Day 3: Edmonton to Saskatoon:

Much easier drive today, only 5 hours, well needed after yesterday's 15 hour day.  Before I left Edmonton, I took a drive through the city center.  Nothing special, but I was surprised that the city center is built on hills. Given the flatness of the surrounding prairie, I expected a flat downtown.

Stop of the day was the Ukrainian Heritage Center, just east of downtown Edmonton. The center depicts life of the Ukrainian immigrants that settled in Canada from 1890 to 1930. I learned that Ukrainians' fled  because certain classes of people had no opportunity. They came to Canada, the US and Brazil. The largest concentration of Ukrainian's outside of Ukraine is in Alberta.  The immigrants came by boat to Montreal and then by train headed west. They got off wherever, many left to earn money before continuing west.  They were given free land in Alberta and were encouraged to settle here. After World War 1 it got a lot tougher to leave Ukraine, especially if you were of military age.  Canada also made it more difficult by requiring a relative sponsor the immigrant before they would admit.  The center featured homes and stores, set up as it was during the time of settlement. Each open building, had someone playing the part of a Ukrainian immigrant, and would tell the story. Nice museum and I felt compelled to stop with what the Ukrainian's are going through today.

A note on the Canadian roads. The trans Canadian highways are not the same as the US interstates. They are two lanes in each direction and generally in good shape, but they often don't have over and under passes.  Many times the exits are just turn offs with crossings at grade level . You have to be aware of the crossings and occasionally a stop light. Speed limit seems to top out at 110 Kilometers or 68 mph, so not bad, just a little different.

Book: Still Jack Reacher novel, will be done tomorrow.

Podcast: Smartless - I keep coming back to this Podcast because I started listening on my 48 states trip and have listened to every episode.  I will say that I appreciate the feature in my car with Apple Air Play, that lets me fast forward through the commercials.  You can tell how popular a podcast is, by the number of commercials.

Song of the Day: Which Side are you on  Natalie Merchant (The song came on, just after I left the Ukrainian Center, song is about unions,) but the title was appropriate as the world needs to decide which side it's on in the conflict.

Beer of the Day: Black Bridge Brewery IPA