For years I used to complain to my dad that
he had taken the boys on vacation and I had never had one, ever. As I got older I may have reduced the amount
of times I hinted at my impoverished childhood lacking a vacation but one day
to my incredible surprise Dad said he would take me on a one day vacation. Really?
What would this entail?
I had already graduated from university
and we were living in Calgary at the time when Dad decided that we should go on
a vacation. At the last minute my middle
brother was invited along on the road trip.
We drove south, we just kept on going and as I was completely illiterate
on possible destinations I paid no attention to where we were going. At some point we must have turned westward
because suddenly we were in hilly, tree lined areas. We began to notice signs that read “Texas
gate ahead” but we never saw any gates so wondered out loud how old the signs
were. Once we came upon a sign that said
“Pekisko” which was supposed to be a village.
There were exactly three buildings there, a church, a house and what was
once a post office. It was a genuine
ghost town.
Eventually we came to “Cartwright’s
Ranch” which turned out to be of some historical interest as it used to be
owned by the Prince of Wales (a.k.a. Edward VIII) back around 1920. We ended up eating our lunch there on a stone
picnic table that was nestled under a huge tree. We didn’t know if we were trespassing or not
but there was not a soul around so we enjoyed ourselves. Once lunch was eaten we headed back to
Calgary by way of back country roads (I think my dad was lost).
Today I know this area like the back of
my hand as we were in the Nanton, Okotoks, Turner Valley area but back then it
was just “country”. Little did I know
that my “vacation” would turn into a “vocation” in only a couple of years.
No comments:
Post a Comment