Edmonton playwright Conni Massing’s new book tells of road-tripping adventures in Alberta.
Edmonton playwright Conni Massing is one member of a group known as the Buffalo Gals, a gaggle of friends who, since 1999, take an annual road trip to explore some of Alberta’s lesser-known districts. Massing is the author of the newly released Road Tripping: On the Move with the Buffalo Gals, a book documenting the adventures of this small crowd of homegrown Albertans.
The story begins back in the summer of 1999 when the gals took their first trip together. Their trek began in Red Deer, where they learned more about the fascinating story of Francis the Pig. Then they hit the road and took in the Badlands Passion Play in Drumheller, then scurried over to Wayne for libations, followed by Patricia for the “steak-pit,” pie in Three Hills, and finally to Torrington to visit the world-famous Gopher Hole Museum — all in the space of 36 hours. And that’s just the first of 10 annual road trips.
The overwhelming mood of the book is that of jolly-good fun. Massing claims that reliving some of the best moments of the trips made conveying the atmosphere of the weekends relatively easy. “I had a lot of fun writing the book. The tone of the book reflects the tone of the trips. We really had a good time.”
Many of the places visited by the gals are tiny Alberta communities such as Wayne, Patricia, Lacomb, Ponoka and Mundare, to name a few. The gals managed to find some interesting, fun and exciting things to see in most of the places they visited, no matter how small and dry the towns appeared to be. Some highlights include Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, the Star Trek Museum in Vulcan, a trip to Glendon to see a massive perogy, and a staged train robbery on the Alberta Railway between Stettler and Big Valley — where they also enjoyed the Creation Science Museum. The group always intended to find those places in Alberta where one could discover something quirky. “Or,” says Massing, “maybe we’re just easily entertained.”
Not every destination turned out to be a rollicking good time. A trip to St. Paul to visit the UFO Landing Pad turned out to be a real dud when the gals discovered the Interpretive Centre was closed. Even calling the UFO Hotline yielded poor results; UFO sightings and cattle mutilations just aren’t that common. “We had some major disappointments,” says Massing. “Sometimes we’d be promised an exciting monument or something, and then we’d get there and it would be really lame or closed. Then that either becomes more grist for the mill and a source of comedy, or it just sucks all the energy out of the van because it took us so long to get there.”
By and large, though, the trips proved to be an entertaining way to see more of the province, as well as build upon and solidify some valuable friendships. “It’s been fabulous,” says Massing. “Some of these people who go on this road trip are very, very close friends who I spend a lot of time with anyway. There are others who I don’t get to see much outside the road trips. And in a couple cases, I’d say it’s really resulted in a blossoming of a friendship that wasn’t there before. We knew each other professionally and we had a pleasant working relationship, but the trips, over the course of 10 years, have really cemented a bond between us.”
Massing experienced some trepidation when it came to writing about real people, and wants the book to communicate the value she places on the gals. “When I gave the book to the others in the group, I looked at everyone and said, ‘You have to believe every word in here is written with great love and respect and I hope you like it.’ I don’t want to put words in anyone’s mouth, but I think they’re appreciative.”
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