Alex is getting annoyed with me. I’m going on excursions into the countryside without her. I am admittedly being very selfish with these, I want – I need time to myself. To do things I want to do, without explanation or request, when I want to them, sans distractions or other side trips. I’m trying to Nike this.
Today’s excursion: the Mossleigh grain elevators.
Like the trip to Dorothy, I didn’t do a direct route. That’s too easy, you don’t see as much. Which is why to get to Mossleigh in the east, I went into De Winton (which is somewhat west).
To be fair, I was on my way east when I realized where I was and how easily I could double-back and checkout a couple of angles I knew existed for potential rail photography. Besides, I’d never been into De Winton before, and it seemed like a good idea.
Heading east, I took the slightly non-standard route. Because, why not? There’s areas I’ve not seen and you don’t get to see things when you take the same path every single time.
That said, there wasn’t that much to see.
Aspen Crossing was open, but with no scheduled trains and the summer season decidedly behind (thus the camp ground was all but empty), there wasn’t much activity. I stopped in, hoping for a coffee. Finding only Polar Express merchandise (Aspen Crossing runs a tourist train), I continued east to Mossleigh, barely a click down the road.
I found my coffee at the Mossleigh store. It was from a Bunn pour over that had probably sat out for over an hour. It was perfect for what I needed.
The middle elevator has received a much-needed paint job and looks considerably better than the last time I’d been down there. Someone’s also erected a fence on the field just to the south, probably because of the photography nuts (ahem) who kept traipsing all over. I farted around, taking a few pictures, before starting the long way back.
I headed up Highway 21 through Carseland, before ducking east again. I followed the CP Brooks sub, a bit of a challenge as it does a hefty diagonal and none of the roads follow it directly, before zipping into Indus, which I’d only ever passed by previously. I found an old, abandoned house from which you could see downtown Calgary.
A shorter day than when I went to Dorothy, but nonetheless a good outing. I’m definitely not looking forward to going back to work, though…
