For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for August 06, 2024

Yes! Something that’s fun! Something to do!

I’ve never been to that part of Canada, but he describes how boring crossing Kansas is. Always another grain elevator in the distance breaking the monotony of the flat land.

Kids don’t relate to grain, but they do relate to fun in water.

To heck with learning about your own country.

Sad.

In the story they have talked about going to Winnipeg, which is not Canada’s breadbasket. That is Saskatchewan. The part John is leaving out is that his parents don’t actually live in Winnipeg but live in a little town to the west and south of Winnipeg called Miami. Miami is in the easternmost part of the Canadian prairie lands. What John is really telling his kids is that they are out of Ontario and in Manitoba and almost at their grandparents’ house. He tells them this in a very indirect way.

In real life, John (Rod Johnston)‘s parents lived in the house next door to Lynn and Rod in Ontario. The people in real life who lived in Miami were Rod’s sister and her family, whom we have seen in the Cruikshank farm stories. For some reason, Lynn decided to place the cartoon grandparents next to the sister and not next to her (Elly) in the stories.

John, this trip is boring enough as is—the kids don’t need any schoolroom lectures!

John, I have news for you—no one cares!

It is all about priorities. After days and hours in the car a water park would definitely sound good to me. One can only look at flat farmland for so long (and I grew up farming) without getting a bit stir crazy. Give me my mountains any day.

PSYCHE !!!

Made-you-look!

LOL… Kids don’t give a thought where that breakfast cereal comes from – Mom just brings it home for the grocery store.

“Movie Studs” magazine?

Of course Elly and John won’t let you go to the water park

People have become so divorced from the land that most think their food comes from a store.

I left home the day after I graduated from high school to work on the wheat harvest in 1962. Started in Oklahoma and ended in Northern Montana. Left in May and returned home in October.

When going up home to PA from VA, there’s a stretch of I-99 where I’d have to do my best to distract my nephew from the left side of the road (heading north), which is super difficult because there’s nothing but a ridge of hills on the right. Luckily he never paid much attention to DelGrosso’s Amusement Park sitting within sight of the road.

Ah, piles of brightly colored plastic on the prairie. But when it takes a day or two to go from town to town, with kids, you’ll consider any place there are public toilets. (I’m in the prairie of the northern US, but Canada’s prairie feels at least twice as broad.)

Makes sense that Elizabeth would like water slides. A few weeks ago there was a strip where she and Elly were at a water park.

When I lived in Nebraska, I loved driving across the state. I liked to guess how far I could see. Before harvest time, the tall fields were beautiful. Also, the lack of hills and turns made it a low stress drive.

As a 63 year old kid myself, I can fully get enthused with the girls excitement about the water park!

When I lved in Montana, one of my co-worker’s wife said that when God created Canada, he must have taken a big stick and swung it along the ground because it’s as flat asa billiard table. On my first trip up there, I had to agree.

Cruel.

I suppose playing the license plate game with the kids in Canada is a bit different with only 10 provinces.

My late husband and I drove from southern Michigan to Alaska one summer. I loved seeing the fields of sunflowers as we drove through portions of Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

I’m 100% with the kids on this one.

Actually Canada is only 7th in wheat production, with China, India and Russia vastly out pacing the rest of the worlds country’s production.

Finally, something caught the girls’ interest!

We’d drive past the boring and the interesting stuff on family trips, never stopping at anything remotely “fun” My sister and I would then entertain ourselves by what we would do if we had actually stopped there to pass the time.

From Lynn’s Comments: This was an opportunity to talk about Canada…without making it seem like a documentary. I have driven and flown across this country several times and there is not one province that I don’t find to be absolutely wonderful!

The question is, will they stop for fun at the water park or just keep driving, boring their children into comas with breathless descriptions of grain elevators. I daresay, while more expensive, it would have been better to fly.

I love the title of Elizabeth’s magazine!

Was on a business road trip a few years ago, driving thru Iowa, Ohio, Indiana and on South to Texas. Was in early Spring so nothing like corn or wheat was planted yet. My goodness but I was looking at square MILEAGE, not acreage :D, little wisps of treeline, the occasional shack, maybe a silo or two here and there, very sparse.. Loved it! Have always wanted to give my horses more space. Thought I could do quite well for all of us in that area. Then reality hit. Clear and hard: My horses, esp. the mares, would look at me and clearly ask: “The hay, shade, water and comfort are HERE. Why would I go WAAAYY over THERE?” There are times when I simply cannot fault animal logic. Needless to say, I still live in New England :D

Hey, finally something interesting! ; reminds me of being on family vacation as a kid. The good old days! ;-)

Kids don’t want facts.

The perfect soundtrack for that moment would be Running Back To Saskatoon by the Guess Who.

And that’s where “Corner Gas” was filmed.

Isn’t it a bit cold to enjoy one of those?

Once you leave Banf going east, it is a couple of thousand miles of prairie. There is also Banning to Phoenix.

That lifted Elizabeth’s spirits.

My dog ran away in Nebraska. I watched it go for three days.

Well, at least there’s no historical landmarks Dum-belly wants to ignore and instead, SHOP!

They drove the Kent Farm and the kids missed seeing Superman

Try driving the length of Northern Nevada—-Reno to Elko.It’s called “The Loneliest Highway In The World”