Anyone remember the song done originally in North America by Hank Snow and then later by others including Johnny Cash? I do… and sometimes I think I could come up with my own version especially after this week.

As I wrote a few days ago, I can now say I’ve been to Fort McMurray, and now today can include Fox Creek, Alberta in the places I’ve been to Arab, Alabama, Ompah, Ontario, Gander, Newfoundland, and a bunch of small towns with interesting names in Tennessee, Kentucky, and New York State. Then there is Frankenmuth, Michigan. And I’ve been through Magheraconluce, Co. Down, Northern Ireland.

I don’t think those place names would fit easily together into a song though.

Today started out quite interesting.  After a several days of hard work of packing, we expected a moving truck to pull up to the house between 9AM and 11AM.  As 11:30 passed on the clock, we wondered where the moving company might be. Turned out they decided to not show up today – very poor service and unacceptable lack of communication on their part as it severely affected our travel schedule.  I’ll give the company an opportunity to rectify the problem they caused before I name them – but this is a major Canadian moving company from which you would expect much better service.

The moving company’s screw up, although it changed plans, provided me with an opportunity to visit the small town of Fox Creek, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  Fox Creek is located about 100 km north west of Whitecourt, AB on Highway 43.  To get there, one drives through “Moose Row” – a wide swath of area where moose are known to want to cross the highway, and many a vehicle has had crunching encounters with the large animals over the years.

We didn’t encounter any moose today, or any other wildlife along the highway.  Perhaps the bears have already begun their winter hibernation – there’s enough snow in places in the Fox Creek area that snowmobiles have been out and have left their tracks.

Fox Creek is like a small frontier type of community with a major economic base that depends on the oil industry.  As the price of oil goes, so does the economy of Fox Creek.  Established in 1967, the town had a population of almost 3,000 in 2001.

Its origins are in a single gas station in the area but today, over 7,000 vehicles pass by each day.

I enjoyed finally having the opportunity to visit Fox Creek and some of the people that reside there that I’ve heard a lot of good things about.  Hopefully I’ll be able to make it  back there some day, and also try fly fishing for grayling on the nearby Little Smoky River.  But right now, I’m hoping the moving company will keep its promise about showing up at 9AM in the morning.

Then we can be on our way to Edmonton, Red Deer, Trochu, and then who knows what new place names we can add to our own song about having  been “everywhere” on our way back to Ontario.

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