Off to Ogema

We finished yesterday on a high note at the Dimensions Awards Ceremony where I was so fortunate to win the Jane Turnbull Evans Award for Excellence in Innovation in Craft sponsored by the Saskatchewan Arts Board. I was really thrilled to win this for my bowl carved from a Burr Oak tree brought from Winnipeg by Cathy’s brother John.

Burr Oak Bowl

After a delightful visit with friends Katherine and Randy we headed out from Regina on our way to Ogema where a group of volunteers has galvanized a community into believing they could make a train go from Ogema to Horizon.  The Highways Department has declared war on rural communities and denied them a road sign to help direct people to find this train.  Fortunately we drove into Ogema and there was the train waiting for us.

Having located the train we were ready for a coffee so were delighted to see a coffee machine in the train station.

Upon closer inspection it appeared the volunteer responsible for coffee had other duties today.

 It is amazing but this community has pulled off this astonishing feat and now you can step onto the past and be whisked off to Horizon (aptly named) at a speed of at least 10 km/hr. 

The real train ready to go.

 

Our friends Jane McPhee, Shan Landry and her sister Avril joined us for this leg of the adventure.

Jane and Cathy ready to go.

 

Our expectations were high to see wildlife on this trip so I was excited to see at least one red fox and many white-tailed deer.

 

The sky was truly alive today as the clouds swirled around.

 

After our return to Ogema we toured the local museum which has seen visitor numbers go from 300 to 3000/year after the introduction of the train.  We had begun to think about supper so were quite relieved to see that friends in the Maritimes had anticipated our hunger and supplied salted cod for our dining pleasure.

 

It appeared the organizers were anticipating a large crowd to help eat the codfish.

 

We left Ogema and had a delightful drive across the Big Muddy Hills to Coronach.  We had two recommendations to go for supper at the Chinese Restaurant on the East end of town.  On our first pass it didn’t register this was the restaurant but soon we realized just because nobody else was there it did not mean it was empty.

 The inside was nicely decorated and the food was … served. 

  I think the restaurant repair crew was still contemplating how to de-rust the porcelain facilities.

We are now settled in the Country Flavor Bed and Breakfast getting ready for tomorrow’s adventure.