wolseley

In an earlier post, I spoke about letting go of distance goals.

That very day, we strayed off course and were rewarded with one of the most memorable encounters of our trip. And to think that if we’d carried on to Moose Jaw as planned, it never would have happened!

Here’s the story: we pulled into Wolseley, Saskatchewan around suppertime. It’s one of those minuscule prairie towns in which the Chinese restaurant does double duty as the local diner, coffee shop and – heck, it might even serve as city hall too, for all I know.

You could have heard a chopstick drop in downtown Wolseley. It was practically a ghost town.

But, famished and doubting that we had other food options apart from trail mix and Coffee Crisps from gas stations, we decided to give the “smorg” a try.

There were a couple of souls inside, but as soon as we entered, it felt like the whole town streamed in behind us!

(I think I know what happened: they mistook us for Brad and Angelina. Can you blame them?)

Before we knew it, the smorg was at capacity!

A man quickly approached Billy as he was loading chicken balls onto his plate.

“Are you heading East or West?”

Guess we looked like “outsiders.”

“Would you like to join me and my wife for dinner?”

And so we had the pleasure of meeting Bob and Carol Campbell, two longtime residents of the area. And, boy, did we ever luck out! These two know everything about the town. After dinner, they insisted upon loading us into their mini van and giving us the insider’s tour of Wolseley, which is quite a remarkable little place.

First of all, it has this nifty swinging bridge suspended over a little lake. The first was built in 1906, although this one (from 2004) is a bit more high tech. It’s like The Capilano Suspension Bridge‘s kid sister.

Also, Wolseley is home to the very first Beaver Lumber. We had a Beaver Lumber in my hometown, Parksville. It was always cause for celebration when dad announced we’d be dropping by Beaver Lumber on the way home <<<< sarcasm.

But Beaver Lumber isn’t the architectural pride and joy of Wolseley; it’s the 1906-built Town Hall/Opera House. You’d never expect to encounter such a grandiose building in a prairie town with a population under 1,000.

Bob, who is extremely active in the community with the Lions Club, worked some magic and got us inside – another stroke of good fortune. We got to see the balcony, stage and basement where Wolseley once housed its Town Office, council chambers, reading room, jail cells and library.

As the impromptu tour wound down, a fiery sunset descended upon Wolseley and we got both this photo (see the little rainbow?) and the one at the top of the post. We were in awe, but we weren’t the only ones. As we braked for the church picture, you could see how much Bob and Carol truly love their town and how proud they were to share it with these transient strangers.

 

{ 19 comments }