On Wednesday we drove into Moose Jaw to do some shopping, get an oil change, take a passport photo, and do whatever other shopping we needed to for the next three years. Okay, for the next week. It's great that we filled up at 145.9 when the prices have dropped since then to 126.9 (19 cents a litre). With all that expensive gas in the tank, it makes you want to conserve it more, right? Or maybe we ought to just suck the tank dry and quickly buy some 'cheap' gas before it goes back up when the 'recession' hits. I can't believe we've been fooled into thinking that anything under 130 is a decent price. And I'm continually amazed at the ridiculous excuses used to jack up gas prices. It isn't supply and demand, it's demand and supply. And I could go on and on about how they don't make fuel efficient vehicles for larger families. Whatever. Enough ranting.
Micah had a day off of school, and I needed to get my passport application in, so we made the 1 hour trek into Regina for the morning. In Calgary, if you don't show up hours before Passport Canada opens, you sit in the hallways in line outside until lunchtime. In Regina, I was through the process in about 20 minutes. Yea. So it is 9:40 AM and we're in Regina with nothing else planned. Shopping will tempt us to spend cash we don't have, and we know so little about the place, and the kids already saw Mosaic Stadium from 5 stories up - we were at a loss as to what to do! What do you do in this kind of a situation? Go home?
We ended up driving about a half hour out of our way to Rouleau (pronounced "Rolo"), also known as Dog River, the home of Corner Gas. As are most places in southern Saskatchewan, the middle of nowhere is somewhere nearby. After the kids used the washroom at a run-down old gas station that was actually in service, we stopped by the set of the show. We took a look inside the Ruby and the Gas station, talked to an employee, and explored some of the town. Inside the Dog River Police Station was a small cafe where we got ourselves some ice cream and perused the touristy merchandise and memorabilia. After gasping at the prices and the number of people who have visited from far and wide (as shown by pins placed on a map of Canada and the world), we left. And saw Oscar and Emma's house. It was kinda funny to see it all, really. Did I mention we saw the "Foo Mar t"?
And after that royal waste of gas we headed back home for lunch. Don't get me wrong, it was a lot of fun and interesting, but seriously - was it really worth it? My kids were like, "Huh? Where are we, Dad?" Still, it was good family time spent in the vehicle. You know, handing toys to children who are tossing them all over the floor while biting the bottoms out of their ice cream cones and spilling the contents all over their jackets and the seats and their grinning and grimacing faces as they annoy one another in songs and stares. What a happy bunch!
And here I am in the library with a million things to do writing this for you because hey, I'm into wasting things today. I'm not saying that YOU'RE a waste of time. No, I'M wasting time. Whatever. If you don't believe we've been there, we have the postcards to prove it...
Mark
PS: We have a trip planned next weekend that we figure will take us 5 tanks of supremely overpriced gas. Shows how much we love you, Shawn...
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