There’s a song running through my head that tells listeners to “verify.”
I’m sure the singer didn’t have tourism in mind while he sang but I’d like to add “by telephone” to the plea, making it “verify by telephone.” There’s no rhythm or syntax to that phrase but it covers at least one octave of traveller frustration.
While it is usually exciting to come upon little-known-about attractions while traversing the off-highway roads of the province, a pre-planned trip isn’t the kind where surprises will be met pleasantly and with a shrug of the shoulder that a journey was wasted because we didn’t verify.
We did our diligent research before we left home to visit a community museum located in a small town close to the Blackstrap Lake and the lonely mountain standing nearby.
I read all about the museum and what it entailed and agreed with Housemate that we should visit there on the following Sunday. I went onto the museum’s online presence to check out the hours of operation, the address and what we could expect to see on the museum grounds. Even I was excited by what I read.
We learned, from several online sites that the museum is open weekends and holidays until Sept. 30. After that an appointment for viewing is required. Several sites, including Tourism Saskatchewan, repeated that information.
So off we went on a Sunday adventure to learn about the community’s history and to look at artifacts enclosed in the two museum buildings. After lunch in an interesting cafe, we sought the museum and got lost a few times before asking directions from a gas station attendant.
And sure enough, there was the museum. It look deserted and I noticed a lock on one of the buildings. There was a sign on a door referring to a coming Labour Day Weekend hours. We drove around the block and came back, thinking maybe we had missed the main entrance. Housemate tried the door and it was definitely locked, mid-day on this Sunday afternoon, refuting claims online that it would be open.
Because there were no other potential visitors anywhere in sight, I wondered if they had done what we hadn’t: verified by telephone to make sure what was written online was still accurate.
We were disappointed and annoyed that we wasted a beautiful Sunday afternoon driving some distance to visit the closed museum that had garnered many complimentary reviews from visitors who actually made it through the door.
Will we return? Unlikely, on purpose, but if we were in the area again, we might try our luck at finding the museum open on a weekend, as advertised. I have the phone number to verify.
But what about those billboards the week before in another community that advertised a Ukrainian buffet on one side of the street and a Chinese buffet across the road. We agreed the Ukrainian buffet sounded interesting and we just happened to be in town on one of the days when the buffet was open — according to the signage and website. The doors were locked to us and others waiting in the parking lot. Upon inquiring at a neighbouring outlet, we learned the buffet is closed. We should have verified.
So what about the Chinese buffet? We drove across the street and read the sign on the door: “closed for an appointment.”
The museums involved in this trip were both open, on time, and we enjoyed seeing what had been described in online information.
Verification not done, but not needed on those occasions. Now if I could just get that line from an obscure song out of my head.
Joyce Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
