After stuffing our faces with blueberry muffins, toast and cereal in room 11 of the motel, we headed out to the local museum to find out more about the abandoned town of Maxstone. We were met at the museum by an elderly lady-volunteer, Sharon, who came and opened up the place especially for us. She busied around pulling out us some local maps of the area and a couple of first hand accounts of living in the town. While she was quite brisk at first, we slowly built up a nice little rapport with her, and she even invited us for thanksgiving. She also spoke about her experiences of growing up in a now-abandoned town, and also raising children in rural Saskatchewan. Like others we have met, she seemed quite emotional recalling her experiences, saying that while she visits the town regularly, she has never gone back and seen the plot where she grew up.
After the museum and tea at the art gallery in town, we headed out to Maxstone. All that remains of the town were a beautiful white church and a schoolhouse. It looked as if the church had been turned into an historical site, with the building looking relatively well kept, if a bit over-grown. The schoolhouse was less well preserved, with rotting chalk boards and broken windows. We were brave and went down into the basement and, armed with a light, took some creepy looking shots.
We then headed further along the highway where we recorded a couple of other houses. The sky was especially beautiful towards the end of the day, and we managed to capture some amazing shots with the GoPro as well as our DSLRs. On our way to the our final destination of Weyburn, we passed a cute little community of Ogema (population approx 250), where we are hoping to spend thanksgiving.
Finally, Linda's animal watch: after a special moment with a caterpillar yesterday, Linda spent some quality time today with a hare. She also had an adrenalin charged encounter with a flock of birds, who sprang up unexpectedly out of some grasslands. Both were unharmed.
