Mike's Top 20

Things to see and do in Saskatchewan....

According to Lonely Planet, Fyodor's, and Go; about all you can do in Saskatchewan is drive a dusty road to take a picture of some aging Ukrainian church or another. Somewhere around 10 pages of 'Lonely Planet: Canada' are devoted to Saskatchewan (read Saskatoon and Regina) - listing helpful things like 'go to a movie, go to the science centre' - yay! After perusing a few of these books, I was beginning to become slightly disheartened about my choice of destinations for the summer. Christ, we can't even claim the 'Vegreville Egg' as our own! (http://www.albertabigtour.ca/vegreville's_egg!.htm )

Damn those Albertans!

Sigh, will anyone ever look beyond the surface to see who we really are?
OOOOOOOOhhhhh Nooooooo ( read with a sarcastic whine)...... instead they're sitting in their posh [insert posh city here] doggie cafes telling jokes like this one:

1) How do you know when you're staying in a Moose Jaw hotel?

When you call the front desk and say, "I gotta leak in my sink," and the clerk replies, "Go ahead."

Well, yes, I'll admit I tittered a bit upon reading that one.....being from the 'big city' and all. I will also admit that outside of the 'strip' - the 278 km section of highway 11 south that connects Regina and Saskatoon - I am guilty of not having a single clue about the beauty, majesty, and excitement contained beneath the flat, monotone exterior of my dear home province's wheatfields (and canola, rye, mustard, and flax).

Well, I need raise my fist in the air no more at this dilemma! DYNO-MIKE has come to my rescue! 'Faster than the line-up at Canadian Tire'! Stronger than the average groudn squirrel! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! (caveat: in the Yukon only).....sigh....you're my hero DYNO-MIKE.

For the next five months I now officially have a great list of things to see and do!
Just look at everything that coy little school marm of a province actually has to offer!

Mike's top 10 Saskatchewan

10. Feeling a sense of the past at Motherwell Homestead

9. Buying ice cream in Waskesiu

8. Watching a thunderstorm from your garage

7. Cycling the Meewasin Trail

6. Barking with the prairie dogs at Grasslands National Park

5. Having breakfast at Taunte Maria's

4. Driving the Qu'Appelle valley at sunset

3. Eating mushroom cheddar chowder at the Berry Barn

2. Running in the Great Sand Hills
http://www.virtualsk.com/current_issue/sand_wind_time.html

1. Screaming along to 'Green is the Colour' at Taylor Field on Labour Day

Top 10 Saskatchewan Mike hasn't yet visited but wants to

10. Touring the small town of Rouleau (aka Dog River on Corner Gas)

9. Visiting the new RCMP Training Centre in Regina ($40 million to build; opens end of May)

8. Exploring the Tunnels of Moose Jaw
7. Kayaking the Clearwater River

6. Watersliding at Kenosee (www.kenoseesuperslides.com/)

5. Camping in Meadow Lakes Provincial Park

4. Seeing Hunt Falls

3. Playing in the World Championship Bunnock Tournament(www.macklin.ca/bunnock.htm)

2. Afternoon tea and an evening play at a converted train station (www.stationarts.com/)

1. Finally seeing Stanley Mission

And let's make it 21 Mike - I do need to check out that hotel in Moose Jaw.....

One Week Out....

I've been training for a year! All of my hard work - my blood, sweat, and tears, will culminate in a beautiful moment in just 7 days time. Yes, the rest of our normally jubilant little town may be suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome brought on by the onslaught of the 2007 Canada Winter Games; but me, I'm still a week out from the event that will mark a monumental no-turning back kind of shift in my life.

Whereas all those wonderful orange-coated volunteers are now lying in veteran hospitals taking lithium due to the aftershocks of an event so large, so monumental, yet so.....uneventful.....I am happily wiping the droppings of the bluebird of happiness off my shoulder. (give her some slack - she's still a beast of the wilderness you know).

Ah yes, my epic journey, finally looming large at the doorway of my future.

In one week's time I will hit the open road; just me, my dog, and um, my mom, in my Honda Civic. Pointed south for open skies and warmer climes. I have quit my job, rented my place, explained thoroughly (and several times) to my cats the reason I am abandoning them for five months; I've paid off all my debts, ripped out all my carpets, painted, and almost finished putting in lovely new floors upstairs in preparation for the big event.

Why am I doing this you ask? Or maybe you don't, but you ARE reading this so suck it up baby..........um, anyway, again, what is this all about? Well, I have decided to test the waters of pure joyful unemployed existence. For five months I will be roaming Saskatchewan, couch surfing where possible, selling Jone's body for food and shelter where not....

It has been ten years since I traveled anywhere of note, and 11 years since moving to this lovely territory. It's time to shake things up. To be at a dinner party and experiment with how I will answer when people ask 'So what do you do?' I remember this fellow telling me once that it would be so much more meaningful if people would ask 'So who ARE you?' That never happens at dinner parties, and possibly not a lot in most people's day-to-day lives anymore. So I'm takin' it to the street to see what happens. Who AM I, really? What is it that brings me joy, that makes me feel confident and proud to walk in the world? What allows me to just BE?

So you may wonder why Saskatchewan....well, it is like my life is coming full circle. I ran from the flatlands 11 years ago, thinking that I could never get as far away from them as I wanted to. Now, after many years of reflecting, I realize it is time to go home - just for a little while - to reconnect with the roots of my 'self', to know part of who I am by discovering and loving where I came from.

So - take that CWG! I'll continue to wear my orange proudly, I'm even taking it with me; and I'll be thinking of you when the ads come out - 1800 athletes, 2000 coaches, 4000 volunteers, and 18,000 IV bags required to rehydrate them all on March 11th....but I'll tell ya, my countdown trumps yours any day of the week!