I spent a lovely day with Ransom yesterday in the
almost-too-beautiful-to-believe town of Banff, Alberta, Canada. He’s been
coming here for years to the annual music festival; I was long overdue.
Most of the reason I kept putting it off is evident in my
travel day schedule:
- 7:00am -- Wake up.
- 9:30am -- Drive to Newark after walking the dogs, feeding the dogs, changing the linens, doing a load of laundry, vacuuming the bedroom, walking the dogs again, and generally tidying up.
- 11:45am -- Arrive Newark hotel to store car.
- 12:00 pm -- Arrive airport.
- 2:45pm -- Begin a 3-hour flight on the most cramped plane I've ever been on after killing almost 3 hours in the airport (I hadn't been sure how long it would take to drive to Newark, find the hotel and stow the car).
- 5:45 pm -- Arrive Minneapolis for a 3-hour layover.
- 8:45pm -- Board another plane (far less cramped, thank the gods) for the 2.5 hour flight to Calgary.
- 11:30pm -- Get in HUGE line at immigration; maybe 800 people.
- 12:00am -- After hardly progressing for 30 minutes, talk agent into letting me skip the rest of the line, pointing to my cane and putting on my best pained face.
- 12:30am -- Board Banff Airporter shuttle.
- 2:30am -- Arrive Banff Centre to join Ransom.
The hero of the story is, once again, my Scottish cane. You
may remember that when it was new it got me bumped to Business Class on a
flight from Amsterdam. I can guarantee you that, had I not played the cripple
card I would not have made the last shuttle of the day to Banff. I would have
had to find a hotel in Calgary, of that I am sure.
Sometimes there is a silver lining to being old and feeble.
And the silver lining in all that traveling? Here it is:
And here are some photos I took today
Where we're staying
Student dorm; mountains in distance
Big sky, big mountains
Beauty everywhere you look
Bear-proof trash and recycling
This guy was no more than 10 feet from me as I walked the road!
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