Every so often I have this feeling I might be giving people an incorrect impression of Alberta. I post a lot of out of the way and sort of remote places. I actually do visit these places and the photos are photos that I have taken, such as they are.
I live in Airdrie which has over 60,000 people. Calgary just to the south of Airdrie has over 1,000,000 people. Red Deer which is due north has over 100,000 and Edmonton has over 800,000 (although if you throw in St. Albert and Sherwood Park which are right up against Edmonton you are getting close to 1,000,000 people as well). Lethbridge is over 90,000 and Medicine Hat and Grande Prairie each are over 60,000 people. There are over 4,000,000 people in this province.
If you went mainly by what I posted you might think hardly anyone lives here. Once you do get out of the urban areas there is a lot of empty space and the population is very scattered. I do not have anything against urban areas. At the moment I prefer wide open spaces. I get more of a thrill out of seeing a moose then trekking through downtown Calgary.
Nothing man made in Alberta is very old. Few buildings are really old. I believe oil booms in this province brought the idea that anything of a certain age should be torn down and redeveloped. Calgary has a habit of constantly redeveloping itself and it can be hard to recognize parts of the city if you have not been through them in a few years. Sights like grain elevators were all over the province and starting disappearing rapidly some years ago. They were torn down for various reason. My point is some of the unique and interesting stuff will disappear for whatever reason so I am trying to make an effort to get out and see some of it.
I likely put too many miles on trips with no real purpose than to satisfy my own curiosity. I previously spent too many years welded to a desk working ridiculous hours every week and never went anywhere. There are far worse bad habits than road trips.
Being of a certain age, I find that way too many of the sights, buildings, towns, etc. of my past are slowly fading away. The pictures you take and post are sort of a memorial to a lifestyle nearly faded away as well. Even though they are in a part of the world far from my home, the similarities between here and there are many, and serve to remind me of a more gentle way of life.
ReplyDeleteAnd one can never, ever take too many road trips.