Billings, Montana

Billings was an interesting experience for me because it marked my entry into the United States and in a way was my first experience of American life as compared to Canadian life. They are not very different, to be sure, but I certainly did notice some differences.

My first stop after crossing the border (which, by the way, was a breeze! The border post was deserted, and the officers merely confiscated some produce I had since it’s not allowed across, and then they let me go with barely a few questions asked) was in the small town of Sidney, MT. I was still hobbling at the time as I was one day after having had an abscess lanced on my left foot, so walking was tricky. I had some food and attempted to find a phone carrier in order to set up my mobile data plan. The only available game in town was Verizon, and by some strange stroke of events, my phone, though unlocked, works on all channels but CDMA, and since Verizon operates on CDMA...

I continued south and arrived in Billings late at night, so I parked at Sam’s Club, which I later found out belongs to Wal-Mart but we don’t have it in Canada. In the morning I made a few phone calls over the internet, one of which was to my friend Jonathan in Edmonton, to whom I hadn’t spoken since I’d left.

After breakfast I made my way to meet Rob and Carey from couchsurfing, who had offered me to stay at their place since they had an RV pad in front of the house where I could park my van. 

They are a lovely couple in their mid-fifties and they made me feel completely welcome. I offered to help them around the house as they are currently in the process of doing home repairs including reshingling the roof, which had seen some damage after a severe hailstorm.

They fed me and told me their story, and were quite curious about mine as well.

Over the next week I explored the city, which, truth be told, is not very big nor interesting. I went to a few bookstores, one of which, Barjon’s, is not a mere bookstore but in fact caters to fans of New Age lore and other forms of arcana. I got in a conversation with the manager, Sue, who is an absolutely wonderful and warm human being, and we parted with a long and heartfelt hug.

What distinguishes Billings is that it is located underneath a shelf of rimrock, which is a sheer rock wall at the upper edge of a plateau or canyon, in this case made of sandstone. This formation marks the northern edge of the city and besides making for high property prices, also provides a fascinating view not only from the city itself but of the city from the top of the rock. This can be seen in some of the photos I have posted below.

Apart from the bookstores I visited, Billings has several “‘natural foods” stores which I had to see, of course, as well as a few interesting and historical buildings such as the Moss Mansion and the Western Heritage Center. There is only one “tall” building in the entire city, this being the First Interstate Center, a somewhat drab office block.

Besides Rob and Carey I met up with three other people from couchsurfing: Vaclav, who is a Czech transplant from Litomysl, the town where my sister Lucie lives; Patrick, who is an entrepreneur, beer aficionado, adventure buff, and like myself is curious about the food replacement powder Soylent; and lastly Sharon, a college student who invited me to her house for a barbecue where I also met a few of her friends.

These people were each different from each other and presented me with a contrast of personalities which one can encounter in a diverse country such as the US. In Rob and Carey I saw the more conventional aspect of Americana, including the stereotypical and oft-maligned dietary habits of processed food and sugar water, unsustainable living and large footprint, mixed with a good-natured joviality and kindness. In Patrick I saw the go-getting spirit so often portrayed as all-American, which has both positive and negative aspects. Vaclav is the perfect image of an immigrant who due to linguistic and cultural barriers fits into his environment with one foot while still keeping the other firmly planted in the spirit of his erstwhile life. Sharon and her friend Joshua were the most refreshing for me as they both embody aspects of my own life philosophy, including healthy and ethical dietary choices and a strong environmental drive combined with a sense of social justice.

One important lesson I learned while there was that I want to move more into a spirit of gifting and away from relationships with people based on exchanges and trade-offs. This is something I need to spend more time pondering as well as practicing.

Before leaving Billings I took a trip with Vaclav to Pictograph Cave just outside the city, which is an archeological relic of aboriginal people who passed through this area over time and left their marks (literally) on the walls of caves. The images are mostly faded by now but some are still visible and the mountain landscapes surrounding the city are breathtaking.

After saying my goodbyes to Rob and Carey on Sunday morning, I left the city which by then had turned chilly and drizzly, and headed south towards Wyoming.

Regina, Saskatchewan

My stay in Regina was an interesting one for a number of reasons, not all of them positive.
I arrived late at night on September 1st after passing through Moose Jaw from Gravelbourg.
The only person whom I knew in Regina at the time was my old friend and classmate Brandon, and he welcomed me into his house to the sound of loud barking from one of his two dogs, while his heavily pregnant partner Mandie was already in bed.

Brandon and I both attended the UCEP program (the P in UCEP stands for "program", just like the N in PIN or SIN stands for "number" - type in your PIN number, please) at Concordia University College in Edmonton back in 2007 but afterward we hadn't seen much of each other and he eventually moved to Regina to attend university, while I remained in Edmonton.
Brandon had put on some weight and lost a bunch of hair, but otherwise he looked the same, and our reunion felt quite natural to me.

The next day he showed me around a bit, we visited downtown, went to the library to try and get me a membership, then we walked around the university campus and had a beer. On our way back we passed through Wascana Park and stopped at the Regina Casino, where Mandie works a few nights a week.

On my second day in Regina, I started working at the Spirit Halloween store, whose owner I had helped out in Saskatoon and who offered me work here as well. I spent a week setting up all the scary props and effects, helping out fellow employee Ron, with whom I got along wonderfully. I continued at the store for the remainder of my time in this city, an additional two weeks. This part of my stay was less enjoyable for me as I didn't enjoy the work very much, the pay was not impressive, and I felt anxious to get moving again especially as the weather was cold and unpleasant most of the time.

Besides that, I made sure to explore all corners of this small city, visiting both campuses of the university, setting up a slackline at Wascana Park on an unusually warm and sunny day, and basically cycling from one end to the other. I visited a few local eateries, donated blood, and played a couple of squash games with Brandon at the YMCA.

One Saturday I joined Brandon, Mandie, and her daughter Scarlett as they went to visit Mandie's parents at their farm just north of the city. We helped pick vegetables, then went on a quadding adventure. I got to see some wildlife cameras as well as footage of a trespassing bear.

Lastly I put in a number of hours working two moving jobs, so I got to meet a couple of local guys doing something very similar to what I used to do in Edmonton before leaving.

The most unpleasant experience for me in Regina happened on the day I set up my slackline at Wascana Park. At one point I was about to jump on the line, barefoot of course, and I stepped down hard on a piece of wood, which got stuck in my left foot. I didn't clean it out properly but it seemed to be healing well though after two weeks it was still somewhat achy. The day after my second squash game with Brandon I went slacklining again and later climbed some trees, putting strain on the foot. The next morning it was swollen, inflamed, and I knew I was in trouble. That day I spent eight hours doing a move, and finally on Sunday morning, when I was planning to head towards the US border, I could not step on my left foot so I decided to go to the hospital to get it checked out.
I waited for eight hours to see a doctor at the Emergency Department, who told me I had an infection and the abscess had to be drained. She proceeded to do this, and though the incision itself didn't hurt, the anesthetic injections did quite a bit. I thought that was somewhat ironic.

I wrapped up my Regina visit on a painful but equally relieved note, and before leaving the hospital I made friends with someone whom I'd previously met at the Halloween store and one older Francophone lady.

All in all my 21 days in this city were not unenjoyable, but the unhappy moments did help me make an important realization: I knew I had to stop worrying about a specific monetary goal I had set myself, because trying to attain it would only lead me to suffering through work which I didn't enjoy and it would also unnecessarily extend my stay in a place which I felt I was ready to leave.

On Monday morning I said my goodbyes to Regina and drove south toward the Regway border crossing.

Little Manitou Lake, Craik Ecovillage, Moose Jaw, Coderre, and Gravelbourg

After leaving the farm in the late morning on Saturday, I made my way back to North Battleford to get gas and coffee, then I drove to Saskatoon where I scored a new phone plan. I had been running low on data for the past week due to a 5GB limit I had on my plan, so the pleasure of having unlimited data (well, not technically unlimited) was immense. Another great pleasure was sitting on a real toilet after four days of using an outhouse and wiping with rags. I grabbed a pita at the mall, made a few stops for groceries on my bike, then finally began my journey south toward Little Manitou Lake and the town of Watrous.

I arrived in the evening and the temperature had dipped so I was much less inclined to take a dip myself. I both tested and tasted the water - Little Manitou Lake is a salt lake , sat on a dock for a bit, then found a spot to sleep in Watrous. My initial plan had been to push through to Craik the same day, but I decided to wait until Sunday.

Sunday morning I went looking for the Ecovillage and arrived around noon. I was met by Brent Kreuger and his family, who were having lunch together with their Chinese cook Jane and Japanese student Wataru. The others at the table were Brent's wife Monica, his parents, whose names I've forgotten twice already, and his grandson Tristan, or maybe it was Tristin. There were also two little dogs running around, only one of whom came to make my acquaintance. I want to point out that I'm intentionally leaving out the breed of dog here, and will continue to do so in future, as I'm opposed to dog breeding.

The Kreuger family was very hospitable and I was offered coffee and a sandwich. I did take a piece of chocolate cake for dessert. After lunch I began a tour of the establishment with Brent, who went into great detail about the construction of the house they live in, which also acts as a school. I peppered him with many questions and he indulged them patiently. Later he drove me around the Ecovillage in a golf cart and I took a number of photos, though I didn't meet any of the other residents.

The way I understand it, the Eco-village was a project created by the town of Craik in the early 2000's, and their initial idea was to build an extension of the town itself on the other side of the highway which would be focused on sustainability and an eco-friendly vision. An eco-centre was built using various renewable materials, and this eventually became a restaurant.
The town's involvement in this project didn't last very long, however, and they soon abandoned it. The eco-centre is currently in disuse, but a number of people have since settled around it and built homes in a variety of ecologically sustainable styles, some permanent, others less so. The Kreuger family runs the Praxis school of entrepreneurship in the eco-village, and there are a few other creative people who have ongoing projects on the site.
To my knowledge, Craik Eco-village is the only such project in Saskatchewan, and there are none that I know of in Alberta, though one has been in the works for many years close to the town of Viking, AB, where an earthship build run by Michael Reynolds recently took place.

As the weather began to cool down towards evening we were standing on the deck of the house observing a great swarm of ants mating in mid-air and tumbling to the ground to complete their procreative ritual. It began to drizzle (both ants and water) so we repaired to the inside and sat down for a lovely supper.
I debated staying for the night, an invitation which was graciously made by Brent, but decided against it and made the hour-long journey south to Moose Jaw in the dark.

On Monday morning I cycled to downtown Moose Jaw and took in the famous Moose Jaw Tunnel Tours. The town offers two unique tours of the underground tunnels, one detailing the life of Chinese coolies in early 20th-century Moose Jaw and the other covering a dramatized version of the apocryphal Al Capone connection to this southern prairie town. I enjoyed both presentations, though I found the first one much more informative and poignant.

My last planned stop before going to Regina, Saskatchewan's second largest city, was Coderre, my father's hometown. I drove there in just over an hour and found it to be a quasi-abandoned village with a population of 30 or so people. I explored it in a few minutes on my bike and stopped to chat with an elderly couple at the edge of the village. They told me that most of the French families had left Coderre years ago but that I could still find a Beaudette, my father's relative, about 50 kilometres west, in the French town of Gravelbourg, which they recommended for its cathedral and Francophonie.
My visit to this village left me feeling nostalgic but unfulfilled, so I decided to make the drive west to see if I could meet my father's cousin Rodney.

When I arrived in Gravelbourg I spotted the cathedral right away, and after some inquiring, found myself knocking on Rodney Beaudette's door. Alas, he wasn't home, so after leaving him a note, I departed and drove back to Moose Jaw.

The final leg of my journey that day still lay ahead of me, so I replenished my coffee supply and began driving eastward, again in the dark.