On July 28, 2023, there was off-and-on rain in the morning. Joan and I packed up after breakfast and headed to Canmore to shop at Le Chocolatier, a fabulous chocolate manufacturer. For a long time we've stopped there on the final day of our Canada visits. Alas, we arrived just after 10am, but they open at 11. No problem, we'll go to the Kananaskis visitor's center and donate the bear spray we purchased there two weeks ago. (They can use it for demonstrations but cannot resell it. And we can't take it on airplanes!) We took the back way, Highway 1A to 1X to 1. When we returned to Canmore, Le Chocolatier was open, and Joan and I loaded up.
We then took Highway 1 east for a few exits and hopped onto 1A for a scenic drive, the early parts of which go through the Stoney Nakoda First Nation. It's a scenic, slower, two-lane route; sometimes, horses are grazing on the roadside. Then, Joan and I enjoyed lunch at Aama, in Cochrane. We sampled yak stew, flatbread, yak momos, and chicken "chow mein" -- noodles with great spicing. Did you know there is more than one yak ranch in Alberta?!
Finally we drove on, returned our rental car, and at the airport hotel prepared for the next day. Or so we thought. The next morning, we walked the entire length of the airport to check in for our 7:30am flight with United. There weren't true check-in counters at the far end, but stand-alone machines and two personnel behind the counter to accept our baggage. We entered our info, and the kiosk spat out our baggage tags (put them on yourself) and boarding passes.
We inspected our boarding passes. Whoa! Our itinerary had been simple -- Calgary to Chicago to Columbus. What we now held passes for was Calgary to Chicago to Dulles to Columbus. It turned out that a crew member for our flight had arrived late the night before, and given the mandatory rest period for aircrew, we were going to leave Calgary at least four hours late. Needless to say, we had time to kill. At least we had some views (and reading material).
Chicago was hectic, but Joan and I managed to board our flight to Dulles. Approaching Dulles, we could see lightning flashing in the clouds, and you can bet we worried whether our plane would be able to land. Fortunately, it could. As Joan and I marched the length of Dulles to our next gate, it was obvious that many earlier flights had indeed been canceled -- the queue for customer service was as long as half the airport, and folks were sleeping on the floor.
Luckily, our plane was still destined to depart. But the gate agents couldn't tell us when: United was still scrounging up an aircrew. They arrived in dribs and drabs, including a pilot that looked like he was fresh out of high school. When we finally boarded the plane, the pilot announced that we had to wait a bit longer because the aircraft hadn't been refueled.
Eventually we took off and landed in Columbus. We arrived back at our house at 3:00am. When we woke up, Joan and I were stunned to see that three skyscraping honey locusts had blown down when we were gone.
Fortunately, they had fallen parallel to the yard, not into it or our house. The stairs in the photo belong to a neighbor. Nothing was damaged except other trees, and our bank account for removing the locusts. One still had enough of a trunk that a climbing specialist had to go up at least three stories to dismantle it piece by piece.
It had been a rewarding trip, but with frustrating airline troubles both going and returning.
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