fourth level

i like ferries. i like them for the same reason that i like postcards and the world before mobile phones. i like them because they take away control. in this wander to the true north strong and free, i have skipped over many a river. played tag with the rancheria in bc and the yukon, the north saskatchewan in the prairies and rarely thought about it.  there was a bridge. i didn't have to allow time worry about a queue i didn't even have to slow down -well  where bc plays tag with the yukon i did as they like to have those open grid bridges.

ferries slow you down. when i got over seeing the ferry leave rio for niterói after midnight and knew that i had an hour's wait. after the initial frustration the wait was fine. i still won't take the faster bridge. 

even though i am sure that all the goods vans wanting to get to the island wished that danny williams had started that tunnel but the wait for the crossing, the anticipation, the chats with others was a nice part of the journey.

this is why when i made it too late to paynton to photograph the ferry crossing. i headed on to the battlefords spent the night and retraced my steps - a good 40km of them to photograph the ferry.

three clicks off the yellowhead highway - down a dirt road, a free cable ferry that seem to take one from nowhere to nowhere. when i arrive the ferry was on the other bank. there was a chart up saying when the pilot had breaks. it runs from 7am to midnight. as i approached the river a machine was being loaded on the other side.

it is a four minute crossing that doesn't run in high winds or lightening - metal deck on water.

chatted with the pilot as there was no one going back. she showed me the cable housing and told me what i thought was the cable was really just a guide line

-doesn't it get boring?

-no i am in nature. i've been here for 15 years. i have regulars. they know more or less the schedule and will ring to see when my break is. if i have been just sitting around. i'll tell them to come down.

-cannot imagine a lot of traffic

-there are three first nations in the area, there is oil and gas. 

mentioned that i like ferries as it wrestles control from humans.

she mentions how impatient people not from around here get.

-i was loading an oil tanker on the ferry, have to be careful as it will barely fit, it is not so much the length but the width, when this person tries to get on the ferry also. i stare at him and tell him to wait

-oh he says

-oh. i tell him that i could make him get off that he has to listen to me. and what does he do when we get to the other side? the same thing.

two tankers pull up on the other side, i thank her for the visit and she is off.

with this as the start of the day, my mood changed. it take quite as long to break out of the stupor as it usually does. stopped four more times before getting back to where i was last night. a hotel that i saw heading to the klondike, which i thought was empty and thus thought buddy there who drove up and tried the door a twillock until i saw someone in the upstairs window. 

i waved.

she waved back.

then again at an abandoned play lot after beginning to photograph campers for sale along the highway. going back to the big country began to see the caravan crowd as latter day pioneers so their abandonment was indicative of something.

stopped in borden as again i remembered the hotel from the road and again i thought it was abandoned but it is functioning. i find this perfect as it moves the snaps away from the decaying barn aesthetic. it also slowed me down even more. walked around town did the nod to people who passed. liked the fact that the bowling alley was in the senior centre by the library all in the same building.

next time - yeah right - i would spend more time in the museums that all these towns have as it seems that most have collected all their old buildings moved them behind a fence in the hopes that people will come and look at them.

i realise that these entries seem snarky but it is due to what i see is the misunderstanding of these places, it has nothing to do with the past it is that they still are around that is important. it is more important that buddy who was in his seventies got on his bike after leaving the senior centre than the preserved church in the replica of main street.

did a ding dong in saskatoon but no one was home.

the first decision had to be made.  retrace steps on the yellowhead or head south to regina. headed south. another decision would have to be made in regina - head into barrack bachmann land or hold out a bit longer.

prolonged that decision by taking another back road. why take a diagonal that passed nothing when i could go straight and with a nice right angle end up where i was. good choice for while it was the rolling hills of the province. there were quite a few potential photographs made. 

the towns along route 2 sounded more interesting i got to go through, imperial liberty, stalwart and holdfast. tried to deal with more grain elevators and tried to photograph buddy in the co-op window in liberty but he wouldn't have it. we did chat though as he tried to get someone else to stand in the window.

responsible me was to have me heading for the border at portal north dakota as it is more direct but can't do it. it has been nice not having to deal with two levels of  the dysfunctional, using a currency that has a value - although converting from one that is worthless is killing me. instead of south headed east along the transcanada.

it does seem that not wanting to descend below the 49th has made my work better and has kept me more focused and less manic.
i make another decision in winnipeg.