July 29

July 29, 2004

DAY 42

 

 

First song I heard on "Aboriginal Radio" this morning ; "Riding Around In Our Indian Cars". I'm beginning to like Native sense of humour.

Woke up late to another very cold ( for July ), cloudy, misty rain day. Took our time getting ready to leave as we were only about an hour away from Dauphin, where we were headed for Canada's National Ukrainian Festival. Drove North on Hwy. 10 through Riding Mountain National Park. Passed a black bear on the side of the road, and a few minutes later, a coyote. Pulled over onto the shoulder, and watched the coyote hunting in the tall grass for awhile. Amusing leaps onto his prey, whatever it was.

Arrived at the Ukrainian Festival site, about 10 km. south of Dauphin. Very well organized check in. Set up on our campsite in the fairground type camping area. Wandered around the festival site, which opens tomorrow. What a great venue ! The main stage is a 10,000 seat amphitheatre built into a hill side, with the huge stage at the bottom of the hill. From the top seats, you can see out over the top of the stage to miles and miles of farmland. Very impressive !

Decided to drive into Dauphin to check out the pre-festival street fair and dance. Arrived in town about 5:00 P.M, as the street fair was ending, and preparations for the evening's street dance were getting underway. Bad timing ! Walked a couple of blocks over to the Bank Of Montreal, to pay the MasterCard bill. Bank Of Montreal closed a few minutes ago. Bad timing getting worse ! Second month in a row that paying the MasterCard bill is turning into an ordeal.

Bought some groceries, then drove back out to the edge of town where the big mall was. Went to Wal-Mart. They didn't have what I needed. Went to Canadian Tire. They didn't have what I needed. Sheesh !

Drove back to festival site. Made supper. Walked around with the cats. Quite cold ! Friendly people. Chatted with the old Ukrainian guy from Minnesota who is here with his old Ukrainian buddy from Texas. I’ve never heard Ukrainian spoken with a Texan accent. No wonder I didn’t quite catch his welcome “Bitaemo”.

DSK