The Adventures of Max Flagon and Jeff
Against the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains in a sleepy little town called Canmore, Max Flagon faces his most difficult case.
When Max Flagon came to town, he had no idea how far they would go to keep their community picturesque and quaint. If there are two things Max is not, it’s picturesque and quaint; he is, however much like the mountains that surrounded him, an unmovable force.
Max stood in the middle of the park just off Main Street and opened a bag of Hickory Sticks — it’s a stupid snack that’s nearly impossible to eat, but he couldn’t help himself. The only sound in the park was the crunching as he ate each finger-full of Sticks. At the south end of the park, high atop one of the Lodgepole Pine trees this area is famous for, a raven named Jeff watched and waited.
“This should be fun,” mused Jeff.
A Canmore Sherrif’s car slowly rounded the corner at the west end of the park and came to a stop. The hot exhaust from the idling patrol car hit the cold mountain air and drifted like fog around the vehicle and into the park.
This is how my new mystery novel based in the sleepy town of Canmore might start.
It is a balmy -19c here in Canmore, so Jennifer and I decided to go for a walk and explore Canmore. A latte, window shopping, and perhaps a pint at a pub before our dinner reservation at Kain Tayo is on the agenda.
This town is lovely, and more than once we said it would be a great place to live if only it had an ocean, wasn’t -19, and apartments were less than $750K. Such is life in the Alberta Rockies.
As is Jenn’s nature, she researched things to do in Canmore before getting here. One of the places was a restaurant named Kain Tayo boasting “innovative international street fare.” If you ever find yourself in Canmore and are looking for an exciting menu in a quaint, remodelled home-turned-restaurant, I can’t recommend Kain Tayo enough.
We started with Duck Rillet Corn Dogs to share, and then each got our own main. Jenn went with Chinese Roast Cripsy Porkbelly, and I went with the Creole Bucatini Pasta with blackened Ahi-Ahi — the menu speaks for itself.
After dinner, we wanted to hit Tavern 1883 for Trivia Night but couldn’t get a table. Apparently, Trivia is THE thing to do in Canmore on Wednesday nights, so we made our way back to the hotel, ordered a couple of Manhattan’s, tucker ourselves in a corner and played Cribbage.
I’m not ashamed to say that hand-after-hand, Jenn pegged me into oblivion and took home the win in the first-ever Dropbear And Panda Annual World Mountain Cribbage Championship.
