The first time I drove across the Prairies was in 1995, when I got posted with the military from Ontario to Calgary.
I had been out west a few times before, but had always travelled by plane.
I wasn’t looking forward to driving through the boring Prairie landscape.
But my brother, who had been living in Shilo, Manitoba, for many years, told me that I would be pleasantly surprised driving through the Prairies.
I wasn’t pleasantly surprised, of course, because back then I was too excited about getting to the mountains, which was my real passion.
The flatness of the Prairies was just too monotonous.
But I know now what my brother was talking about.
It took some time and a posting north of Calgary to the flatter city of Edmonton for me to see it.
The big sky and far-seeing landscape have a peacefulness that is unique.
A perfect day would be to just sit in a hammock and watch the sky all day.
The open space feels like someone has just unlocked your manacles and set you free.
I love how Canadians describe the severity of our weather.
“It was so cold, I peed ice cubes.”
“It’s a lazy man’s wind, too lazy to go around you, so it goes right through you.”
That sort of thing.
I stopped at a gas station and was chatting with a local.
I was talking about how bad the wind was a few days ago.
He said, “It was so windy that day that when my neighbour rounded the edge of the barn, he was thrown up against a wall for three days, so his wife had to feed him by shooting wieners into his mouth with a shotgun.”
Which, in my mind, is a much better way of saying “it was really, really windy”.
The highlight of my day is that I saw an albino crow.
What an adventure!
