Sunday, August 18, 2013

Ancestors and Sunflowers

Bowden SunMaze 2013 - 5 by Wanderfull1

Bowden SunMaze 2013 - 5, a photo by Wanderfull1 on Flickr.
Yesterday, a friend and I got lost in the Bowden SunMaze which just opened August 6th. Actually, we got lost in their corn maze. The sunflowers, dwarfed by a June hail storm, were mostly buds and a little over five feet tall.  It might be worth going back to in September when it's not so hot.  I think it was 26 Celsius, but it felt like 30.  I didn't take a whole lot of photos, but I did discover that even an extreme f-stop of f40 will not bring a red barn in focus when it's several miles away.

Since neither I nor my friend are great with heat, we wound up not completing the corn maze hike and explored the Bowden Museum instead.  Like most small town museums, the collection is reliant on what families donate.  Someone in Bowden really loved Avon products.  We had a few what-the-heck-is-that moments in the kitchen goods area.  Just before we left, we found some information about my great grandfather who ranched in the area. It sparked the desire to hit more museums along HWY 2a, but it was almost three o-clock. We were short on time and getting hungry.

The museum volunteer recommended Jack's Kitchen, but it was closed for a golf tournament.  Told that the Starlite Diner was pretty expensive, we headed to Olds and had a late lunch at the Chinese restaurant; the one (according to historical information framed on the restaurant wall) that used to be the Public Lunch cafe in 1918.  The food was large in quantity and yummy.  I asked our waitress if she was related to the original owner.  She said her family used to be their neighbors in a village in China.

Highway 2a has always been one of my favorite roads to road-trip, but even so on the way back, after such a large meal and feeling nappy, my mind wandered.  In it's wandering I thought of a way to remember all the places along the 2a between Airdrie and Red Deer.  First I came up with the super easy to remember Harry Potterish "DOBI"; for Didsbury, Olds, Bowden, and Innisfail.  Then I added Cross-Car for Crossfield and Carstairs.  Run it together, Cross-Car-DOBI, add guttural tones, and it almost sounds Klingon.

Today, when I checked Google Maps, I realized I forgot Penhold.  Hmmm.  Cross-Car-DOBIP? Nah.  Cross-Car-DOBI-Pen?  M-m-m-maybe.


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