I finally found some heat. It will be in the ’90s the next couple of days while I’m here. It feels like just last week I was in the snow.
The Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village and Museum was recommended to me by the caretaker at Wood Mountain, so I made a stop there this morning.
The story of Finnish settler Tom Sukanen leaves one with an impression that Sukanen was either a visionary or he was crazy. Sukanen was a sailor. At the age of 20, he immigrated to Minnesota where he married and had a family. He left his wife and children in 1911, walking from Minnesota to Moose Jaw to homestead with his brother.
Sukanen prospered as a farmer for 11 years, then returned home to fetch his family. Alas, his wife was gone. She either died in a fire or was in an insane asylum. The children have been placed in foster homes. The farm was in ruins.
The heartbroken settler return to Moose Jaw where he started in 1928 to build a ship, planning to sail up the Saskatchewan River to Finland. Exceptionally strong and strong-willed, he handmade the tools he needed to build the ship and boiler. He was known to carry a 100-pound sack of flour 17 miles to the farm from town.
Obsessed with the ship, he let his health slide, as well as the farm and his horses. He became the subject of jokes and name calling.
The pioneer village is cool. You can go into the buildings; they are completely furnished per the time period. In addition to the buildings, there are antique autos and farm equipment.
While in town, I tried to take advantage of the Murals walking tour. Unfortunately for me, there was a Gay Pride parade and the Main streets were blocked off for the parade. I am also hoping to take the Tunnels of Moose Jaw tour.
I did get the opportunity to have lunch at the Burger Cabin. Built in 1958, it was an actual home/cabin in what is now Wellesley Park. The food was excellent and you eat at picnic tables set out among the trees and in the garden. It was really great and I enjoyed it – very relaxing.
The campground I picked is nice, Buffalo Pound, a Regional campground on a lake, and, as it is a weekend, and there are tons of people at the boat launch and on the beach.
The only thing about the campground – the site I have has the power/water/sewer hookups on the wrong side. If I pull in the “wrong” way and park so they are even with my bays, I hang out into the road. I don’t know what the thought process was. Maybe they intended me to bring my power cord and hoses around the end of my coach, but that would have been quite a stretch. As it is, I can’t open my slide where I am because of a tree, yet have an entire long site totally empty. And it isn’t a “Canadian” thing as all RVs and trailers have the hookups on the driver’s side. Oh well.
I stopped at the local Co-Op market for groceries. They had beautiful meat; not so nice produce. Diet Coke was on sale for $8.00/12 pack - Canadian, but still ....
When I mentioned a stop in Moose Jaw I was asked if I was going to the Spa. There were signs on the lamp posts directing me to the "spa" so I decided to look it up and see what I was missing. It is Canada's largest geothermal mineral water pool.
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