awesome coloUr cross-canada tour: volume 3
May 26: BOWDEN TO EDMONTON
Peeling out of Bowden we say goodbye to the snow on the ground and make tracks for Edmonton. Allison and I try and work on last week's Saturday Globe and Mail cryptic crossword. We get "Magnetic characteristic has boosted up fame (10)" and "They help you get through the jungle, chopping each stem (8)".
11:15: Driving through desert scrub listening to Oakley Hall.
11:39: We stop at the Donut Mill in South Red Deer, Alberta. Their version of Timbits/Munchkins are called Mill Bits. I buy a box of 45 Mill Bits for the van and a Venetian Creme donut. Tastes very much like being in Venice.
The moose debate continues as we drive along. Today the consensus seems to be that it was probably an elk, though I cling to the hope extended me by the drunk archaeologists at last night's show who assured me that February is moose calving season and we probably saw a youth moose of some variety. Note that Derek has revised his animal he would like to see to a beefalo.
12:52: Flat tire somewhere outside of Red Deer. Derek does a great job steering us safely off the extremely narrow oil truckers' highway onto a tiny gravel slope. Seeing if we can reinflate the tire. Hmm... is my CAA membership current?
12:57: Dinosaur Jr. tour bus blows past us while we're on the side of the road.
2:00: Waiting for CAA guy after failed attempts at both reinflating and unleashing the spare. I'm in the van barehanding mosquitos, of which there are about 44 million outside, and now also inside, the vehicle. The first 20 minutes of the breakdown were actually okay, but now we are hot and probably all have West Nile Virus.
4:30: Back on the road after a long visit to Weskatawin, Alberta, to pick up a new tire and some more West Nile Virus.
We enter another Rural Crime Watch Area.
Derek thinks he sees an interesting animal in a field, but it turns out to just be a dog.
Speaking of dogs, there are loads of pet spas and getaways in this part of the province. "Catnip Acres", etc. Where are their owners going? Besides ANYWHERE but here?
Edmonton is a little baffling in that "Who built this here?" sort of way. Allison feels right at home and says it takes her right back to Dort Highway in Flint, whereas to Michael it's a bit more reminiscent of Tulsa. A guy recommends me to check out the river valley ("It looks a lot like Boston, though I"ve never been to Boston.") which I do (and it doesn't) after downing three tasty cups of Intelligentsia espresso at Three Bananas, a lovely and way-too-nice-for-Edmonton cafe inexplicably located in sunny prime real estate right in the middle of a blandish civic square (think Toronto's Yonge & Dundas Square only with outdoor movie screenings and a bouncy castle.)
Tonight's gig is in a repurposed military citadel, which is totally rad, other than the fact that it is so crowded and sweaty and I am so tired that I don't really explore it. Both Awesome Color and Dino sound great in here, though—there should be more gigs in citadels. There are a lot of people with dreadlocks and slutty clothes dancing in the bar downstairs from the gig, and several of them hang out with us on the street until 3:00am while Allison and Derek and Davey try to teach J. Mascis to skateboard.