The intent of the Sunday drive was to go to Briercrest, Avonlea, Ogema, Assiniboia and home.
We were headed down Highway 39 towards Briercrest when I noticed the station on the radio was different, playing old style country.
“That’s Sirius radio,” my partner informed me. “It comes free with the car for a year.”
“Seriously!” I countered. “I like it.”
The channel playing was Willie’s Roadhouse with older singers like Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Lefty Frizzel, Dolly Parton, Tanya Tucker, Hank Williams. It was cool hearing songs we rarely hear.
My partner just grinned when I teased her about sneaking off to listen to Sirius.
We drove into Briercrest and saw how the school converted into a museum was nicely kept.
In Claybank we admired the old Catholic Church, built to withstand earthquakes.
Just down the road from Claybank I saw my first poor crop of the year — a lentil field that had flooded in many spots, killing the plants.
Seven antelope blended in nicely on one of the dead spots.
We noticed the museum was open in Avonlea as was the grocery store.
Heading south from Avonlea we saw two bad fields. One was a canola crop that hadn’t come up. The adjacent field was a mixture of weeds, canola and sunflowers — maybe the farmer had planned to summerfallow.
We arrived at the former Romanian community of Kayville, now pretty much a ghost town. The hotel and credit union are private residences. Three or four other homes are still occupied.
The 112-year-old St Peter’s and St. Paul’s Romanian Catholic Orthodox Church is still well looked after.
My partner’s injuries from a March car accident were bothering her. I decided we would head west on the gravel road and connect with Highway 37 towards Moose Jaw.
Just outside of Kayville we saw the well-cared for Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church, built in 1923.
The gravel road turned, became narrower and then was a dirt trail leading to a gravel pit. We were not going to connect with Highway 37 by going west.
After a brief exchange of words my partner, who dislikes gravel roads, decided to return exactly the way we had come.
We ran into a shower north of Briercrest and saw two rainbows. North of Briercrest two antelope on a side road grazed while we watched.
Total time: four hours. The route took the Trans-Canada east to Highway 39, south to Highway 339, then south of Avonlea to Kayville.
Ron Walter can be reached at [email protected]
