Final Destination... but not the movie...

Good Afternoon World! I have arrived in Calgary, and after 4 days and 4000+kms of driving.... this city couldn't come soon enough. Mat and I are both thoroughly exhausted, cramped, and feel a little brain-dead after staring at the prairies for hours and hours. But its over!

We woke up in Saskatoon Monday morning, grabbed some coffee and subs, and headed for Edmonton. Unfortunately, there is nothing to look at.... epic expanses of nothingness. Thankfully it wasn't too long a drive.

At the Alberta/Saskatchewan border, is the town of Lloydminster. It is literally on the border. So we wondered how things like taxes, licencing, education, etc get sorted out, since the border goes through the town. We were also expecting a big sign, like all of the other Provincial borders that we have crossed. Nope. Instead, there was a little tiny street sign and 5 or 6 big red poles. If we hadn't got stopped by the red light, we would've missed it all together!

We pulled into Edmonton, and headed for the biggest mall in the world, The West Edmonton Mall. After all, it was the main reason for this Northern detour, and lots of people that we asked, told us that we would need at least a day or two to see everything... we'll see about that. As we pulled into the parking lot, our initial impression was one of "It just looks like any other big mall."

So we went inside and started to look around.... WOW!

Was it massive? For sure. It had a water park with a wave pool, a movie theatre, an ice skating rink, theme park with roller coasters, a ton of restaurants, a water show area with sea lions and a pirate ship, mini-putt course, and a casino.

It was all really cool to see, however quite unnecessary, in my opinion. It was basically just Square One, The Eaton Center, or Yorkdale Mall, except with a TON of other things that I have never wanted in a mall. Have you ever thought, I need to go buy some new shoes and a pair of pants, and while I'm there why don't I take a swim, go for a skate, or lose all my shopping money at the casino before I can even buy anything? I haven't.



Paul Blart:
Edmonton Mall Cop

It was still really cool, and definitely worth seeing, however Mat and I managed to wander through the entire mall in 35 minutes. Then we hopped back in the car and headed South to Red Deer. 1 or 2 days to see it all? Maybe if we went into all of the stores, or if we wanted to blow a few hundred dollars.

In Red Deer we met up with one of Mat's old friends, Jay, at the Boston Pizza. They got to catch up while we took in some of the NHL and NBA playoff games and had a quick drink. Then it was back into the car, so that we could finish off the home stretch of the trip and get to Calgary.

Mat's brother Steve put together a map of our travels, from info and pictures that Mat kept sending him during the drive. Its pretty cool!


HOORAY! CALGARY!! We had arrived. Success.

We made our way through the city and got to Mat's new home, at his friend Johanna's place. We unloaded only the bare essentials and then just settled in for the night, to unwind, relax and enjoy some frosty beverages.

Tuesday was spent checking out some of the city, and Mat was constantly unloading all of his things and figuring out where it would all fit. Johanna is super nice and has been a great host, while I crash on her couch until Thursday, when I fly back to Hamilton. Although I might cough up some hairballs on the flight back, due to her two dogs Daisy and Aspen. No big deal, the coughing is working out my abs.


Time to get back to relaxing, before I start my crazy travels again tomorrow.
C.Stemp.Run... but thankfully not driving...