Southern Saskatchewan Trip June 2009 - 6 Wood Mountain
Posted 07-01-2009 at 12:52 AM by bolerama
After leaving Cypress Hills and passing through Eastend, our destination was Wood Mountain -- an odd name, since this is one of the few natural grassland preserves in Canada. No trees, but gorgeous biodiversity in plant and wildlife. We wanted to stop at a place near Grasslands National Park--Canada's newest national park.
We arrived at Wood Mountain Regional Park near supper time. We were distracted by an incident that had just occurred (I'll explain that below...), when a man walked up to our Jeep and said, "Hey, what is this? A Wally Byam meet?" We just looked puzzled and gave a lame chuckle, thinking he was just referring to our Airstream. The man continued, "There are only 3 trailers here, and we're all Airstreams!" We were so surprised and excited. He told us where his unit and the other were parked, so we headed down there too.
This is all very surprising, because Wood Mountain is a very very very small village (if it even has village status). It has one service -- a quaint restaurant-- but nothing else (no grocery store, no gas station, no convenience store). Pretty much, you can truly get away from civilization there; just don't run out of gas! However, 3 Airstreams made it there! All strangers, but now friends! It really goes to show that Airstreamers don't travel the same path as others do. We must look for adventure where others don't. Well, not quite...look at the picture of the crashed SOB we saw! THe only thing somewhat salvageable was the olive green fiberglass bathroom.
We unhitched in time before the storm rolled in. We waited it out inside, but our view of two gorgeous Airstreams made our hunger pangs go away. The thunderstorm didn't last long, so we were able to set up the bbq and then meet our new neighbours. One couple was from Ontario and the other was from Regina Saskatchewan. We also got tours of their units. Wow! Impressive. Plus, we got some advice about storage and such. You see, we've only had our unit for one year, but we have become "experts" (HA!) for newer owners in our hometown. We were so happy to talk to seasoned Airstreamers.
Now back to the story --the incident-- that distracted us before we arrived at Wood Mountain. The temperature was 100F. Shortly before we got to Wood Mountain, we came across an animal crossing the road. We both said, "What was that?!" It was black, fuzzy, walking aimlessly. Not only was it so hot, it was extremely windy. We passed by, and saw that it was a puppy--a black poodle puppy! We became worried about it out in the hot desert. My husband was able to bring the trailer to a stop on this narrow road (no need to worry about being hit...we hadn't seen a car in an hour). We started calling to the pup, but the wind just blew our words back at us. We got back into the Jeep, but felt sick about the pup. (We are animal lovers). We decided to keep going forward until we could find a place to turn around, and then headed back to the pup. We found him/her and brought the trailer to a stop again. I was able to catch the pup, tongue lolling, looking rough. We blasted the AC to lower his temperature. Just then, we saw a vehicle heading toward us. We waved down the driver and told him about the pup and asked if there was anyone we could alert. We would take the pup with us, but the owner could find us at that campground. Well, the man said that further down the road was a farm and the post-mistress lived there. She'd be the best person to leave the message with. So off we headed. We easily found the farm, since it was the only one we saw. The post-mistress said, "Oh. That's my grandsons' dog. He must have missed them and came over from their farm," and she waved in a general direction, where we saw NO farms. The grandsons (aged 10-ish) didn't seem so excited about getting their pup back. The woman expected me to put the pup on the ground, but I put him/her in her arms and said that the pup needs water and to have his/her body cooled down. Then my husband explained about how useful collars and ID tags are...she seemed to never have thought about that. It was all so strange and so sad. We didn't feel like we had done a good deed at all. I wonder if the pup made it through the night. Poodles aren't your typical farm-dogs. Later, we heard unfavourable reports about the post-mistress. She's a bit of a cheapskate. I wonder if it wasn't really her grandkids' dog. Such a good looking young pup. Such a pathetic welcoming for it. It broke my heart.
We arrived at Wood Mountain Regional Park near supper time. We were distracted by an incident that had just occurred (I'll explain that below...), when a man walked up to our Jeep and said, "Hey, what is this? A Wally Byam meet?" We just looked puzzled and gave a lame chuckle, thinking he was just referring to our Airstream. The man continued, "There are only 3 trailers here, and we're all Airstreams!" We were so surprised and excited. He told us where his unit and the other were parked, so we headed down there too.
This is all very surprising, because Wood Mountain is a very very very small village (if it even has village status). It has one service -- a quaint restaurant-- but nothing else (no grocery store, no gas station, no convenience store). Pretty much, you can truly get away from civilization there; just don't run out of gas! However, 3 Airstreams made it there! All strangers, but now friends! It really goes to show that Airstreamers don't travel the same path as others do. We must look for adventure where others don't. Well, not quite...look at the picture of the crashed SOB we saw! THe only thing somewhat salvageable was the olive green fiberglass bathroom.
We unhitched in time before the storm rolled in. We waited it out inside, but our view of two gorgeous Airstreams made our hunger pangs go away. The thunderstorm didn't last long, so we were able to set up the bbq and then meet our new neighbours. One couple was from Ontario and the other was from Regina Saskatchewan. We also got tours of their units. Wow! Impressive. Plus, we got some advice about storage and such. You see, we've only had our unit for one year, but we have become "experts" (HA!) for newer owners in our hometown. We were so happy to talk to seasoned Airstreamers.
Now back to the story --the incident-- that distracted us before we arrived at Wood Mountain. The temperature was 100F. Shortly before we got to Wood Mountain, we came across an animal crossing the road. We both said, "What was that?!" It was black, fuzzy, walking aimlessly. Not only was it so hot, it was extremely windy. We passed by, and saw that it was a puppy--a black poodle puppy! We became worried about it out in the hot desert. My husband was able to bring the trailer to a stop on this narrow road (no need to worry about being hit...we hadn't seen a car in an hour). We started calling to the pup, but the wind just blew our words back at us. We got back into the Jeep, but felt sick about the pup. (We are animal lovers). We decided to keep going forward until we could find a place to turn around, and then headed back to the pup. We found him/her and brought the trailer to a stop again. I was able to catch the pup, tongue lolling, looking rough. We blasted the AC to lower his temperature. Just then, we saw a vehicle heading toward us. We waved down the driver and told him about the pup and asked if there was anyone we could alert. We would take the pup with us, but the owner could find us at that campground. Well, the man said that further down the road was a farm and the post-mistress lived there. She'd be the best person to leave the message with. So off we headed. We easily found the farm, since it was the only one we saw. The post-mistress said, "Oh. That's my grandsons' dog. He must have missed them and came over from their farm," and she waved in a general direction, where we saw NO farms. The grandsons (aged 10-ish) didn't seem so excited about getting their pup back. The woman expected me to put the pup on the ground, but I put him/her in her arms and said that the pup needs water and to have his/her body cooled down. Then my husband explained about how useful collars and ID tags are...she seemed to never have thought about that. It was all so strange and so sad. We didn't feel like we had done a good deed at all. I wonder if the pup made it through the night. Poodles aren't your typical farm-dogs. Later, we heard unfavourable reports about the post-mistress. She's a bit of a cheapskate. I wonder if it wasn't really her grandkids' dog. Such a good looking young pup. Such a pathetic welcoming for it. It broke my heart.
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