Total Pageviews

Showing posts with label Saskatoon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Saskatoon. Show all posts

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Return to the Edge of Nowhere, Part II

Read Part I first!
Ah, Fuddruckers. During my university years my friends and I used to eat at the location on Edmonton's south side and provide silly names to the servers calling out orders: "Cardinal Fang, your order is ready," and so on. Perhaps such juvenile antics prompted the chain to switch to numbers, as seen in the video above.

Speaking of the video, at one point I'm standing on a sidewalk babbling about wind powers. Here's the context; seconds earlier, a pretty impressive dust devil was swirling debris into a dramatic mini-cyclone. I thought I'd stand in the middle and pretend to have mutant powers. Unfortunately, by the time we set up the camera, the dust devil petered out.

Oak Lake is a popular summer destination for Manitobans. Until this trip I hadn't visited the place for decades, and my memories of it are seen through the haze of too many intervening years. But emotional impressions can often be even more powerful than concrete memories, and when Sean and I pulled in to the park I certainly felt warm pangs of nostalgia, despite my professed ambivalence to camping.

Sean, on the other hand, enjoys camping and has often gone out to camp alone or with friends. Naturally I deferred to his greater experience when it came to cooking outdoors and setting up the tent. Cruel fate, mischievous as ever, annoyed Sean by consistently deflating his air mattress during the night. On the morning of our brief stay at Oak Lake, I asked Sean if he'd had a good rest:

"Not bad, considering I slept on a pile of rocks."

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Return to the Edge of Nowhere, Part I

When last we left the edge of nowhere, I'd failed to find the hidden valley of my youth, but promised a return. Here at last is the opening chapter of what may very well be my last journey to Leaf Rapids, Manitoba.

When Sylvia and I returned home from our trip to Leaf Rapids back in 2006, I was thrilled to have seen my old stomping grounds again, but unfulfilled because of my failure to find the sinkhole that had such an impact on my youthful imagination. So when Mom informed us that she and Dad were heading to southern Manitoba for a dedication ceremony thanking Mom's family for a lake they'd donated, I immediately envisioned a road trip to Virden for the occasion followed by one last sortie north. I asked Sean if he'd be interested in seeing the old Etsell farm and his birthplace, and he readily agreed. Early on the morning of July 18, 2009, we headed East. Not, as you'll see below, without a few complications...


(Note: there are a few shots in the video above and in those to follow that were clearly taken as I was driving - not a smart move, and not one I recommend. I'm not sure why I was so foolish - clearly I was excited about the trip, focusing more on documenting the journey than on safety. Before I do this again, I'll set up a mount for the camera so that I can drive and shoot at the same time without dangerous distractions.)