I Wonder as I Wander

I've always wondered how those big trucks the railroad has, you know the ones with the train wheels between the front tires, are really used. Today I saw a couple in use on the rails along route 16, The Yellowhead Highway. The trucks were really on the rails, just like a train... looks like the front train wheels are on the tracks and the back truck tires are on the rails pushing the truck. Doesn't seem there would be much traction on the rails but then I saw a big truck actually pulling 5 gondola cars and a flat bed car with a large power shovel on it. Really something.

I wonder if a immigrant family operates the Jolly Lodger Motel we saw advertised on a billboard along the highway.

I wonder if the guy who named Saskatoon, Saskatchewan knew what a cool sounding name he created. Can't wait to get there.

Do you suppose that the wag who coined the phrase "flaxen haired maiden" ever saw flax growing? Here is Saskatchewan there are miles and miles of cannola growing along the roads as well as many fields of flax. Well, the cannola is so yellow I think of it as false sunshine, even when the skies are gray the fields are as bright as if the sun was glaring down on them. On the other hand the flax fields are pink/purple with lots of green showing through. So, a flaxen haired beauty is more likely to be a punk rocker and a cannola-head would be legally blond by Saskatchewan standards.

We are in Wynyard, Saskatchewan for the evening. We've had a great day on the road, just a bit of rain and lots of great plains scenery. Had lunch in Russell, Manitoba in a delightful family restaurant where we chatted up the locals and learned that the dozen or so huge arches over every Main Street intersection were salvaged from a skating rink being torn down in Dawson (where ever that is) and some one got the bright idea of putting up the laminated wood structures in the town. Quite spectacular, and I couldn't help thinking of the arches in the Columbus Short North that cost millions and didn't light up for years. I bet the Russell folks just string some Christmas lights on theirs in December and run some extension cords.

On to Saskatoon.