Pelly.

In a nutshell.

I figure there's a reason that we only go every 10 years to this small town. First off, there's only one person we know there, other than our family, and this is the type of person who it's unpleasant to spend more than 5 minutes with. Secondly, once you have walked the town, there is literally NOTHING to do other than drink yourself silly. Anyway, enough of my unorganized complaining. Let's organize it.

Friday, July 29th, 2005:
I woke up at about 9:00, which conicidently was supposed to be the time that we were leaving. Due to circumstances out of our control, we were delayed by an hour before we got on the road. I had the back seat of the van all to myself, so I could have slept along it if I wanted to, but I was unable to get comfortable enough to sleep.

All was not lost though, because I convinced my dad to buy a power inverter and bring his laptop, so I was able to pass the time by playing Sim Golf and watch Pirates of the Carribean. Those of you who have gone on long road trips through Manitoba and Saskatchewan will recognise the importance of having something to do. Anyway, this car ride actually seemed quite short and we were driving into the town before I knew it.

If you go right at the intersection of 2nd Street and 3rd Avenue, you reach Uncle Richard's farm. Everytime previously that we had ventured to Pelly the front yard became a temporary parking lot. This time was no exception. We pulled up and were each handed a beer. It was our fault for getting there at 3:30 Pelly time. The rest of the family had been drinking since 9:00 AM and we had to catch up.

Now, I had previously said that there were going to be a couple dances and a greased pig competition (which was cancelled, sadly). What I didn't say, was that there was also going to be a parade. Since this reunion coincided with the Saskatchewan Centennial, they were holding a town wide parade and there were going to be two floats held by my family, the Saskatchewan float and the "Wet Coast" float. Since my parents are actually from Victoria, I got to be part of the Wet Coast float.

I really wonder about the definition of "Float" that my family came up with.


My mom thought the silver dangly things on the side mirrors were "Tacky". I said that I don't think tacky was an issue.

Anyway, I also previously said that I was to sleep on the floor of the van, because there wasn't enough room at the Bed and Breakfast where I was originally supposed to be staying. Fortunately, my uncle was able to aquire alternate accomodations. Unfortunately, it was the Pelly Hotel. The Fort Livingston Bar and Hotel that this same uncle came to my dad about purchasing because he thought it would be a gold mine. My dad disagreed and the deal fell through. I don't even think Midas could have gotten any gold out of here.

Some images of my room:

This is what 18 dollars a night gets you.

I found a sock under the bed. I didn't question it.

The quality bathenette.

At least there was a Gideon's Bible there. Anyway, being above the bar, I was able to hear everything that was going on. Unfortunately, I was also forced to hear everthing that was going on, but somehow I was able to get to sleep.

Saturday, July 30th, 2005:
I woke up to the rain hitting my window. It wasn't a big storm, but it was still rain. I had to get up anyway, because the parade was happening in 45 minutes and I had to walk all the way across town to get to our float. 5 minutes later, I arrived at the farm to find that no one decided to put the float in the garage.

Unfortunately, the damage was only minor, so the show had to go on. We weren't going to let any rain on our parade... erm.. rain on our parade, so to speak.

The concept was we were all going to wear rain gear to symbolize all of the rain on the west coast. This worked to our favour, but somehow the symbolism was lost to the parade onlookers who sat there. By the end of the parade, though, it started to get sunny and we all went back to the farm to indulge in the family trait of alcoholism.

Now, the staple of the family reunions USED to be the Listerines playing, but with one of the founding members no longer being with us, we had to settle for the New Listerines, who because of some legal concerns, needed to change their name to L21C. Woo, go 19 megabyte video!

One bright side of this day was that it went by quickly because I got to play poker with my cousins for the majority of the day. I actually won one game, but the deal was, if you win, you must buy drinks for everyone.

Anyway, there was a dance that night too, with the most confusing cover band that I've ever heard: The Crawdaddies. You haven't lived until you've heard 2 guitars, a banjo and an organ cover "When you're Gone" by Bryan Adams and Sporty Spice. I suggested that they cover "Squeeze Toy" but for some reason, they've never heard of it.

Sunday, July 31st, 2005:

Sunday was the day of the slowpitch tournament. That was basically all that the organizers told us, so we could be forgiven for not knowing what the hell we were supposed to be doing. Unfortunately, the first game had the majority of our players hungover/late and we lost it 21-7.

The second game was much better. We tied them 10-10 and I realised that I am actually not bad at playing second base. Goooo team! 0-1-1 record ftw!

By this point of the weekend, everyone was getting tired/sick and was basically in a bad mood. My dad realised that there were no plans for dinner to feed the 20 or so of us, so he started looking at places to get food at. Our cousins, not realising where we were, suggested getting chinese food delivered. I saw this was an oppertunity to leave for a while, and suggested that we drive out to a bigger town to pick up some food. So we settled on the closest place that could be considered a town and left for Swan River.

The 45 minute drive there was relaxing. I was glad to be in a place that could be considered civilization. Although, I hear it's full of Ninjas, so I didn't want to stay long. We stopped at KFC and got too much food and drove back. Still it gave me time to recharge.

When we got back, we found that several people had left and we were now stuck with 4 buckets fo chicken for 15 people. I bet my dad that we'd never reach the 4th bucket, but he seemed to think that we were ravenous enough to do it. We got to the end of the 3rd bucket before everyone was done. My dad then ran in and ate one piece of chicken from the 4th bucket and said he won the bet. I still contest that decision.

One of the cooler things from the weekend was the sudden appearance of A LOT OF DRAGONFLIES! (8.9 MB video, woo!) It made me think that someone had super powers using them for evil somewhere.

We also had some fireworks that night, but by this point, it was all but over.

Monday, August 1st, 2005:

I was told that we were going to leave at like 9:00 AM for home. I was eager to get home, because I can only handle so much. I woke up at 5:45 AM and I could NOT get back to sleep. After sitting there for a couple hours, wondering why that lamp was broken above the mirror, and finally wondering if the cleaning staff would ever find that sock, I couldn't take it and I left my key in my room and checked out.

Carrying all my stuff, I started walking to the van. Unfortunately for me, I had no idea where the bed and breakfast was. Fortunately for me, this was a toy problem in a town this size and I did a brute force linear search of all of the streets. This may not have been the most elegant of solutions, but I found it in 15 minutes, so take THAT Van Reese.

My dad came out about an hour later and found me reading in the van. He brought me a danish and we started packing everything up.

The drive home was as easy as the first drive, but this time was full of the first season of Corner Gas, which was funnier as I was just in Saskatchewan for a while. We got home at about 4:00 Winnipeg time and I just collapsed.

I am SO glad that these things happen so seldom. I can't take too much of them :D

Puppy out.