Marty and Vicky's Trip West

Day Four was the day we had the least planned for.  We were going back to the Stampede grounds late in the afternoon for a concert, but didn't have much on the agenda for the day. In the morning, we walked over to St. Francis of Assisi Church, about a half-mile away. The vintage A-frame sits at the edge of Chinatown not far from the skyscrapers of downtown. The parishioners are mostly East Asian: Vietnamese, Chinese, Filipino, and more. The choir was all female, and all Asian, and sang very sweetly. This is a parish of young and old. Their pastor, Fr. Joseph Canh Vu, is from Viet Nam. He gave a fine sermon on the Gospel reading, the famous parable of the Good Samaritan. The sermon emphasized that we must love each other though we are all different, something especially true of this very mixed parish. St. Francis of Assisi Church in Calgary After we walked back to the AirBnB, I decided to go for my last run in Calgary. I knew the days ahead would be a lot of one-night stays wit...

After yesterday's dawn till dark marathon, we needed a rest and an easy day. The plan was to go to the afternoon rodeo competitions back at the GMC Stadium. We slept in, then headed back to the Stampede grounds. It was warm and sunny again. We thought, since it was no longer opening day, that the midway crowds would be thinner, but it was the exact opposite. After looking at more exhibits, we started looking for some fair food to eat. The choices were limitless . Stampede fair food is a step above in variety and quality. Vicky had some snack food and I eschewed the meal worm hotdogs and cow tongue pizza and ended up getting a very good Greek lamb wrap. Fair food: lots of choices We headed into the stadium early and sat at our balcony seats in the shade. As with the parade, there was a bit of pre-show to the rodeo to keep us amused. We knew the rodeo was about to start when the acrobatic riders came out. Acrobatic riding is a girl's specialty. The girls all look they weigh about...

It's a good thing we got our rest on Thursday after arriving in to Calgary. Friday, opening day of the Stampede, was a full day, dawn to well after dusk. The first thing we did was head to the opening event, the Stampede Parade.  No Bull: Marty is ready to watch the Stampede Parade I hate parades, but somehow I've gone to many of the "big event parades" wherever I've lived: the Pulaski Day Parade in Buffalo (I supposedly "saw" John F. Kennedy at the Pulaski Day Parade when I was 5. I was there, I remember my parents pointing him out to me, but remember not being able to see him...), the Dyngus Day Parade in Buffalo, high school and Penn State homecoming parades in State College, Macy's Thanksgiving parade in New York. The only parade I ever missed in a place I've lived was the Rose Parade in Pasadena. What I don't have down is parade logistics. We got there early, but we forgot two basics: we didn't bring our camp chairs from the Thule ca...

We drove in to Calgary from Edmonton, about 185 miles, and got in early in the afternoon. Calgary and Edmonton are sort of rival cities, both founded around the same time (late 1800s), both about the same size (about 1.4 million metro population), and both centers for cattle ranching and the oil and gas industry. But Calgary had the Winter Olympics in 1988 (It's just too cold in Edmonton that time of year, and the mountains, where you can ski, are a little farther away.) And Calgary has the Stampede.  Calgary has a mix of architecture, mostly modern, mostly bland steel and glass, but some unusual. It also has one of those tower buildings (the Calgary Tower) with an observation deck that were popular to build from the early 60s to the mid 70s. (see Seattle Space Needle, Skylon Tower, CN Tower) Calgary glass and steel: bland versus imaginative. The Calgary Tower: Sorry, Calgary. It took Toronto a few years, but they had to outdo you! We got in the day before the Stampede began. Spent...

When planning our  trip, I asked that we stop in Edmonton to see the Presbyterian Church. It added about 400 miles to our trip but Marty agreed. My great-grandmother was one of five children. One of her sisters, Catherine, married Dr. David McQueen. Dr McQueen was pastor to the Edmonton Presbyterian church for 43 years, 1887 - 1930. Dr McQueen was the first Moderator of the Synod of Alberta in 1907. In 1912, the year the church was dedicated, he was the Moderator of the General Assembly of Edmonton. Edmonton, Alberta, on the North Saskatchewan River I heard stories about the McQueens growing up. I inherited my grandfather’s copy of Dr McQueen’s biography. I read it and was impressed by his dedication to church and public education.  I did a lot of planning for this trip but fell short on this one. I never checked the church hours or called for a tour. Marty and I arrived at the church, took a few photos outside, but the church was closed. Feeling bad I checked on the web site ...

We drove from Glacier to Banff. For some reason, I thought the border opened at 7. Nope it was 8. So, we drove all the way past the goats and bison to a closed gate. Marty turned around and we went back to Glacier Park and had breakfast with our waitress Eloina from Georgia. It was nice. The weather looked clearer than it had been so we drove up the Going To The Sun Road as far as we could,  took a little walk around, then started our drive to Banff. We got back on the road just in time for the road race part of the Warrior Games. Both lanes of traffic were held up. We finally got past the goat farm and bison ranch to the border. We got the tip about going online first, which made it a breeze. Sort of sunny start to our last morning at Glacier National Park A glacier fed lake in Glacier National Park We switched drivers so I got to drive through rain and fog. It was like driving through a snowstorm. We drove through cattle country and ranches. Rain. We drove though forest. More Rai...

We had great weather until our second day near Glacier National Park. Then the rain came and seemed to follow us everywhere. More on that in separate posts from earlier days, some of which we'll backfill once we get to Calgary tomorrow. Right now we're enjoying a one night hotel stay in Edmonton. I'm taking this opportunity to talk about some of the serendipity that came our way while we waited out the rain.  Our campsite near Glacier National Park, Leaning Tree, was about 8 miles outside the entrance of the park. It's run by a couple of Blackfeet woman (the place is on the Blackfeet Reservation just outside the park). After our morning drive to into the park to see pretty much nothing but clouds, we ended up spending the entire day in the cafe at Leaning Tree. Now, the cafe wasn't open. It was a Sunday. But the adjoining convenience store was. But the woman who was minding the store invited us to sit in the cafe. The place is a local hangout. Even though they weren...

We modified our plans a bit to go from Yellowstone to Glacier National Park. It's a long drive from Yellowstone to Glacier, over 400 miles. We'd seen everything in Yellowstone that we could, given the road closings on the north side of the park due to heavy flooding a couple of weeks before our trip. So, instead of staying in Yellowstone another night and driving 400+ miles the next day, we decided to leave Yellowstone around noon after doing some morning sight-seeing, and get some miles behind us to shorten the next day's trip.  We left the park at the west entrance, which is just inside Montana and only a few miles from the Idaho border, and then headed north. That part of Montana is lovely. Rolling hills with mountains on either side. Very sparsely populated. Mostly cattle ranches, but an occasional recreational area. We were headed for our first hotel stay of the trip in Ennis, Montana. It's not too far from Yellowstone, about 70 miles from the park and about 120 mi...