Kind of a blog note

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.

Hoosier School March 25, 2017

A four room school built in 1930 in Hoosier, Saskatchewan and closed by 1966. There is not much in Hoosier. The road was a bit muddy so I was careful driving in.

I ventured a little bit inside. I got to the top of the stairs and heard much more creaking than I would have liked so I did not go any further. Pieces of the roof are missing. Some of the interior walls have been spray painted.

If interested you can see this on Google Streetview.

Zion Lutheran Church March 25, 2017

I am not going to say where this is other than it is east of Hilda, Alberta and just across the Saskatchewan border. Abandoned places are increasingly susceptible to pickers, vandals, and trespassers therefore some locations have to be vague. This is a somewhat popular place for photographers and explorers. I have seen many amazing photos of this place posted in different forums. I wanted to see it and I managed to figure out the location. I made it here on March 25, 2017 and I think it was well worth the trip.

I have no idea how old it is. A person I have irregular correspondence with has a family connection to this church. 

This is one of those great sights that that show up in the rural prairie. If you do not go exploring that one road there is a chance you might miss something like this. There are no "No Trespassing" or "Private Property" signs posted however any photos I took were from the road. I hope it stands a few more years so more people can appreciate this.

Out of storage and back on the road

I got the bike out of storage the evening of March 29, 2017. Had to give the battery a quick charge after it sat for about four months. I put new tires on it just before storing it for the winter so that is out of the way. It could use a bath as it accumulated some dust. A couple of quick runs down the highway seems to have charged the battery. 

Looking forward to hitting the road once temperatures get a little warmer.

Granary revisit by Strathmore, Alberta

I took photos of this before and posted it. I had to stop and try it again. These are old wooden granaries that have been painted and can be seen on the south side of the Trans Canada Highway. I think I captured it better this time around. Taken March 25, 2017.