So we caught a bit of headwind going from Waterton to Cardston; nothing too serious but still something to ride against. After getting organized at the motel, I headed over to the IGA to get provisions for the next day’s 70-plus mile ride.
My hope for finding a cold beer at the grocery store didn’t pan out so I asked a fellow shopper where I could buy beer in town.
Kaselle delivered the bad horrible astonishing news – there was no beer, wine or liquor for sale anywhere in Cardston! Including restaurants!
Turns out the baleful influence of Mormonism still holds sway over the dry dusty town. Why oh Canada why? Such a state of affairs does not even exist in Salt Lake City!
But Kaselle held out hope. Somewhere out of town there was a Canadian Legion bar that was open to the public. Yes! This had to be investigated for all kinds of reasons.
So I set off on foot to track down this fabled oasis, and after a wearying climb south out of town, I saw this sign:
Upon going inside, I learned that not only was anyone welcome but tonight was their bimonthly dinner – $8 for a grill-your-own steak with salad and baked potato on the side.
Dave Smith was my anti-Moroni so I took his picture outside the “good” sign:
and then headed down the mountain (in Dave’s car) to spread the good word to Roger.
We biked up the hill and, after securing a couple of beers, fell into a rambling conversation with Phil, Sean and Dave. There were a couple dozen people there – retirees, some vets and some younger family relations. A lot like a VFW scene in small town Ohio – people who grew up locally, went away for a bit and returned to what they knew and away from what they did not like.
At 7 o’clock, we were all summoned to pick up a steak and head out to the grill, which not surprisingly turned out to be a menfolk’s affair:
So I got a chance to cook again! And this is what it looked like:
As part of the deal, there were a couple of raffles to raise funds for the legion: two meat lotteries, which we declined, and the big “Find the Queen” drawing where one lucky ticket holder (3 tickets for $2) gets the chance to turn over a single card out of a spread-out deck of 52 in hopes that it is the winning queen.
Given that the odds are so poor, the kitty gradually grows into thousands of dollars and, we are told, the attendance eventually swells several fold, which turns out to raise some money for the Legion, which keeps half the pot.
Unfortunately, we have a long ride ahead tomorrow in some wind so we decided to have an early night; hope they’re all having a good time – delightful bunch of people who made us feel welcome in their little slice of local community.
Born in Baltimore and raised in Cincinnati, I have lived on both coasts and driven back and forth across the country a number of times. I now have the "midlife opportunity" to do so on two wheels.
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