Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/107892
already set out breakfast with its selection of coffee, juice, cereal, yogurt and his own special breakfast burritos of tortilla-wrapped sausage and potato, with optional splash or two of TapatÃo Hot Sauce. Guests linger and get to know each other. A family from Wetaskiwin is staying in one of Ghostown's two sheep wagons, billed as the 19th-century frontier version of an RV. Moose Jaw's Diana and Jack are on their way to pick up relatives arriving in Calgary from the UK. They plan to drive to the big city and make it back to Maple Creek with their guests to stay another night. Jack says the trip to and from Moose Jaw is much more manageable with a comfortable overnight in between. Bonnie and Randy from Calgary, meanwhile, are staying in the B&B's sole thresherman's wagon, a rustic, wood-panelled space with a double bed and writing desk. "This is the most relaxing weekend I've had in a long time," Randy says. I have to agree. We've just spent two weeks on the road, thoroughly worn down by the constant din of traffic, trains and industry. It's a wonderful spot to recharge. We plan to spend two days touring around Maple Creek and the Cypress Hills. The bed and breakfast is our base of operations, a quiet place to relax and rejuvenate each evening before setting out again the next morning. We have our privacy, an intimate space to call our own, but also room to stretch out. Before we leave for the day, I manage to slow Hisey down long enough to find out more about the wagons and buildings. Everything here is from somewhere else, he explains. The buildings sat abandoned, forgotten by all but perhaps one or two oldtimers who knew their significance. Our cowboy host has an uncanny sense for sniffing them out, an eye for seeing their inner beauty, and the energy to transform them into a better-than-new state. No rancher or sheepherder of old could have imagined glowing polished wood and antique-lined interiors stemming from such mundane construction materials. Hisey also has an insatiable need to know everything about these structures' history. Our cabin, for example, is where cowboys stayed when they couldn't make it home at night to the big ranches that used to dominate this region. "Bill Ramsay [whose family has ranched in the area for four generations] said his great granddad moved this off the p16-21_Getaways.indd 19 (above, clockwise from top) Fire in the cauldron sets the scene at night; a 1925 Eaton's wagon; inside the sheep wagon that required little restoration; outside the other sheep wagon, which needed extensive work. (below, l-r) Sites nearby include Fort Walsh National Historic Site and Cypress Hills Vineyard and Winery. Westworld >> s p r i n g 2 0 1 3 19 13-01-29 12:40 PM