The Open Road

June 30, 2017

Free as a bird on the open road...some photos from road trips near and far.

Above is the road through Fort Walsh National Historic Site in the Cypress Hills of Saskatchewan.  It was a late spring day boasting of greenery and sunshine.

October 22, 2019

A shot taken just off Highway 41 near Schuler, Alberta.  I love prairie views...big and captivating.

October 25, 2019

The post and chain fence along North Canwood Cemetery in Saskatchewan.  By the way, the hotel in Canwood serves delicious homemade burgers.  I met some friendly people who were up for a chat with a stranger too.

November 24, 2017

If you pull off the highway at Cascade, Montana and travel north you'll be rewarded with sights of natural beauty as well as the remains of an old mission.  I took this photo from the high point in Saint Peter's Mission Cemetery looking northwards.  The white crosses mark "unknown" graves that date back to 1866.

January 30, 2017

Just north of Medicine Hat, Alberta...I was out looking for nothing in particular that afternoon but the big blue sky was a never-ending display of the spectacular.

December 14, 2018

I turned off the highway north of Francis, Saskatchewan to find Christ Lutheran Church some miles down this straight and narrow road.  All of the door and window openings have been covered with steel mesh...someone wants this old beauty to last a few more years.

December 15, 2018

Just a few miles south of the Manitoba/North Dakota border on a brisk winter day.  This is Lesje Lutheran Church and is more or less near Roth, North Dakota.  The overall landscape of northwestern North Dakota looks just like this...and there are dozens of country churches in the area.

December 15, 2018

Somewhere in the vicinity of Souris, North Dakota...a power line, some snow, a gravel road and a great big sky. 

March 27, 2017

This photo was taken along the road allowance that passes by Grandview Cemetery in northern Montana.  The Sweet Grass Hills can be seen in the distance.

February 22, 2019

The former site of a pioneer school.  The Berghanson School sign is northeast of Fox Valley, Saskatchewan.  No matter which direction you choose, the view is much the same.

July 30, 2019

As above but five months later that same year...still nothing for miles and miles but the ditches have some green grass.

October 14, 2018

The plains of Vulcan County, Alberta.  The sign at the side of the road marks the former location of Marshall School.

November 19, 2019

The railway crossing at Whitepool, Alberta.  The old elevator is still standing.

January 4, 2020

Late afternoon near the crossroads at Dneiper, Saskatchewan.  The temperature was quickly dropping with the setting sun and it was time to get back to the motel.

It's always a good day out on the open road.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year!  Here are a couple of photos of the Chinese Alliance Church in Medicine Hat, Alberta.

I can remember spending Chinese New Year in Vancouver's Chinatown more than a few times.  Parades with dragons, firecrackers and lots of delicious food.  Good times.

Photographed on March 24, 2018.

CN Caboose

A CN caboose on display in Kamsack, Saskatchewan.

Photographed on January 7, 2020.

A Gopher by Any Other Name...

...is a Richardson's ground squirrel.  This one posed for the camera near Barons, Alberta.  They've really been tearing up the prairie down here in the south the past few years.

Photographed on August 22, 2018.

A Boy and His Dog

A pink marble headstone with full colour ceramic photograph at Saint Nicholas Ukrainian Orthodox Cemetery.

Everyone should have a dog.

Photographed near Drobot, Saskatchewan on December 19, 2019.

Herronton Grain Elevator

The old "Pool" grain elevator at Herronton, Alberta.

It's still in reasonably good condition.

Photographed on October 12, 2018.

Rosemount Farm

As soon as I saw this farm sign I thought of that old western film "Paint Your Wagon."

Photographed near Rokeby, Saskatchewan on January 7, 2020.

Daisy

This is Daisy.

She came to her people as a six week old puppy.  I'd never seen an Australian Shepherd puppy before...she looked pretty cute, much like a little bear with her bobbed tail.  The grandchildren were given the task of naming her..."Daisy" is a good dog name.

I take care of the trees and shrubs at Daisy's house in Medicine Hat so I'd often see her outside in the yard.  We quickly became buddies...she loved to play "fetch" and would literally jump through a hoop to retrieve a ball or other toy.  Once I learned that she needed to be taken care of for a few weeks while her people were on a cruise that winter I immediately volunteered for the job.  Soon after her second parvo shot Daisy was off to Nevada for the winter.

Move ahead a few months to late January of 2013.  We were having some harsh weather in southern Alberta at the time and I was getting a little concerned about my trip south. I don't care to travel during extreme winter conditions but then all of a sudden there was a short break and I was on my way.  There were some exciting winter driving conditions for the next few days but once I made it to Saint George, Utah I new the worst was over.

After a couple days of "reacquaintance" her people were on their way to Florida for a cruise and Daisy and I were on our own in Henderson, Nevada. We had a nice place to stay and there were a few dog parks nearby.  But...I easily get bored so I packed up the puppy and we were off on a road trip to southern California.

I'd never travelled with a puppy before but I quickly learned that it's best to stop every hour or so for a walk and a pee.  Daisy is great in the car...even though I had the air conditioner on most of the time she loved having the seat heater on.  She'd curl up and sleep on the warm seat for an hour and then she'd start to do that whistle-through-the-nose thing that dogs do.  That meant it was time for a pit stop.  We had a great time out on the road and she was just the best in hotels...no messes and no barking.

We saw a good chunk of Los Angeles (where they have the best food trucks in the world in my opinion) on the trip...Hollywood and the Hollywood Hills, Beverly Hills and Bel Air and many other places that one just hears about.  It really is a different world on the southern California coast.  Having a puppy along for the trip helped to keep me "down to earth."  Daisy saw lots of things and traveled many miles before she was a year old. She was a lucky puppy...and I was lucky to be her guardian for the time.

Zoom ahead several years to the here and now...I still take her for walks when our schedules align.  And now she has a new roommate...a border collie puppy named Jesse.  They get along fine...and they both like to play "fetch."

The above photo of Daisy was taken on November 22, 2019 while we were on a walk through Police Point Park in Medicine Hat, Alberta.

Zortman Part 4 - Turkeys

On my way back into town I spotted some wildlife.

I don't get to see wild turkeys very often so this was a treat.

American Thanksgiving was still over a month away so they were safe...at least for the moment.

Then it was off to the cafe for a homemade burger and back on the road.

I hope you enjoyed the trip through Zortman.

Photographed on October 19, 2018.

Zortman Part 3 - Cemetery in the Woods

Like the church, Zortman Cemetery is up a very steep hill but on the opposite end of town.

Above is the road to the cemetery.

A wooden fence outlines the cemetery which is up this narrow ravine.

I was surprised to see a cemetery in such a heavily wooded area.

About half way up the hill (and a lot of huffin' an' puffin' on the way up) I saw the wrought iron fence enclosure.

The owners (and close relations) of a lucrative goldmine in the Little Rockies are buried here.

I love the cast iron embellishments.

The fence is contoured to the landscape.

Nice spot for a sit down.

A few of the graves inside the fenced perimeter.

On my way back down the hill.

This is one of the Cadastral Survey markers that are placed at each of the four corners of the cemetery.  These are monuments that register the cemetery as a legal entity.  Someone was thinking ahead.

Photographed on October 19, 2018.