afieldnotebook

This week I drove up to northern Saskatchewan (or, further north than I am--northern Saskatchewan proper is, as I understand it, a mostly roadless expanse of ice and tundra) to attend some meetings. The meetings ostensibly have to do with my research, but mostly it's a way for me to dabble my toes in the communities where I'll be working. I like driving the roads to these out of the way towns (nearly everything in Saskatchewan is out of the way; some provincial highways are dirt roads), waiting for a grain elevator to appear on the horizon (back east, River Road was a common street name--here, it's Elevator Road). And there it is, and there's your next town.

You'll have to go inside to pay for gas in most of these towns. The roads are mostly empty, and when you see another car, it's usually a truck, and it usually hurdles past at a pace well above the speed limit. The world seems quiet and large, at once further apart and closer together. And there's your next town.