Rain continued to soak the long stretch of the Canadian West between Biggar SK and Viking AB and the cold had found it’s way deep into what ever I was wearing. It had been that way for days. I hadn’t dressed for this when I left home and I had nothing suitable packed away in the back of the car. I picked a heavy wool sweater off the rack in a small country store; any colour would do thanks, and managed to get it on under my beat up Gore-Tex. That would keep the core warm – if my feet stayed dry.
I had chosen to spend a week back ‘home’ on the prairies and I had chosen to spend it in mid September. Still warm enough I recalled and an early frost may have killed off the few bugs left hiding in the tall grass and standing water. Perfect in my mind. Not so much it seemed.
Funny that the railroads went to all that trouble to replace those wooden, hand painted and lettered cross bucks with a modern aluminum model that was permanently reflective and all, and then have to add a standard highway STOP sign just below because there were folks who didn’t know what the X meant any more. It’s much easier to model of course, if your chosen era is correct, but you will still need a tall whistle sign even if it’s not on a 4×8 post.