Exiled from Ranch Country
Out There
Willow Belden
4.6 • 608 Ratings
🗓️ 8 September 2016
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Growing up, Heather Kitching loved the countryside. She loved the rolling hills, the open fields, the horses, country music. And she dreamed of a home in a close-knit small town, with a rocking chair on the porch and wide open spaces all around.
But there was a problem: Heather was gay. And that wasn't OK in her rural utopia.
On today's episode, Heather shares her story. It's a story about what happens when the place you love becomes your enemy. And it's a story about abandoning an important part of you, in order to build a life where you fit in.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Willow Belden, and you're listening to Out There. |
| 0:20.7 | This is a podcast about the outdoors, |
| 0:23.3 | from your window box and garden to the fields on the edge of town, to the forests, prairies, seashores, |
| 0:30.1 | and wilderness. On the show, we explore our relationship with nature, through stories, interviews, |
| 0:36.2 | essays, and even some fiction. |
| 0:38.7 | We travel around the U.S. and the world with tales of love and heartbreak, passion, and |
| 0:44.2 | adversity, desperation, and triumph. Many of the stories we bring you on this show are about people looking for wisdom or fulfillment by challenging themselves with extreme hikes or athletic competitions. |
| 1:16.5 | Today's story is a little different. We're going to hear from a woman named Heather Kitching, who lives in Thunder Bay, Canada. |
| 1:24.1 | Heather does love cycling, hiking, and running, but her most profound encounter with nature didn't happen while she was doing any of those things. |
| 1:33.5 | Instead, she was driving down a rural highway in her car. |
| 1:40.5 | People used to tell me, if you're ever in Alberta, you have to go down to Ranch Country. |
| 1:47.0 | Because that's where you'll find this cute little coffee shop owned by Ian Tyson. |
| 1:53.0 | Ian Tyson is a famous Canadian Cowboyan Folk Singer in case you didn't know. |
| 1:59.0 | And Ranch Country is pretty much what it sounds like. |
| 2:03.6 | You drive south out of Calgary, and that's where you end up. |
| 2:07.6 | I am a huge fan of Ian Tyson, and about 12 years ago I was in Calgary for a music festival. |
| 2:15.6 | So one day, I decided to head down to ranch country and |
| 2:19.9 | check out his cafe. So I get about half an hour out of town, and I find myself in this beautiful place. It's a little village called Black Diamond, |
| 2:37.6 | and it looks like one of those frontier towns out of an old Western movie. It's got those |
| 2:42.6 | little wooden storefronts with those false fronts on them, and it's completely surrounded |
| 2:48.8 | by fields and horses and the lush, green, rolling foothills |
| 2:55.7 | of the Rocky Mountains. |
... |
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