Candy and Jim's Great Canadian Adventure: We Made It!

Well, Jim and I finally made it to Calgary! We have been here for five days now. Our saga began with a flight from Houston to Minneapolis to pick up Jim's new company car (and what a car!) That "old guy" hit the jackpot. Can you say Hemi? In case you don't know what a Hemi is, it is a series of V8 engines built by Chrysler with a hemispherical combustion chamber. I looked it up in Wikipedia. :)

When Jim got the car, it was still unlicensed. Trying to get across the Canadian border with an unlicensed car didn't really give us a "warm and fuzzy," so we decided to stay in MN until we got the license plate. Fortunately that didn't take but half a day, and we were on our way to Calgary! Now, unless you are retired like me, and you don't have anything better to do, I do not recommend driving from MN to Calgary. It's an arduous two-and-a-half day drive with hundreds of miles of hay fields and silos, lots of silos. We knew our marriage would be tested over the next 2.5 days of driving, but we were willing to give it a go. I had my Nook and my neck pillow, so we said, "Uh Ree Va Dare Chee" to MN, and off we went. We started out at one in the afternoon and drove until eight that night, at which time we decided to give James, the chauffeur, a rest. We spent the night in Minot, ND. The big attraction in Minot is the "Wild Things Alaska Alder Grill," where you can sit in an Indian tee pee and be served a bison burger or some other exotic animal. We got a picture of me standing by the tee pee, but I couldn't convince Jim to straddle the stuffed buffalo for a candid shot. Maybe next time...

Day two: more hay and silos. By noon, we were in Portal, the border crossing between ND and Canada. We spent the next two hours talking with a very nice border agent who was finally convinced that we meant Canada no harm and were allowed in! But before we could "Pass GO," Jim was hit with a GST tax of $1,700 for that sexy new muscle car. (HA) We spent night number two in Medicine Hat, Alberta. I can't really remember anything interesting about Medicine Hat except that it was where I tried my first "Tim Horton's." Tim Horton's is Canada's largest fast food chain with over 3000 stores nationwide (it's bigger than Micky D's in CAN). It was founded in 1964 by Canadian hockey player.....Tim Horton! Let me tell you, these Canadians "love them some Tim Horton's!" They are best known for their coffee and doughnuts, and there will be a line around the block to get in day or night!

This is getting kind of long. You may want to go to the kitchen and make yourself a snack.

Day three: more silos less hay. We got into Calgary at noon! Yippee, we made it! Time to go grocery shopping and encounter more sticker shock. I'm not going to bore you with the details, but let's just say, everything seems to cost twice as much. You have to pay for quality of life! We are going to LOVE it here, at least until winter comes.

This week Jim has been "manning" his booth at the Global Petroleum Show here in Calgary. I am enjoying the fine dining we are doing with Jim's clients. :) This weekend, we start our "marathon of hiking." We have decided to do a different hike every weekend as long as the weather holds out. Stay tuned for the next post: Hiking in Banff.