Where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain

Today we said goodbye to Sandy as we headed to Calgary. Most of the drive was through Alberta farmland. We passed by the town of Vulcan, which is known as the Official Star Trek Capital of Canada. We headed to Okotoks Erratic, a 18,500 ton (16,500 tonne) glacial boulder near the town of Okotoks. It was worth the 10 minute stop to walk around the boulder, but not much more. There was a group of kids on a field trip. We have to say it was pretty boring for a field trip. As we passed, a teacher told the kids “If you’re upside down, now would be a good time to right yourself.” The rest of the kids were racing each other around the path.

We arrived in Calgary to run a few errands. We needed Diesel and found a Costco that sold Diesel. But we had a major problem: Costco in Canada only takes Mastercard. Not even a Costco Visa card from the USA. Visa is not everywhere we want to be. You can pay by debit card, but only a Canadian debit card. We could have paid by a Costco cash card, but then we would have to go into the store to buy a shop card with Canadian cash just to pay at the pump. Not even Amy’s mother would go that far.

After stopping for groceries, we went to a camera store because one of Greg’s camera lenses was not working. Driving the RV through downtown Calgary was not quite as bad as we feared, though it was extremely helpful that the camera store had their own parking lot. Finally, we visited with Yuriy and his family. Greg and Yuriy worked together at Gurobi for over 7 years. We visited with them, played with their dog (of course!) and saw their extensive collection of Legos and stuffed animals. It’s always good to visit friends when traveling.