Thursday, August 20, 2015
We are in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. We left Maple Creek yesterday morning and
reached Regina in the afternoon. The
farther east we go, the flatter the land gets.
It looks much like Indiana, only with mostly wheat fields.
And a lot of bugs.
At the beginning of our Alaska tour, they installed a rock guard on the
front of the truck to protect the radiator.
This is what it looked like when we got to Regina yesterday.
That’s more bugs than any other portion of our trip.
Regina is the capital of Saskatchewan and the home of the
training center for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (who aren’t mounted
anymore). We visited the historic
lieutenant governor’s mansion and the RCMP Heritage Center.
The mansion was built in 1891 and is furnished in
Victorian style. It had woodwork like
Les and Charlie’s house and furniture like Becky has in her living room. It also had a beautiful portrait of Queen Victoria
that was original to the house. Her face
had a softer look than I usually see and she was wearing her tiny crown. She had the small crown made because she
suffered from migraines and the weight of the most of the crowns was just too
much.
This is a picture of Queen Victoria with her small crown
that I took off the Internet.
I’ve read that Queen Elizabeth practices wearing the
crown she wears to the opening of Parliament for several days before she has to
wear it in public, as it weighs about 12 pounds. That would take some getting used to.
Steve and I were listening to our guide and forgot to
take any pictures! But here’s a picture
of the outside.
Next up was a visit to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Heritage Center. The RCMP trains it’s
recruits in the training center next door.
It’s a six months course and it’s tough.
The Heritage Center documents their history. These two stand at the entrance to the
center.
The RCMP started as the North West Mounted Police in
1873, when the North West Territory was what is now the Yukon, North West
Territories, Alberta, Saskatchewan and additional land. They merged with other units as Canada
consolidated and now police most of Canada, except Quebec and Ontario, which
maintain their own police.
Canada is so diverse that the force has a lot of
different duties. They assume
responsibilities that the FBI and Secret Service do in the US and also provide
local policing for areas that do not have local police forces. For much of rural Canada, they are the only
police force.
If you are interested, there’s a good article at
Wikipedia.
In the lobby was a display of photographs and
artwork. I like this photo taken in
Dawson City around 1900.
It was “rapid” transportation because you could make
better progress on ice and snow than on the rough terrain with a wagon.
The other picture was this sketch called “Hero in Red
Serge” by C. Caldwell.
It’s a humorous look at the various duties a Mountie may
be called on to perform.
We’re headed off again tomorrow, with one overnight stop
before we reach Winnipeg. Steve says
we’ll be home in 3 weeks!
Deb
