Finding my roots

Again I've left the notebook in the car. We did a LOT of driving today. It was a long haul from Saskatoon to Winnipeg.

In Saskatoon we made a brief detour to see the house my Grandma grew up in. My mom's directions had been "on 109th St., the smallest house on the street." Sure, Mom, thanks. We got there and 109th was only 3 blocks long, but there were tons of small houses. So I called my Grandma! She knew we were going on our trip but didn't know it was so soon. She gave us the address and we talked as Scott drove back along the street to the right house. Grandma talked all about the things we were passing - the school she apparently attending, the church she got married in (I'm pretty sure it's been rebuilt since the 40s, but I suppose I should have taken a picture).

Out of Saskatoon, we drove and drove and drove. Mary did pretty well again. Our goal was Yorkton for lunch, but she didn't make it. We stopped in a town called Wynyard (or something) for a Subway/diaper/pee and she slept into Yorkton, where we stopped at a park for a stretch and another diaper. It was a nice windy park and Mary had fun in the swing. The dogs had fun, too. Izzy ate some human feces she found. Yes, that's right. Human feces. We didn't discover until we got to the hotel in Winnipeg that Romeo ROLLED IN IT. They both got baths. Effing disgusting.

All through the drive we played "Shack Buggy," a modified version of Punch Buggy. We kept passing these random falling apart shacks in the middle of the prairie, so everytime one of us spotted one we'd called out "Shack!" and punch the other one in the arm. Except Scott wasn't allowed to punch hard because I have sensitive arms.

We crossed the border and I wasn't paying attention, so we didn't take the highway I wanted to so had to make a little detour later. I was heading towards Sandy Lake, the small hole-in-the-wall town where my grandfather was born and raised. We found it! First thing we passed when we turned towards the town was the cemetery, so we pulled over and walked in. Mary, as she's already written, was unusually happy and smily the entire time. I think the spirits were glad to have a baby visiting and entertained her. We were in the Catholic side first and did find a few Ellchuks. Apparently my branch of the family spells it wrong!

We crossed over to the Orthodox side (separated by a fence) and I can't describe the feeling when I found my great-grandparents graves. First I gloated. Until then Scott was being accomodating and walking through the cemetery with me, but he didn't think we'd find anything. I didn't know if we would either, as I assumed they moved to old age homes in Winnipeg or something and were buried there. When I got done gloating, we took pictures and I just felt this great confirmation of my place in the world, at least the Ukrainian side. I don't know much of anything at all about my Ukrainian roots because Grandpa never really talks about it and Dad never talks about his grandparents. Having this visual proof of where I come from, where my roots are, was pretty goddamn cool. I cried a little bit, and when I went to pick up Mary (I'd left her sitting by the gravestone "getting to know them"), she had a single tear running down her cheek. She hadn't been crying at all.

After the cemetery we drove into town and looked around. We saw both the Catholic and the Orthodox churches, passed at least three seniors centres or old age homes, the sinking boat dock, and then spotted the Ukrainian Cultural Centre Museum. They were open! The stars aligned to bring us here and I'm still processing how amazing it is that all this lined up. The museum doesn't open for the season until late June, but they were open that day only for a school group that went through in the morning. The museum attendent, a girl younger than me (she was a university student), had been bored out of her skull all day after that because no one else came in. Then this random chick from BC walks in.

We drove straight to Winnipeg after that. Got lost. Random taxi blocked the entire hotel entrance, so I bitched him out. I showered. We didn't get to eat real food and Mary took forever to fall asleep. Scott took his PoliSci test and we think he failed. We paid the extra to stay in this hotel because we needed the high speed internet for that test. Then Scott spent far too much money and made this huge order at a pizza place. It's good food, at least. It's 10pm Pacific time and midnight Winnipeg time.

I think we're going to slow down tomorrow and not go as far as we intended (Thunder Bay). We have no more hotel reservations or planned family visits until we get to the end. There's some Louis Riel stuff to see in Winnipeg, and we'll be more casual with the driving. Scott also wants to see if he can find some of his family's "stuff" he thinks exists in the area. I think he's jealous of my cool experience in Sandy Lake.