My Life on the Road: Headed to Texas - chicken and booze in Bozeman

We left Claresholm after eating a continental breakfast of terrible coffee and decent muffins. The hotels owner chatted lazily with us as we noshed. He had been a manager of Woolworth's department stores, from Toronto, Ontario to Terrence, British Columbia. He served the chain loyally for decades of his life, never questioning when they sent him north, east or west. They fired him after 27 years of service. Hed become redundant.

I told him that I remembered eating grilled cheese sandwiches at the Woolworths lunch counter where I grew up. There was pride in his voice as he told me that, before McDonald's came along, the department stores lunch counters were the biggest restaurant chain in the world.

The sun was high for it being so early in the day. We heated the RVs engine for a half hour before wheeling south.

Its a strange time to write for a living. Where normally I expect to raise an eyebrow when I tell folks what I do, my vocation of late has roused opinions and suspicions. I wasnt sure if I would stand up to questioning at the border. I neednt have worried: the border guard was more concerned about where we were going, how long wed be there and whether we had any contraband onboard. In her rear view mirror, my wife saw our border guard staggering through a pee-pee dance from her booth to the border patrol facility a few feet away as we drove off.

Montana.

The mountains are different here than they are in Alberta. Read the rest