Day 8: Claresholm to Calgary

Today's trip was by far the shortest distance-wise at around 120km, but Calgary was a very busy stop for yours truly.


The view of one of the greatest cities in the world from Memorial Drive. Every time I visit, I remember just what a great place Calgary is.







When one is in Calgary during Stampede, and one is hungry... one finds the most happenin pancake breakfast in town. This morning, the obvious venue is the Jim Prentice Stampede Breakfast!

Before the breakfast ended, a reader by the name of Les Stelmach came over to say hello. Not only was it very humbling to have people who read the blog come up off the street to chat, but it was particularily nice to talk to Les. As you may have guessed, Les is the son of PC Leadership Candidate Ed Stelmach. I have a lot of respect for Ed, Marie, and their entire family. They are truly decent and outgoing people. After spending 10 minutes chatting with Les, it is clear that he has inherited his father's approachability and positive attitude. Thank for reading, and for stopping to say hi!



With the host, the Honourable Jim Prentice, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and MP for Calgary Centre-North. A great guy who has his act together, and will (I think) prove to be Canada's greatest Indian Affairs minister.








I spent the rest of the day driving around and meeting up with various friends in Calgary.

While on the Deerfoot, I spotted this loaded down Mazda with New Brunswick plates... obviously headed west to catch a piece of the Albertan Dream. This is a fairly common sight in Alberta these days.






Aside from this roadtrip and the move to BC, one of the highlights of my summer will be in 2 weeks when my good friend Kevin (in this photo) marries the charming girl to his left. They're both truly wonderful people and I can't wait to see them wed. I've known Kevin for 10 years now... I look forward to knowing Kev and Dee for many, many more.








I didn't bother with an odometer reading for this leg given that it was so short... chalk it up as roughly 150km driven today.