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to the Great Sand Hills

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Today Charlie and I rented a car and headed to rural Saskatchewan to see the Great Sand Hills. I'd tried to book something AWD in advance as far back as Tuesday, but the people at Hertz couldn't do it. They told me the best they could do was something like a Mazda 626 or a Toyota Camry. When we got there, they only had one car, A Ford Focus (that's pronounced Faeces).

What a hunk of junk. It's about the loudest vehicle I've ever been in on the highway, and the brakes had a scary inconsistency. On the way back it developed a worrying vibration and a thrumming sound.

But the Sand Hills were pretty cool. Despite record cold temperatures and howling winds out of the east, we managed to spend an hour and a half wandering around admiring the sand forms. Very interesting! We spent the evening in a small bar drinking and watching the prolonged Ottawa/Toronto game.

Pronghorn sheep near Leader, Sask.