gravelbourg, sk.

i went here with the basketball team i coach. really nice town, tons of history, hugely rooted in religion and a prime example of how conservative the province is. the whole town shuts down by 8 p.m.. no joke. i tried to find a place to take my team and eat after our last game. we couldn't find anything. we went to the restaurant, but they told us they had just closed their kitchen, this was at 8:03 p.m.. we went back to the school where the tournament was hosted, they had two pizzas, the pizzas were burger buns with melted processed cheese, no sauce, no meat, scratch that. we went to the ice rink where we heard there was a hockey game being played, the whole town was there, they had a canteen, the canteen was open, but they had no money or food in order to conduct business. eventually we ordered food to go from real little / the only bar in town, patrons: 2. i got food poisoning.

before the food poisoning kicked into full effect i took these photos on a shitty little camera i have.

top) saskatchewan mural art, one of my favorite characteristics of every small town.

second from top) my motel. i checked in with a kid working the desk. he was in the seventh grade, he was dutch, his family moved to gravelbourg and bought this motel. while checking in he wasn't sure if the room he assigned me was occupied he ran outside in the snow in his socks, and came back complaining how cold his feet were, there was nobody else even staying in the motel. i have no idea why he did this, but he made me laugh. i sarcastically asked him where the pool was and what time the continental breakfast was, he didn't understand. i laughed some more.

middle) the town is considered a cultural gem, it is a french community and home of the saskatchewan liquor control board. there is real beauty in the craftsmanship of these buildings resting in this little "nowhere" town. this is a sculpture outside of the amazingly crafted catholic cathedral, the priest/figure is louis-pierre gravel.

second from bottom) the cathedral in the distance looking down main street. middle of a saturday, nobody around. there was one teenage boy joyriding, and doing fishtails through town. nobody stopped him.

bottom) this was an old convent, it has since turned community college. from what i could tell it seemed pretty abandoned and may comment on how quiet and still of a town gravelbourg is. gravelbourgh is a little portal into the past.