Tag Archives: #FABTrip15
#FABTrip15: Bindloss, Buffalo, and beyond.
Having logged over 1000 km in two days, we finally headed for home on a lazy Sunday morning. Along Secondary Highway 555 we stopped in forlorn outposts of the prairie, the communities of Bindloss, and Buffalo, and a forgotten graveyard near the ghost town of Cavendish. As the warm winds whipped the dirt and tumbleweeds around us, and the sun bore down through the high haze, I felt a communion of sorts with the dry belt denizens of decades ago, who left these parched plains en masse, having endured too many seasons of promise turned to dust. I wondered how the residents of today would endure, and what would be left to see our next time around. Continue reading #FABTrip15: Bindloss, Buffalo, and beyond.
#FABTrip15: Impressions of Empress
On the final day of #FABTrip15, we emerged from comfy confines of the Forksview Motel and Manor, ready for another dry and dusty day in #SEAlta. After a wander around the village, Greg and I stopped at That’s Empressive for a coffee, a chat, an ice cream, and a Kit Kat, before hitting the road for Bindloss and points west along the abandoned Royal Line. Continue reading #FABTrip15: Impressions of Empress
#FABTrip15: The mystery of the Empress caduceus
Is it a symbol of a mysterious medical past? Or a relic of pioneer history, its meaning lost over time? What is the deal with the winged thingy atop the old bank building in Empress anyway?
Continue reading #FABTrip15: The mystery of the Empress caduceus
#FABTrip15: We end up in Empress
Greg and I concluded our sojourn along the old Scapa-Loverna line with a swing through western Saskatchewan. Just over border we located Loverna, which admittedly was much more substantial than I had expected. Loverna was, at one time, a commercial hub for much of eastern Alberta and western Saskatchewan, boasting a population of about 500 souls, before drought and abandonment took its devastating toll on the community, and the surrounding area. Apparently several blazes over the past half-century have served to clear out much of the community’s “dead wood“, leaving behind only a few occupants, and block after block of empty lots.
Leaving Loverna, we surveyed the scorched earth between there and Alsask, a stop on our 2007 road trip. As both our vehicle and ourselves began to run on fumes, we headed into Oyen for a meal and sundries, before setting off for the village of Empress. We arrived in the “Hub of the West” as the sun slid towards the horizon, ending our excursion at the Forksview Inn: a comfortable, clean and affordable place to relax after a long, dusty day on the road. Continue reading #FABTrip15: We end up in Empress