Around 50 years ago shortly before my partner and I married, her father dropped off a set of car keys.
It was, he informed her, to be her car to be paid off at $5 a week until the $500 was paid to a family friend.
The English-built Anglia wasn’t made for the hills around Moose Jaw and Yours Truly never mastered the complicated stick shift, but it made us a lot more mobile.
One of the first trips we took was on Highway 363 southwest of Moose Jaw through the hills, past the potholes, shrubs and Prairie wool.
This country reminds me of parts of the Southern Alberta from my early years.
The drive down 363 past Old Wives Lake proves Saskatchewan is not just flat Prairie.
The potholes and the shallow sloughs are usually full of ducks; Prairie song birds fly about and we’ve seem antelope, deer and once, elk.
For the photographer, vacant farmsteads are subject matter.
The drive leads to a turn-off at the Francophone communities of Courval and Coderre, once bustling little towns; now with neat houses and few services. Coderre has a hotel with bar and grill opening at 11 a.m.
From Coderre, the trip can go straight west on gravel to meet with paved Highway 58, or the drive can go back on 363 pavement to the junction with 58.
Caution: Highway 363 has some rough spots; 58 has an abundance of them.
South on 58 leads to Gravelbourg, where the old buildings — co-cathedral, court house, bishop’s residence, convent, the late Dr. Soucy’s slate covered home and others are of interest.
If you’re in need of nourishment, the Cafe Paris serves delightful light meals. Three other eateries offer varied choices.
The town has several shopping places with a unique one at Style’s just down the street from the Paris.
From Gravelbourg, the trip can return on Highway 58 via gravel from 363 to Chaplin on the Trans-Canada Highway. This drive north takes you through the hills and farmland, skirting Chaplin Lake and the shorebirds.
Another route from Gravelbourg south goes to Lafleche, with an indoor shopping mall and cathedral, east on Highway 13 to Assiniboia and north on Highway Two to Moose Jaw.
For better chances of seeing wildlife take an early morning or late afternoon/early evening drive. As the poet Noel Coward said: “Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.”
Estimated driving time: four to five hours.
Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
