But let's not get too ahead of ourselves here...

Colouring on the table... whoever thought of this is a genius.

It would seem that country music is the happy medium out here. But to catch all the undercurrents I think you'd have to dig around a bit.

You might wonder, for example, why a Toronto band as faraway and distant as Metric, has the ability to resonate through the airspace out here, though kids in farmland suburbs south of the border aren't given the chance to hear the same music.

Or you might also wonder as well, how come, with the simple twangy ballads and tender Christian radio hits, in Canada's own Heartland, why punk and hardcore tunes done up with super fast guitar licks and an easy enough style -- just make so much sense to so many kids out here.

And from Regina I'm picked up by a dark-haired girl with rings in her face and tattoos on her arms, the wife of a dude in a non-stop touring hardcore band. She fell in love with the urban kids who need so much help, but are still so rad, over there in Nairobi. Over the kilometers we chill to tracks from Cursive's Domestica album, Coheed and Cambria, and various melodic hardcore bands. Then we put in the latest album her husband's hardcore group has put out, and vibe out to the breakdowns.

As we cruise along (half the time on the wrong side of the road I swear) we'll pass some guy on a bike raising money for Darfur. And later I'll watch Andy Shauf play some great acoustic, check out some chill art photos, and salvaged Douglas Fir woodwork, and I'll hear about a girl going to help out in South Africa.

But for now, alongside a soundtrack of guttural growls, I watch the sun stream through the clouds, fanning out for miles.