We were on the road again feeling like gypsies.
It was a long weekend with a destination of Lloydminster, supposedly to check out to the new Gold Horse Casino, really an excuse to travel.
Up Highway 42 past Elbow and through Outlook we drove, noting the progress of seeding operations.
Lunch was at Rosetown; our mouths watering at the thought of the food and home-made pie at that little cafe next to the Esso.
Sadly, the cafe is no longer open. We had to settle for A&W, but none of that tasteless beyond meat stuff.
To the north of Rosetown, the Bear Hills seemed higher in the distance. Our path led west to Kindersley and north through Kerrobert.
The car radio was on CJWW, listening to country classics. Hits from 1973 were featured, bringing back memories of youthful days.
Later when they played Galveston sung by Glenn Campbell, my partner recalled the baton judge from Galveston at the Kinsmen Band Festival that year and how she was teased that Campbell wrote the song for her.
We drove by a neat small heritage village at Kerrobert: mental note to visit some day.
Lots of oil wells in the country up to Lloydminster. Some 40-acre fields have five or six wells. The inconvenience of farming around them is less hassle at $5,000 a pop per well annual surface rights rental.
Most of the oil is heavy oil supplying upgraders at Lloydminster, Regina and the asphalt refinery in Moose Jaw.
We came across a large lake called Muddy Lake, likely because of the dark brown colour. Overlooking the lake is a cool eyebrow ring of hills and exposed bluffs.
Lloydminster has sure grown. Our hotel is on the south end of town. My partner chose it for the multiple stay discount, asking if the seniors' or motor club discount was also available.
“Nice try,” said the desk clerk. “You never know until you ask,” countered my partner of almost 50 years.
The Gold Horse Casino is spacious. Yours Truly takes his $20 and heads for the unoccupied one of four penny slots.
Two plays and an $80 win comes up. Yours Truly notices the unoccupied of four penny slots is actually a $1 machine. I take my money and run to a nickel machine.
By the time we go for delicious pickerel and lake trout supper at the grille we won enough to more than pay for our two-day trip.
Next morning, we went south on a highway hugging the Saskatchewan border viewing the picturesque hills. A neat just restored white church drew our attention.
In Kerrobert, I stop for a bathroom break, spying what appeared to be the orange vanilla Coke my partner wants to try. I should have read labels closer. It was dreadful vanilla Zero Coke.
The Journey slows when we see a rotting old wooden silo next to an old barn with a pulley out front for the sling to move loose hay into the loft.
We take a different route through Plato, Elrose and White Bear. My partner asks why.
“You’ve wanted to see a bear all trip, now you will,” I reply.
Down through Saskatchewan Landing to Swift Current we drive, noticing how much greener the grass is in the south. That late snow sure helped the grass get greener.
Ron Walter can be reached at [email protected]
