Saturday 9 August 2008

4 hours, 230 km, home in time to meet Tom and Emmaline for lunch

Aiming for a trip around Old Wives Lake yesterday, I made it as far as Mortlach then turned back, looking for Ardill, which I'd just missed on one of my shortcuts. I saw a sign pointing toward Ardill, and a billboard advertising the Ardill Hotel, but it took a guy at the Co-op in Mortlach to draw me a map and send me back in my tracks.

Funny how words gouge at our experience. First I'm digging the way highway 2 turns SW into the coteau, then I'm spending an hour at Ardill (hotel open 11:00-12:00 Tuesday to Thursday, till 3 Friday and Saturday, 12-6 on Sunday).

I had an aunt and uncle who ran a store there, is all (late 30s). A town like Ardill--by some definitions, already a ghost town--may not represent deep connection, but getting there and back does, as soon as we put it to words.

2 comments:

Brenda Schmidt said...

Old Wives Lake. Nifty name, that. Young Wives Lake would likely make one look at it with, I dunno, more concern.

Gerald Hill said...

There is a young wives connection. Just south of the lake was the Bombing and Gunnery School near Mossbank. Many young fellas went to war from there, leaving their brides behind.

gh