July 8-9, 2007
Still at Calgary

We spent the morning & afternoon of the 8th at Heritage Park, primarily a collection turn of the century old wooden buildings within a theme park circled by its own railroad. (click to view) I suppose for fans of Alberta history, it would be interesting, but the best part for me was the bus-ride back to our camp. Won't be back to this place, soon. Should have gone to the Zoo. (Camel photo by Kaye Kimberlin)

After a great dinner at the Red and White Club at McMahon Stadium (and entertainment by Miss Molly), the weather was very mild. By 10:30 p.m., when Carly had ‘last call’ it was a warm 70+, no wind. The nicest it had been all day. By 3 a.m., the wind was howling outside and by 7, rain was spattering. Chilly. It was going to be a miserable day.

But Calgary weather is schizophrenic, as we are finding out. Dressing warmly for our 9 a.m. bus-ride to the Calgary Tower for breakfast, the wind soon abated as we sat in a booth atop the tower, watching the city slowly turn underneath us (or, more accurately, we were turning above the city). Finishing breakfast, we headed back to the Stampede grounds on the C-Train.

We entered the gizmo market again, intent on making a few purchases. One of our purchases was a PVA Blue mop---which can do miracle-work on dirty or wet floors. The same pitch-man was there as had been there a few nights ago. We had him run through the entire dump-the-dirty-water-on-the-floor-and-mop-it up presentation. It was soon obvious that his first few days in Calgary had already presented him with a new challenge---some sort of skin disorder, possibly caused by where he was sleeping, who (or what) he was sleeping with, or , perhaps the inablity to locate a laundromat.

The symptoms of his new found affliction caused him to itch various parts of his body as he was making his spiel, rubbing vigorously about his buttocks (or ‘bum’ as they say in Canuck-land) , and then his crotch and his legs, then back to his buttocks. It was amazing how he could manipulate the mop and scratch where-it-needed-to-be-scratched at the same time. After purchasing our mops, we slunk away. This was not a person one would want to shake hands with.

We purchased a few other gizmo-related articles and then made our first video (click here for an excerpt). Now this was throwing away $20 for sure, but it’s the closest we’ll come to making American Idol.

We returned to camp to rest up, waiting for the grand extravaganza finish to our Calgary stay this evening, back to the Stampede grounds.