Page 71 of Game Changer
“Um…not exactly.”
“There’s a shopping mall at the lake?”
“Not a mall, no.But there are shops.”
“Oh.Cool!Now I’m even more excited.”
He laughs and pulls out onto a wide street heading west.“I don’t know if they’ll be your kind of shopping.”
We pass the drive chatting and listening to music.I gaze around in fascination as we cross the prairie, flat and open, the sky enormous above us.Farmland stretches out on either side of the highway.
Jax turns off the Trans-Canada Highway to head north on what is called the Yellowhead Highway, and we pass a town called Gladstone.There’s the cutest statue with the name “Happy Rock” painted on it.
“Get it?”Jax asks.“Happy Rock?Gladstone?”
“Ha ha.Hilarious.”It is funny
Then we arrive at Neepawa.
“Are you hungry?”Jax asks.
“Yeah, I am.”
“Good.There’s a drive-in here we can stop at.”
It’s also cute.Jax orders a ton of food including a hamburger, perogies and onion rings.I stick with a burger and a milkshake, but I pilfer one onion ring.We eat at a picnic table on the small patio, then climb back in the car.
“Are we almost there?”I ask plaintively.
Jax laughs.“Yeah.Not much father.”
This part of the drive is a change of scenery, with huge rolling hills and valleys, and more trees.Finally we arrive at our destination—Riding Mountain National Park.
“We have to make one stop before we go into the park,” Jax says, turning off the highway and into the parking lot of a hardware store.“We need booze.”
“Um, at the hardware store?”
He grins.“Yep.”
We pick up beer, wine and tequila, then we’re back on our journey and entering the park.We actually have to wait in a line of cars at the booth, where Jax purchases a seasonal pass.In a moment, we’re cruising through a quaint little town with shops and restaurants and log cabin structures.Not what I expected!
“This is Wasagaming,” Jax tells me.
We round a curve and drive along the lake.It’s now evening, but still fully daylight with lots of people strolling the beach and walking the sidewalks.
“That lake is amazing!”I gaze at the incredible blue in awe.
“Clear Lake,” Jax replies.“The town name, Wasagaming, is a Cree word meaning clear water.We’ll see more of it.”
We progress a couple of blocks, and Jax turns left into a driveway and rolls to a stop.Made of logs, and with a big fieldstone chimney, the cabin sits nestled among tall pine and aspen trees.On one side, Craftsman-style tapered columns with fieldstone bases support a wide porch.It’s old-world picturesque, like nothing I’ve ever stayed in.
Jax carries our suitcases to the door of the porch and fishes a key out of his pocket.After unlocking the door, he pushes inside with the bags and I follow behind.Through another locked door, we enter a big living room.Here I see the fireplace the chimney is attached to centered on the wall, built of the same fieldstone.A big window on one side and sliding doors on the other side look out onto a deck, and beyond that the lake.The walls, ceiling and floor are all wood, out of date but charming.
“The place is a little old fashioned,” Jax says apologetically.
The furniture is clearly well-used—upholstered sofas and chairs, antique tables and a worn rug on the floor.It’s clean and cared-for, though.The kitchen is open to the living room, with an antique hutch, a round dining table surrounded with pressback chairs, and cabinets that probably date back to the 1950s.
“It’s amazing.”
