(I’m well south of that Canadian fire.)

Quick drive from Lloydminster to Fort Saskatchewan, which, true to it’s name, has a fort.  As of two years ago (rebuilt; still has that New Fort smell).  Extremely interesting.  I received a personal one-on-one tour; I appeared to be the only visitor.  Originally built in 1875 by the forerunners of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.  Not to be confused with Fort Edmonton, which was built by the Hudson’s Bay Company.  History of their hats and saddles are funny.  (There was another fort further south to combat alcohol smuggling from the United Staes. I mention it only because its name was Fort Whoop-Up.)

The site was a prison from 1914.  No walls, but it did have a hockey rink.  It’s less than ideal security caused it to have the nickname “The Sieve”.  Story goes that petty crime in the area would increase with the onset of winter.  The prison was a fine winter-over location.  There is also a period village as part of the museum that I didn’t have time to tour.

I passed a Ukrainian Heritage Museum that sadly doesn’t open until Victoria Day weekend (May 24th for those of you sadly lacking in colonial history).

Took the bike to Riverside Honda for service and new tires.  It’s now ready to go North to Alaska.  Met a couple of Goldwing owners from Goldwingowners.com: handles Budoka and edmKC.  Budoka bought my dinner, which I’ll have to reciprocate someday.  Interesting story about a well known eatery (Earls) in Canada had just been outed as buying their meat from the U.S.  Tried some lame excuses that only worsened their reputation.  As of today they’ve seen the error in their ways and have returned to Canadian beef. Too funny.

Tomorrow I visit Jasper National Park, Alberta.  Rain is forecast overnight, but I’m camping, dammit. (I may have difficulties keeping this blog up to date in the next few weeks.)