6/16/22
After the RCMP Heritage Centre, I jumped back on the Trans Canada Highway and 50 miles later, I arrived at Moose Jaw. Billed as the "Most Notorious" city, Moose Jaw was a town where bootleggers would run Canadian whiskey and other booze down to the U.S.during Prohibition. There is a series of underground tunnels where the the bootleggers would use as storage, VIP gambling and drinking rooms, and as corridors to move the booze. It is rumored that Al Capone often stayed in Moose Jaw and used these tunnels often. There is also a deep history of Chinese immigrants settling in Moose Jaw after they helped build the Canadian railway. In fact, for such a small town, I counted four Chinese restaurants on the main street of downtown. I wonder how many more are in the outskirts of town. And there's is also a giant Moose here.
I checked into an old Travelodge near downtown where the carpet cleaner started to chat me up as soon as I got off the bike. He and his wife ride down to the US all the time on their Gold Wing. I keep running into people on Gold Wings or have Gold Wings up here. I unload my gear into the room and changed into street clothes and walked towards the centre of downtown. My first stop was a live performance play that actually takes you down to the tunnels as part of an 1920s bootleg operation. It was strange to see Canadians do an Italian Chicago accent. Kitschy but walking thru the actual tunnels and going thru false wall doors was very cool and worth the price of admission.
After the show, I explored downtown a bit and found a few of the murals that Moose Jaw is known for.
I asked a girl at the local gift shop for a place to eat and she recommended Bobby's, a local favorite. Turns out Bobby's is a Scottish pub with quite an authentic menu offering steak and kidney pie, bangers and mash, butter chicken curry, and Yorkshire pudding. Considering that you'll rarely find these dishes back in the U.S., I got the Yorkshire pudding and an Canadian beer, Moose Head Lager. While in Moose Jaw, I will consumer all things moose.
Yorkshire pudding is essentially what we in the US would call a popover, a somewhat light, hallow-ish, soft doughy baked pastry. It's can be used for a sweet dessert or savory dish. My dinner consisted of a Yorkshire pudding stuffed with roast beef, mashed potatoes, and veggies all covered with a healthy dose of gravy. It was amazing.
A elderly couple started at the next bench started chatting with me. Actually, the wife, Jacqueline started chatting with me. The husband Joe, barely said a word. He just drank his Stella. Since I was dining alone, I quite enjoyed listening to Jacqueline's stories about her childhood growing up in Saskatoon, her brothers, their Japanese childhood friend Georgy, and her aquatic fitness class and the Pubjabi and Korean ladies in the class with her. Joe finally chimed in with a couple stories of him frequenting Pittsburgh because of his former career in the steel business. Now they're both retired and are just traveling.
Joe finally kicked Jacqueline under the table and she nodded at me that they needed to go. She gave me her card and told me to rain them up if I was in Edmonton. I may do that but I'm now sure Joe would be keen about that. When I'm traveling alone, I find the loneliest time to be dinner time. It was a treat to hear Jacqueline's stories. And Joe was a good sport to stay as long as he did. If I'm ever back in Moose Jaw, I'm going to order the steak and kidney pie next.
The next morning before leaving town, I rode out to see Mac the Moose. This was the only reason that I wanted to stop at Moose Jaw but as I've discovered long ago, if you stay somewhere long enough, you'll discover all sorts of interesting history and people.
