Gord and I hop into our vehicles and meet halfway between Edmonton, where he lives, and Wadena, where the boys and I live. Why we always meet in this cold, windy hotel parking lot is a mystery to me —habit, I guess, now—

but we pull up side by side, the boys go into the hotel to use the washroom, we transfer their stuff from one vehicle to the other, Gord and I have a quick chitchat while all this is going on, and we hit the road in opposite directions once again.

West of Saskatoon there is no snow, but east of Saskatoon there is still some and when we were within seven miles of home yesterday there were some people cross-country skiing in the ditch along the road. Still quite a bit of snow here.