Pirates of Saskatchewan

The Canadian comedy band the Arrogant Worms wrote a song about the Pirates of Saskatchewan as a joke. SK is about as far as you can get away from the sea. However, the mighty Saskatchewan river flows through Regina and though my geography is shaky, I know there is more than one great river in the province.

Laura and I drove along the long country roads singing along to this song much of the way to Rolleau (Dog River). (Apparently if I had a pirate name it would be Shark Bait, because I'm an Aussie).

On the way we went through Moosejaw, which apparently was a centre for Al Capone's bootlegging during the Prohibition years. It really did have a 1920-30s feel to the town. We stopped at the Giant Moose on the outskirts of town long enough to take some photos. My favourite, (unfortunately not in my collection) is Laura lying flat on the ground in front of it as if knocked out by a giant hoof.

Before we could get to a fake Gas Station from a TV show, real petrol became necessary and we stopped at a father-and-son style gas station in the area. Pops came out to fill up the tank and we both had a chat to him. He was relieved to find out Laura was not a Canadian from Ontario because "City Folk think their s**t don't stink" and was tickled by the story of how Laura and I became friends from Quebec city to Calgary.

I think it came as a surprise to quite a few folks that we would go all the way from our home countries to Calgary and then drive up to 9 hours each way for a weekend in the middle of nowhere. When I went in to pay for the petrol, the 16 yr old son lost all his polite and disinterested service staff manners when he asked me where we were from.

"Wagga Wagga Australia and Waco, Texas"
"Jesus!"
"Nah mate, just a couple of angels. Have a good day".


At Rolleau, we did find we were the first tourists for the day. This did not last long as a family of 4 generations of Nova Scotians turned up at the outdoor set.

There's no escaping Nova Scotians. They are passionate abut Maritime life but it doesn't stop them from spending time everywhere else in Canada. In this particular family, the adult son had recently graduated from the RCMP training school in Regina and his wife, his son, his parents and his grandmother were all in SK to make a weekend of it. Laura and I offered to take some group photos of the family on their cameras and the grandmother took a fancy to me, having travelled Australia. I was able to validate her claims to the family that yes, the spiders are most certainly that "big and scary".

Laura's suggestion that I have a photo taken with the Mountie graduate was met with an instant veto from me based on the polite and silent disapproval on his wife's face. Besides, he wasn't in uniform (My desire to get a photo of a real live Mountie was bordering on obsession until I saw them recently in the Calgary Stampede Parade).

Laura and I headed into town for a sandwich lunch at the local cafe, whose facade is the Mayor's office and the Dog River Public library in the show. There were signatures all over the walls from all over the world and we are proud to have added our names for posterity. We trawled around town taking photos of familiar places from the show and recounting episodes to each other.

We headed back to the Gas station for final photos before heading into Regina. A Canadian Pacific freight train was passing through the area at the time. We heard and saw the train a long way off. So we waited. And waited. And waited. More people are killed in train-related accidents than any other kind on SK each year. My theory is that with being able to see and adjust to the idea of an object coming from a long way away, you cease after awhile to be on alert for it until it's on top of you.

The train driver must have noticed us as we took photos of his train against the grain silo. Not long after we got in the car we caught up with the train running parallel to the highway and he tooted us about 4 or 5 times as we rolled down the windows and waved.

That was a definite first. I'd need to be beeped by an Air Canada pilot to top that. I don't even think they have horns.