territory natives. The Navaho are a branch of the Dene Nation that moved south to Arizona centuries ago. The Dene originally came from northern Asia and crossed the ice bridge that joined North America and Asia a few thousand years ago.

Unfortunately, the heavy rains had washed out all of the interpretive trails that included small tee-pee villages, historic excavations and a lot of information on the natural environment that sustained the early natives.
There was a nice little restaurant that served a multitude of interesting items. Buffalo stew, burgers, along with bannock were some of the more interesting items. N and I opted for a bannock pizza with shaved buffalo meat, cheese and spicy tomato salsa. This 10” pizza came with a salad and fries, which I don’t think was part of the original aboriginal diets. The pizza was absolutely delicious. The crust was light and filling and had a taste all its own. Delicious!!
We are heading west on Sunday morning. We hope to meet some old friends someplace between Edmonton and Jasper on Monday or Tuesday. Then into BC and towards Kamloops.