That's not paving, that's patching!

Vanguard Town Campground (1 star)

So we left nice and early from the East Block and headed north. On the way, Lee toured the closed Wood Mountain RNWMP site. Then it was off to Vanguard. My oh, my! Highway 43 west of Gravelbourg (not to mention ALL of the other highways we used today) are in worse than terrible condition. There was a sign outside of Gravelbourg that stated they were spending "x" millions on repaving the highway. Lee thought of a blog phrase (*) as we were driving and asked Lez to send him a reminder text with it. That is what he received. As you can guess, his phrase was going to be That's not paving, that's patching. After setting up in Vanguard we headed for Pambrun and hooked up with Jack Williamson who took us out to the old Murdoch (locally called Murd) homestead. Even though there are no buildings left, it was nice to see. We then headed back to Vanguard and hooked up with (at Jack's suggestion) a Johnny Hunter who was raised on the farm just north of Murdoch's. Johnny came over and we talked for an hour about the Murdochs and other related details. After he left, we had a BBQ supper, with a small interruption to watch the Great Western Railway shunting grain cars onto a siding.

Lez starts: OK, today is Wednesday ! LOL We needed the blog to confirm!

So to give you an idea of the area, the LaCelle gents in Cadillac SK changed our tires, got talking (really) knows the Jack in Pambrun SK (we were planning to visit today to help us find a old friend's homestead). The LaCelle gent played hockey against Jack "back in the day". Jack suggested we connected with Jonny in Vanguard SK where we are camped tonight. Back in Vanguard we went to the RM office to see if they (she) could give us an idea of how to find Jonny. Unable to share that kind of info, she suggested we go to the CO-OP and chat with the people there. She also noted that Jill who ran the SGI (insurance office across the street and had just left the RM office before we came in) knows Jonny. So I chat with the RM lady a bit more and then walk out and meet up with Lee and Jill who are chatting in the middle of main street and main avenue. When Lee had approached her with his query she says "just a minute" grabbed her cell, "Hi John, this is Jill". So Johnny drives a block to meet us at the campsite (knee and hip replacements, easier to drive). Lee and he talked for about an hour about the family that we are researching and he grew up down the roadway from!