May | 2026 | Following Augustine

Hubby and I reached a new milestone on Friday. For the first time ever, we became the grandparents of an adult when our grandson, Drew, celebrated his 18th birthday! I have no idea how the time went so fast, but this sweet babe is now a fine young man!

Drew and his siblings are Métis. He, in particular, has taken a keen interest in their Indigenous heritage, so yesterday we took them to Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, a remarkable site that teaches about the Plains native culture.

Located about two hours south of Calgary, Alberta, Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump is the most outstanding and best preserved example of a unique communal hunting technique employed by the Plains people for thousands of years. At sites like this one across the North American Plains, Indigenous tribes used natural barriers such as coulees, depressions and hills to funnel bison herds into prepared drive lanes ending at a precipice over which the bison were stampeded to their deaths. The carcasses were then butchered in camps set up below the cliffs to provide food and materials for clothing, tools and dwellings.

The seven-levelled Interpretive Centre at Head-Smashed-In was built into the hillside just south of the jump site in such a way that the fragile archaeological deposits were left undisturbed. As recommended, we started our tour at the top where we walked the 200 metre upper trail to the viewpoint overlooking the precipice.

Working our way down through the seven levels of exhibits, we stopped at the theatre on the third level to view an excellent 15 minute film re-enactment of a buffalo jump.

We had planned on walking the 1.2 km interpretive trail below the cliff after finishing inside, but a storm had blown in and it was raining, so we missed that part of the experience. It was still an excellent day and well worth the trip.

Moon Road

Sarah Leipciger

Divorced for more than two decades, Yannick and Kathleen have not seen or spoken to one another for nineteen years when they receive the news that human remains have been unearthed on Vancouver Island. Could this be their daughter, Una, who disappeared without a trace over twenty years earlier? This unimaginable shared loss brings them together for a cross-Canada trip from Ontario all the way to the Pacific Coast.

As they bicker their way across more than two thousand miles of Canadian Shield, prairie, mountain, and forest in Yannick’s old pick-up truck, a history of love, loss, headstrong children, and hopeless searching reveals itself.

It was the cross-Canada trek, a route that I have traveled several times myself, that first drew me to this book, but it was superb character development that kept me turning the pages. Kathleen is strong, single-minded, and independent. After all the years that have passed, she still keeps a running count of the number of days that Una has been missing, maintains a Find Una Facebook page, and hosts an annual party to keep the memory of her disappearance alive. Yannick, divorced several times, is a bit of a lost soul, restless, unsettled, and feeling his age in creaky bones and aching joints.

I’ve seen valid comparisons made between Moon Road and Elizabeth Strout’s novels, but truth be told, I enjoyed this one more. It’s a thoughtful and moving story that I found difficult to put down.

Moon Road was the first of Sarah Leipciger’s novels that I’ve read, but I’ll definitely be looking for her two earlier ones, The Mountain Can Wait and Coming Up for Air.