The Great Rectangle: Devon / Leduc Transportation Corridor

Subject: Important New Flash

https://www.devon.ca/Government/News-Publications/Community-News/community-bus-officially-named-folkswagon

Ain’t that cute!
UC#1

Hey, UC#1. It would be fun if they listed the names that weren’t selected!

ChatGPT helped us with some alternate names:

The Devon Dash

The Dizzy Doodlebug

The Bouncing Banana (what?)

Devon Delight Express

Bussy McBusBus

The Devon Cozy Commuter

The Devon Wacky Wagon

Devon sounds like a great stop for the WLBOTT tour, and the public library looks nice. Do you have any buffet recommendations?

Question: the bus has special trips to Leduc. Is that for the airport shuttle, or is there some other connection?

I’m guessing the locals call the trip to Leduc “The Great Rectangle.” Is there a preferred route? Does the 2-minute extra drive provide better scenery?
UC#4

Thanks for the list of bus names. My personal choice was “Busted”.

Having never ridden on the “Folkswagon”, I can’t speak as an expert about the route. But no, it is not an airport shuttle, that would cut into the free enterprise mile-long (1.6 Km) line of taxicabs and ubers that wait at the airport with their engines idling.

No, I have never heard the term “great” used in conjunction with anything related to either Devon or Leduc. Except, perhaps, the reaction when someone is informed that they are going to Devon. “Great, just what I always wanted! Can’t I have some teeth pulled out instead?”

The “Scenic Route” that you refer to brings you South of Devon on Highway 60, past the “Leduc #1” exhibit at the Canadian Energy Museum where you can see the original oil rig that used to be located next to highway 2 on the way into Edmonton but was relocated, piece by piece, to Devon a few years ago. Devon was instrumental in the development of the “burning dinosaurs” industry that is responsible for bringing you those warm Texas summer evenings. Leduc didn’t want all those dirty, smelly oil-rig workers messing up their town, so Imperial Oil built Devon for them.

Next stop is the oil collection station where they frequently have a “waste gas” flare to burn off the butane that nobody wants now that everybody switch from cigarettes to vaping.

As you continue south on Hwy 60, you pass several scenic oil pumps, dutifully going up and down, 24-7 to pump that valuable commodity.

Finally, after 10 Km of following semi’s (Hwy 60 is the bypass route that truckers use to avoid driving through Edmonton), you arrive at the smallest radius traffic circle ever built. Does Texas have traffic circles?

[ed. note: the Texas legislature has banned the teaching of circles in public schools.]

Which brings me to my roundabout story. When I lived in England, I had the unfortunate experience of driving through Swindon where I experienced first-hand (right-hand? They drive on the wrong side of the road over there) the “Magic Roundabout”

As I approached Swindon, I headed into the roundabout (which at that time featured a full time traffic-cop presence), made several turns and ended up heading back the way I came – away from Swindon. So I got myself turned around and headed into Swindon again, only to find myself heading away from Swindon on another highway. Not being one to give up, I tried a third time and this time found myself — you guessed it! Heading away from Swindon again.

So I drove an extra 50 Km and found another highway that bypassed Swindon entirely and to this day, I have never been in Swindon.

But I digress. Back to the scenic route between Devon and Leduc. As you navigate the traffic circle, taking the 3rd exit, per my GPS, you end up eastbound on Highway 39 where you can see, well, nothing. There is nothing of interest on Highway 39. Nothing. Nada.

After 10 km, you enter Leduc and eventually arrive at the Leduc Common mall, featuring Canadian Tire, Tim Hortons, Tommy Gun’s Original Barbershop and a variety of other box stores and restaurants.

A bit further on is beautiful downtown Leduc with more shops and the rather frequent sound of big jets on final for YEG, flying low enough that you can almost see the door-bolts coming loose on the 737’s.
[ed. note: “When one door closes, another door opens.” – Boeing]

Eventually the bus winds its way north on 50 St until it gets to highway 19 where it heads west back to Devon, passing the RAD Torque Raceway (all lit up with Christmas lights in the winter) and the Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church, after which there is again, absolutely nothing of interest.

My theory is that the bus route is designed so that, except for the final bits of the return trip, the Folkswagon always turns left.

First sign of spring today: a robin, frozen in the mud. We had rain overnight and now the highways are all frozen skating rinks.

Oh, sorry, you Texans might not know what ice is. Let me know if you have trouble looking it up on Wikipedia.^[1]
UC#1

^[1] Ice

Ice is water that is frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 °C, 32 °F, or 273.15 K. As a naturally occurring crystalline inorganic solid with an ordered structure, ice is considered to be a mineral.
[ed. note: Beware the Ice IX]

Wikipedia / Images By Cmglee – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0Sharon Mollerus – Ice Block, Canal Park, Duluth, CC BY 2.0

The Great Rectangle

Scenes from the Northern Passage

Holy Trinity Parish – Парафія Пресвятої Трійці

LEDUC (RABBIT HILL) – HOLY TRINITY Parish – Парафія Пресвятої Трійці

Location: 8 km. from the Leduc train station and 13 km. northwest from the town of Leduc.

The first Ukrainian settlers in the area came in 1900-1912 from the district of Yaroslav (Jaroslaw) in Ukraine. The first church was built in 1900, and at that time the locality was known as Rabbit Hill. The first services were held in 1902 by Fr. Sozont Dydyk, OSBM, who resided in Rabbit Hill and Rosthern, Sask., and took care of the surrounding area, including Edmonton, until 1906….The total area of the church grounds is 22 acres. Being 23 km. from Edmonton, the parish has been attended by St. Basil the Great since 1917. The Gregorian calendar has been in use since 1945.
Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Edmonton