Scouting

I left the city on the morning of Wednesday May 7th.  This was to be another expedition for the Beer Parlour Project.  I headed southeast of Edmonton, and travelled Highway 13 to the Saskatchewan border.  I had plans to meet up with Chris in Macklin, Saskatchewan.  We had a short term rental lined up there for five nights, and would use it as our base for further exploring.  Sadly neither Margarit nor Connie were able to join us on this extended trip.

Along the way I stopped and explored all the small towns that I came to.  I was looking for interesting old buildings in general, but specifically for hotels that might be suitable for our Beer Parlour Project.  

There was a perfect hotel in Strome, but apparently it has been closed for at least a couple of years.  

There was another in Lougheed, but it was also closed, and had been for some time.  Apparently part of this hotel was moved here from another nearby town in years past, and then later added on to.  

I found an interesting hotel in Amisk, but was not sure if it was operational.  Later I learned that it is, but that the tavern does not open until 5:00 in the evening.  Perhaps we will return at another date.

Chris and I were travelling separately but met up in Macklin in the late afternoon.  We off loaded all of our gear, and then decided to check out the Macklin Hotel.  It was open and we stayed for "Just 1 Beer".  Actually it was two....  Chris had previously reached out to the hotel regarding a potential visit by our project, but the owners were not very receptive.  Perhaps there was a language barrier as the establishment is owned by an Asian family.  We were the only ones in the place that afternoon, although a couple of other patrons arrived as we were leaving.  We didn't bother to ask again about our project with the young Asian man that was working there... possibly the son of the owners?  The place was just too quiet and didn't have the right vibe for our project.  We drove by and checked on it a couple of other times during our stay and it seemed there never were many people there.  That's too bad, because it is a large and rather impressive old building.