Zero Days: Calgary

Date: Sunday, June 18 - Tuesday, June 20, 2023

I'm behind on blog posts, so they're going to be shorter and likely far less thoughtful for a few days.

This is a summary of my time in Calgary.  My days off that allowed me to rest up from the punishing climbs of British Columbia and my 200km day just before arriving.  I have to admit I was really feeling it on my ride into Calgary.

SUNDAY

On Sunday I spent the morning visiting with Anne (who was hosting me).  In the afternoon I spent the day with my father (on Father's Day!).  This consisted of us dropping my bike off for a tune up at Bikebike in Calgary, and then walking through Inglewood.  Walking through the neighbourhood felt odd.  I'd just finished one month of visiting multiple new towns every single day, and so to walk around an area where I knew all the shops, signs, hours, streets, people working in the shops, and where to get whatever I wanted felt really odd.  I think it's because it felt like I was home.

I moved to Calgary in 2010 for my Masters degree, and since that time have always lived in Calgary for another year or two...for 13 years.  It's true what they say: life is what happens when you're busy making other plans.  I've also had a somewhat frought relationship with Cow Town.  It's the heart of Alberta and with that comes the good and the bad.  At times backwards looking, oil focused, conservative to a fault...and at other times wildly progressive, forward looking, risk taking and diverse.  Both of these are Calgary.  Since I moved here however, it's grown and matured so much.  And I can only imagine that in another 20 years it'll be that much further along.  I look forward to seeing which way it decides to go.

Dad and I explored Inglewood after dropping off my bike.  We had cannoli's at an Italian market, and then popped into the Esker Gallery (a free art gallery that I wish more Calgarians knew about) to visit the current exhibition.  It was a collection of works exploring the connection between the sounds and rhythms of the Earth and the sounds and rhythms of human beings.  It's always worth a visit!

Dark clouds were moving in though, and a storm was soon to hit the city that would last for two days.

After walking the residential streets of Inglewood we popped down to Taiko Canteen, the home of the best fried chicken sandwich in Calgary.  I'd been craving one for about 2000km and this was the only day to get it.  I enjoyed the time with my dad.  After dinner he dropped me off at my host's house and left to drive home to Fort McMurray.  As he drove off I felt the tears welling up.  I stood in the rain for a few minutes, wondering when I was going to see him next.

Happy Father's Day dad :)

That evening it was dinner at the Smith residence!  Anne had the meal prepped and we were joined by her son - and friend since my undergrad - Scott.  His girlfriend Desiree joined as well, and I was happy to meet her as I'd heard of her and was looking forward to meeting.  Dinner was divine.  Roast potatoes, chicken, salad, and BBQ roasted corn.  I hadn't seen Scott for a while and catching up with him while getting to know Desiree was a real treat!  After dinner we hung out and chatted more, until it was time for them to leave.  It was a quiet night in which I spent the time blogging and trying to catch up!

MONDAY

Monday was another day of catching up on sleep, organizing equipment, and blogging.  That one 4600 word post took quite a bit of crafting time!  Anne and I had breakfast and talked about the world's problems.  I cleaned out my tent, made a phone call with someone who will likely show up later in the trip, and had lunch.  In the afternoon she drove me to the Anderson LRT station as it was raining steadily.  I took the LRT into the city and met up with my close friend Alex.

Alex and I went to the University of Calgary together, and we were partners in crime (figuratively) in setting up and running The Information Security Club.  While in school we saw one another or talked almost every day.  It was an odd week if I didn't at least see Alex.  We'd taken up rock climbing together, hiked multiple times a summer together, and she's been one of my closest friends since going back to school in 2018.  She's also dynamic and driven with an amazing ability to ask the big picture questions about how something might affect society or the larger world.  She recently graduated with degrees with Political Science AND a degree in Computer Science.  I was sad to miss the ceremony.  But Alex is keen and full of life, and the fact that she spent so much time putting up with an old hunk of coal like me is a testament to her character.

She traveled to The Netherlands in late April and I drove her to the airport.  When I dropped her off she asked me if/when she would see me again.  I honestly wasn't sure, but I thought I'd be leaving for this bike trip before she was back.  And I did.  So at this point it had been almost 2 months since we'd seen one another, and we'd both been on some pretty intense adventures.  All of this to explain that I was very happy to see her again.

We went for coffee and spent a few hours catching each other up on our travels, work, and where we were in life.  Time flies when you're in good company.  We were joined by James (an ode to him can be found in the Jeremy Cool post, he was the one who put that together) and we went for dinner at a Vietnamese place (which I will not name...it's too special).  We grabbed my freshly tuned bike from Bikebike.  James revealed he'd bought some gummy candy for me.  It was awful.  But that was kind of the point because we all ate it together and laughed at how bad it was!

We had beer at 33 Acres, then to Village Ice Cream for a scoop.  These are some of my favourite places in what used to be my neighbourhood.  We all walked back to Inglewood and at some point it was time to part ways.

We all hugged and said our goodbyes for real this time.  There was no future date that I knew I'd see them again.  They were two of my closest friends in Calgary and it felt like another page in the end of this chapter of life.  I walked around the corner trying to choke back tears.  My next meeting was right around the corner, but this parting was a tough one and I had to take a minute to compose myself.  The aching, hollow feeling in my chest let me know just how much they meant to me, and how much I was going to miss being able to see them whenever I wanted again.

Around the corner I found my next meeting with a friend from my Masters degree: Ruth.  Ruth and I started the degree at the same time and she was one of the people who helped keep me sane.  Her sense of humour, grounded ability to put things into perspective, and friendship helped keep a smile on my face in some pretty difficult times.  We hadn't seen one another in almost 8 or 9 years, and it took a while to go through what had happened in that time.  Her husband is also someone I got to know and I'm sorry to have missed him that night, but someone had to watch the kids!

After some beer and two hours of conversation, it was time to go again.  I said goodbye to Ruth, hugged, and walked away.  I forgot to get a picture of us.

I biked in the rain back to City Hall to catch the LRT.  I stopped at the Calgary Public Library central branch to take a picture.  This place is incredible and I spent a lot of time there.  It was the last time I would see it for who knows how long.

A quiet, rainy train ride home and it was straight to bed.

TUESDAY

I woke up and set to work on laundry, pulling out the cold weather gear and extra stuff I hadn't been using from my panniers.  I'd been carrying a lot of extra weight and it was time to pare it down!  I managed to pull out quite a bit, and lightened the load considerably.

I did laundry, showered, shaved, and took a nap (the first one in over a month).  Anne and I had lunch again.

I was going back into downtown to meet people who I hadn't had time to see yet.  A few weren't able to make it, but I set a time and place and people started showing up!

The first was Delara, who I went to school with for Computer Science and worked closely with in The Information Security Club.  She's another of those special people.  Her sense of humour always makes me laugh.  Her quiet nature masks a wicked intelligence.  And her view of the world always intrigues me, always positing viewpoints I hadn't considered.  Any time with Delara is always good time, and I'm happy to be able to call her friend.

James joined us (again, an ode to James is in another post).  We talked for a short time before we were joined by someone I had done my Masters degree with.  By chance, he'd just shown up at the same place!  Dr. Tim Choi went on to do his PhD after our Masters and is one of Canada's foremost naval experts.  I'm lucky enough to have been friends with him before all of that, so it was a welcome and unexpected reunion to see him again.

We were then joined by Adam, who had done the same Masters program as I had only a few years after.  Adam - as fate would have it - had biked across Canada in 2011.  The rest of the evening was spent exchanging stories, him giving me advice, and lots of laughing.

Eventually it was time for us all to part.  We all said goodbye and slowly broke apart as we headed to the LRT.  Another difficult parting.  Another page to end this chapter.

I sat on the LRT on the way home feeling emotionally drained.  I cried a little more at not knowing when I'd see these people again.  The cold rain seemed to only heighten the sadness.  There were more people I'd missed meeting in Calgary, and I'm sorry to all of your!

When I got home, I went to sleep quickly.  Tomorrow I would be leaving Calgary, and there were still more tears to shed.  I needed to rest.