Today is Day #34 of The Road To Valour
Finally a sunny day with a tailwind. Yahoo! Unfortunately, this is a very short day into Moose Jaw.
| The Stats | Today | Total (so far) |
|---|---|---|
| Distance (km) | 34.3 | 2015.0 |
| Climb (m) | 127 | 13e,767 |
On today’s ride I was joined by:
- Ernie MacDonald
Stops along the Way
Stop 1
LCol D.V. Currie, VC Armoury
One of the main reasons for stopping in Moose Jaw was to pay tribute to David Vivien Currie, VC. Currie spent much of his youth in Moose Jaw.
He earned the Victoria Cross for his efforts on 18 August 1944 to capture and hold the village of St Lambert-sur-Dives during the fighting to block the escape route of large German forces cut off in the Falaise pocket. Leading a small force of tanks, infantry and anti-tank guns, but with no supporting field artillery fire, he organized an attack on the village and succeeded in seizing and consolidating a position half-way inside it. For 36 hours Currie’s force repeatedly thwarted attempts by German tanks and infantry to force a way through the village by counterattacking the Canadians. Finally, Major Currie and his men renewed their attack and drove the enemy out of St Lambert-sur-Dives, completing the capture of the village. His force had inflicted 800 casualties on the Germans and taken 2,100 prisoners.
When we arrived at the Armoury, we met with the Commanding Officer of the Saskatchewan Dragoons, Major Paul Park. After a quick discussion, he had to leave, but promised to join us for a ride the next morning.
He left us in the capable hands of Greg Palmer’s, the curator of the Regimental Museum. The museum is under development with many of the artifacts in storage. Greg said that as he put out a request for relevant artifacts to the community. What he has received is a mass of items that not only relate to the Regimental history, but the overall history of Moose Jaw and the surrounding area. It will take a long while to sort through everything.
Stop 2
Rotary Club of Moose Jaw Wakamow
After lunch and a quick rest at the hotel (we decided that with the early start to the following day and the threat of more rain, a cheap hotel was appropriate). it was time to meet up with the Rotary Club of Moose Jaw Wakamow for their year ending meeting at the home of one of the members, Dave Bowler.
Following the steak dinner that was barbecued by several club members, outgoing President of the club, Sonja Susin, attended to the end of year business that included the induction of a new member to the club. Then she introduced me and gave me the opportunity to talk about The Road To Valour, its purpose and progress so far. There was time for questions. These ranged from the standard “How far do you ride in a day?” to “Is there a support vehicle with you?” Of course, given the bad weather experienced on the prairies over the past few weeks, there was a lot of interest in the conditions that we rode though.
After the dinner and talk, as people started to leave, the generosity of Rotary club member came out. I received several hundred of dollars in cash donations along with the promise of more in online donations. Rotarians are very generous people.
Riding The Road To Valour
The Road To Valour 