We left around nine on July 6th with the first planned stop being Mundare to view the World`s Largest Keilbasa, or for those of you are are no familiar with this Ukrainian Sausage it is a Garlic Sausage, very tasty I might add. The sausage is 42 ft. high replica sausage and weights 6 tons; it is the only one of its kind in the world. The Stawnichy family set up a non-profit foundation that completed it.Although our navigation, ``Navi`` system took us on a bit of a strange start while leaving town and there was a ton of highway construction (welcome to summer in Alberta) we did eventually arrive to the cute town of Mundare. It is nicely located in the middle of town. As you have likely guessed, Mundare had(s) a strong Ukrainian Settlement; you can learn about the history in the Basilian Father`s Museum (although we didn`t take the time to stop in).
Mundare is 70Km E of Edmonton.
Only 24 Km W of Mundare is Vegreville our next stop. Vegreville is home of the World`s Largest Pysanke (Ukrainian Egg), Canada`s Largest Elk statue
(although this may have changed over the years) and `Our lady of the Highway` Shrine just off Hwy 16 (we didn`t find out about this until after our visit). Other attractions include the Main Street Sidewalk Plaques and Regional Museum, although we didn`t stop at either. History of these many attractions can be found on the Vegreville website. While the egg can be seen from the highway it is well worth the stop to get out and walk around the lovely park area.It was time for a longer stretch of the journey as we continued west towards Lloydminster, the border city. It was here that the rain began and I started to question the whole idea of camping. However, I was about to give up this easily, not yet; plus, we still had a few more stops along the way. In Lloyminster the boys stayed dry in the car, while I tired to take pictures of the World`s largest survay markers, which sit on the Alberta-Saskatchewan boarder.
It is not the easiest thing to photograph. The boys didn`t seem all that interested until I explained to them that just pass those markers we`d be in another province. So, of course we drove into Saskatchewan; okay, so maybe it was because Navi was once again taking us on another one of her strange little detours. What I didn`t realize at the time is that Lloyd is also home to the World`s/Canada`s largest Sundial, situated in Bud Miller Park.Now the question was how to get to Dewberry, and if I blink will we miss it? Navi has gotten us this far, it was time to see how well she'd do finding small towns. Well, she found it alright; however, for whatever reason she decided to take us down a bunch of dirt roads, and I mean dirt, now muddy from the rain, roads. This would not be the time to get a flat tire or to get stuck in one of the ruts; we were literally on some road in the middle of nowhere. After much laughter to help me get through the frustration and nerves of driving in this we were in Dewberry, Alberta. Yes, it is a town that we would have normally just driven through likely without much notice.
Now we just needed to find the World's Largest Chuckwagon.
Small town, should be easy. A good starting point seemed to be the local museum - closed. With the kids whining for a bathroom break, the next best option appeared to be the local store. Apparently we'd driven right by the chuckwagon on our way into town. We were told we could find it in a case/house thing in the field by the E entrance of town. Back we went - still no chuckwagon. We found the case, but I guess the wagon must have been out at some parade or local fair. We were also told that there was a tirelady in the area...no such luck with the either. We found out later that blew over in a wind storm.Two hot, tiered and crappy boys, did I dare drive further? Could I push one more stop into the day?
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