Somewhere on the road
It’s still cold up in the hills.
Tag Archives: photos
Hoodoo you think you are
A hoodoo is a rock formation caused by differential erosion, i.e., parts of it are harder/softer than other parts, thus causing the softer parts to erode more quickly. In the Milk River Valley, sandstone hoodoos predominate, having been exposed for 15,000 years or more since the last ice age.
The Blackfeet believed that the Milk River hoodoos were home to powerful spirits. Plentiful game and berries ensured that this area was a seasonal migration stop for both the Blackfeet and Shoshone, as well as perhaps others.
Derby girls rock!
I was fortunate enough to show up at a derby demo earlier today, and I was impressed. Those girls are something else to see.
If you’ve ever watched a derby girl close-up doing her thing, you’ll fall instantly in love. Who else could be graceful, tough, agile and quick – not to mention good-looking – while banging out a member of the opposing team? How they keep it all together while slamming each other around a flat track is beyond me.
The costumes are outrageous. Torn fish-net stockings. Mini-skirts. Tank tops. Tube tops. Stay-ups. Make-up is grossly exaggerated to match the clothing – with a look from girl-next-door* to naughty* to virgin*.
Yes, they’re wearing elbow pads, knee pads, helmets and gloves while getting slammed onto the floor or into the railing. Not so tough, you think? Just watch them compare bruises before the match.
Did I mention that those girls can skate too?
In my next life, I want to date a derby girl. She’s got it all goin‘ on.
Oh, yeah, there were also some guys wearing skates, but who the hell cares about them?
*For characterization purposes only. I would never impugn the character of any woman, no matter how she appears.
Head-smashed-in
Before the Egyptian pyramids, before Stonehenge, North American Indians drove buffalo herds to their death over prairie cliffs.
Medicine women and men performed rituals to ensure a bountiful hunt. Young runners disguised under animal skins were sent out to find and herd the animals toward the cliffs.
As the buffalo were herded down the narrowing lanes by the runners, and kept from dispersing by stone cairns along the edges of the run, hunters would jump out at the base of the run to keep the panicked animals running towards the cliff edge.
After falling, most were only stunned or wounded. Hunters below the cliffs would kill the survivors to keep them from escaping and warning other herds of the trap, or so it was believed.
The dried meat was used to prepare pemmican, but the remainder of the animal was used for tools and hides, leaving almost no part of the animal unused.
The Whiskey Gap
From 1916 and for the following eight years of Alberta’s prohibition, whiskey flowed through the gap in the Milk River range like water over a dam. Not to be outdone, during America’s prohibition, it flowed in the opposite direction. Now, all that remains is a historical plaque – that, and the fact that the Whiskey Gap still stands on the watershed between the Gulf of Mexico and Hudson Bay.
Where once a railway branch reached out, a store was built, elevators constructed, and to where wheat was hauled for shipping, nothing remains but a vast expanse of empty, wheat-growing prairie wilderness, punctuated by the occasional farm enterprise.
What buildings remained have been removed to Del Bonita, across the Milk River and 12 miles to the east, where a store and post office are in the same building and still serves the local area.
The queen of scream
The Fay Wray Fountain in Cardston, Alberta was built after a visit by Fay in 1962. Fay provided the money after being sent a check by festival organizers to cover her costs for attending. She mailed the check back, and the town built the fountain with the proceeds.
Fay lived on a ranch about 15 miles from Cardston. At the age of three, her family moved south to America, where her mother had been born.
This is obviously a publicity photo, but she certainly was cute.
Geography class
Updated below.
The Precambrian Shield is 4.5 billion years old and is largely granite and gneiss, earth’s oldest rock. Glaciation scraped the rock clean of most surface debris over the millennia as it moved back and forth, exposing bare rock and lake-filled hollows. Thin soil lies on top of bedrock, while there are many bare rock outcrops, all of this caused by the last ice age, some six to 15,000 years ago, depending on location.
Originally the shield was a region of large mountains and volcanic activity, but subsequent to that the area eroded. Rock that forms the Shield surface was once far below the surface, and pressure and temperature at depth created the many minerals in the rocks.
Since the last ice age, the area has become covered with a thick boreal forest of coniferous and deciduous trees. Mining and logging are common now. Shield country is a common home to single-industry towns of either pulp and paper or mining, or a combination of the two. Hunting and fishing are favorite activities of the local residents.
Moose are well-known to populate the Shield. If you or someone you know has ever hit a deer with a car, you’ll know what damage they do. Moose, which can weigh over 2,000 pounds, are known to bring semi-transports to their knees, and will destroy a mere automobile.
Both deer and moose are common sights along the roads, but particularly in early morning or late evening they can be seen on the shoulders or slightly off-road in the ditches. Keeping an eye to those areas could mean the difference between safe passage and a tow truck.
Shield country rapidly flattens and tapers off towards the plains and it isn’t long before the prairie breadbasket is glistening under the blue sky. Here deer are the prevalent road hazard, but their small size and stature limit a lot of the damage they can do to a vehicle. Transports don’t even blink a headlight when they encounter a deer.
Once out on the bald prairie I find the landscape to be extremely boring, but I’m always quick to discover places to stop. Granny’s Saskatoonberry pie with a scoop is a welcome relief following mile after endless mile of wheat, and Shae’s Ice Cream Oasis is the perfect place for taking a well-deserved break.
Unfortunately, on my most recent early morning drive-by it was closed.
Update August 2010: Shea’s has been closed. No idea why. It was a great little place to stop, enjoy some ice cream and talk to the owner about farming.