This 60th Anniversary Road Trip is all about nostalgia, so the first day ended in Cypress Hills Provincial Park in Saskatchewan.
Why not make the last stop of the day in a place where I almost drowned?
Jerry Sutherland
That may sound morbid, but I did nearly drown in the swimming pool at Cypress Hills—but I was rescued by my older brother and a helpful—but nameless woman. There was a serious bout of pneumonia after that, but I’m still here—and the pool isn’t.
We used to have family reunions at Cypress Hills—massive numbers of Baby Boomer cousins in full berserker mode. It was anarchy with a core age of 5-years-old—but it was memory-filled. My grandparents always took a cabin away from the epicenter of the insanity—they knew.
The old cabins are history now, because Cypress Hills has evolved into a high-end resort. The old community hall is still there, but the rest has gone the way of the dreaded swimming pool.
I learned something new the next day—Saskatchewan can get heavy fog in the morning. The Plymouth’s headlights barely pierced it in the hills.
The car show at Cypress Hills was wiped out by the monsoon, so the back up plan was to hit Melville for their show the next day.
Melville’s a cool little railway town and they held the event in a park with lots of grass, but Jim and I got there just as the show was closing.
The rain was on its way, but I did get a story about a race-prepared ’68 GMC. I like to learn on the job about vehicles during an interview, and this truck gave me a lot more insight into how you build a truck for the track.
There was also an IHC crew cab at the show that was clearly far from stock. I wanted the story, but I ended up waving to the guy as he left. Hope it works out for a future story.
The trip wound through the Qu’Appelle Valley—this was one of those places that defied logic because you come off flat prairie into a valley that would look at home in the Rocky Mountains. It was spectacular and the road warrior Plymouth handled it like a Ferrari…more or less.
The day ended at a drive-in theater in Wolseley, Saskatchewan. This wasn’t one of those inflated rubber drive-ins you’ll see at the local mall.
The Twilight Drive-In opened in 1954—nature’s perfect year for Baby Boomers. If you want to know what a real drive-in was like, look no further than the Twilight Drive-In—it’s a step back in time right down to the Bugs Bunny cartoon before the movie.
This road trip was designed to be heavily weighted in nostalgia and so far, it’s exactly that. The MyStarCollectorCar mantra is simple—be a road warrior guy, not a trailer queen guy.
Otherwise, you’re just another non-risk-taker who shows up at a cool old drive-in like the Twilight behind the wheel of a Subaru SUV.
Be better than that.
Jerry Sutherland
By: Jerry Sutherland
Jerry Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer with a primary focus on the collector car hobby. His work has been published in many outlets and publications, including the National Post, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Regina Leader-Post, Vancouver Sun and The Truth About Cars. He is also a regular contributor to Auto Roundup Publications.
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