DAY-01 North by Northwest - We're En-route to Calgary

Day-01: Thursday, September 3, 2015

Starting Location: Home at Kitty Hawk, NC

Interim Location: Norfolk, VA International Airport (ORF)

Interim Location: Chicago, IL O’Hare International Airport (ORD)

Interim Location: Calgary, AB International Airport (YYC)

Ending Location: Delta Lodge at Kananaskis, AB

As for Sheila and me, the first day began early, four minutes before my alarm was to ring at 5 AM. Has anyone figured out why people wake up just minutes before alarms ring?

Our packing was mostly done yesterday so we were quickly up, showered, dressed and ready to travel leaving Kitty Hawk as the sun rose around 6:15 AM. We arrived at the Norfolk airport after an uneventful drive from Kitty Hawk to the airport. Thanks to Carrie for taking us to the airport.

Check-in was relatively easy and our timing for the TSA passage was good as few people were queued up for the ID check, x-raying, scanning, wanding, pat-downs, etc., America's solution to terrorism.

Around 9:15 AM we boarded our United Airlines Airbus A320 for the flight to Chicago.

After an onetime departure, travel on UA621 was routine until an announcement asking if there was a doctor or paramedic on board. That is not usually a good sign for one person in particular and for all others with close connection times. The rumor mill kicked into high gear and stories of critical and disabling illnesses, imminent birth (not likely as the passenger was male) and even death developed and passed through the entire cabin. Fortunately none of those dire circumstances proved true but still paramedics were to meet the aircraft on arrival at Chicago. All was well with the EMTs stationed at the arrival gate to quickly board the aircraft and evaluate the passenger's condition, unfortunately the aircraft was diverted to a different gate. At that point it was suggested that the ill "gentleman" could probably walk off on his own and wait for help in the gate area. We all deplaned and the journey continued.

On arrival in Chicago we hoofed it from the A Concourse to the F Concourse; this is a common occurrence at ORD. En-route we stopped by a Headphone Hub and purchased a new selfie stick, a Bluetooth model so no worries about broken wires, but big worries in that we must keep the stick's battery charged.


In any event we had plenty of time and were ready when boarding was called for UA5221, our flight to Calgary on, of course, a Canadair CRJ700.

This flight was uneventful with a light lunch served, chicken salad for me and a roast beef wrap for Sheila along with fruit and of course beverages of our choice. Weather was good throughout both flights so other than a few arrival bumps at Calgary we had smooth sailing and on time arrivals. As we were entering a "foreign" country we were prepared with passports and customs forms but before the immigration station Sheila was met and welcomed to Calgary by one of the locals, perhaps symbolic of her Great Uncle Bert's past as a Calgary cowboy!

Immigration was a challenge, the back-up looked like a favorite ride at Disney World, a series of switchbacks and all that with two jumbo jets yet to arrive from Europe. An agent told us that at times they have to hold arrivals at the gates as the immigration station is seriously limited in capacity. After a 30-minute passage through the queue we moved on to collect our baggage that was dutifully awaiting our arrival. With a quick glance at our customs form we were out and into Canada ready to ride.

Our next stop was to pick up our car, a Ford Taurus from National Car Rental. As USAA, doesn't provide coverage in Canada, we signed up for what will likely cost more than the rental, the dreaded rental car insurance plan. As for the Ford Taurus we sat in the car for about 10 minutes figuring out the control devices and setting up our iPhone Google Maps for directions. Having done that we were out into a light rain but didn't get far before realizing that we needed more time with the car settings. We pulled over near the airport entry sign, readjusted the mirrors, fiddled with the radio and reset our destination into the phone, then we were off.

Well not so fast, seems the GPS had given us an initial direction and course but we had for some reason lost our signal. After realizing we had just made a loop and were again approaching the terminal we pulled over one more time and took stock of our location and information. This time everything worked and soon we were bound for the Delta Lodge at Kananaskis, an hour or so west of Calgary.

As a sign of good times and good fortune to come, Sheila spotted a rainbow to our right; we compared it to our first day in Hawaii and the many rainbows seen upon our arrival there many years ago.





We traveled west out of Calgary and could see the Olympic Park to our left dominated by the imposing towers of the ski jumps and bobsled and luge runs snaking down the hillside. Once out of the city we were in the open plains of Alberta, beautiful farmland with hay rolls waiting to be picked for winter's storage. The fields were golden, just as I would have pictured for this part of Canada.

An hour or so out of Calgary we turned from HWY-1, the Trans-Canada Highway onto HWY-40 south toward Kananaskis, into the mountains. Along the way we came upon a deer and a herd of mountain goats, naturally photo stops for me before proceeding to our hotel.

Our lodge is located adjacent to the Nakiska Ski area, an area developed for the 1988 Winter Olympics of Calgary. The downhill events were held on the Nakiska slopes of Mount Allan at Kananaskis, Alberta.

Nakiska Ski Area

On arrival at the lodge we checked in and were assigned Room #3229 a lofted room with a view, a limited view but a view just the same.


The room was nice, certainly comfortable for our two night stay. Here are a few views:

As it was about 6:30 PM local time but 8:30 body time, we headed over for a quick dinner, a burger and beer would suffice for the night. The local pub was our destination, the name was Woody's Pub, but clearly not a knock-off of the Woody's of St. Pete Beach.














Prohibition Brewery's Bootlegger Amber from Kelowna is a fine beer.






At Woody's they had this strange looking wall hanging device, wondered if the grandkids would even know what it is and why it ever was needed and existed?

We were back in the room around 9 PM, put a fire log on the hearth and proceeded to do newspaper puzzles, read, whatever until sleep could wait no longer.