Jan 9 - ups and downs

Yes, it was a day of ups and downs.

-- Down from the mountains into the Calgary area and then gradually declining elevation after that. All is not flat east of Calgary though. The land rolls with some dramatic (in flatlander terms) descents into river valleys (like the Red Deer River) and then climbing back out. The land is not really flat. Yes it might seem flat if you look at the miles ahead, back and to either side, but it rolls gently. If I was riding my bike it would not seem flat. When I rode across the country, Kansas was flat -- at least in the west -- really flat and not rolling. Alberta and Saskatchewan roll.

-- Up came the temperature and then down again, up again and then down, seesawing by about 8C a few times. The warmest was about +6C. The coldest about -10. The warmest was in Calgary; the coldest soon afterward as we drove out of that band of warm air into the cold.

-- Spirits were down -- shortly after starting the fan clutch proved that its malfunction was not a freak ... and it stayed locked for the remainder of the day. As we drove along Trans Canada 1 just east of Canmore I thought that I heard the fan spin up and sure enough, when I pulled over to check, we were driving that airplane again. I slowed down.

-- Spirits were up -- we made it to Saskatoon without needing the assistance of a flatbed ... I hesitated to even talk about it until we were only a couple of dozen kms from Saskatoon. How do you spell relief ?

-- speed and revs were down -- due to the malfunctioning fan, I kept the rpm's below 2500 ... in fact, most of the time we hovered around 2200 ... thank goodness that I have 6 forward gears on the X5. I kept the speed below 95 kph, most of the time at 92 kph. The speed limit was 100 kph across highways 9 and 7 and traffic was light. When do you think the last time was that I spent 8 hours traveling under the speed limit ? ... like never ! I pulled over a couple of times to encourage trucks to pass me. Most cars needed no encouragement.

Only across the prairies can the NAV tell us that the next turn is in 491 km. Navigation was not an issue yesterday ! We crossed the half-way point between Calgary and Saskatoon around noon Mountain Time, giving me some confidence that if we needed a tow, it would be eastward, not retracing our steps. I then called the dealer in Calgary and cancelled the appointment for Monday.

I also called the dealer in Saskatoon and verified their opening time on Monday -- 7:30 -- I'll be waiting for them. With a little luck, the expected 1.7 hours of labour (quoted by the Calgary dealer) will take place quickly and we'll continue our drive on Monday. We were only planning on getting to Brandon on Monday, which is about a 4 hour drive. We'll see. Hopefully the repair will be straightforward, the part will be correct and they'll get to us early in the morning. I won't repack the car before going to the dealer.

The road conditions were excellent with good vis and bare roads. A couple of times I could sense that condensation on the roads might have made it a little slippery, but hey, we were traveling at our sedate pace and the cruise control did its job. It was probably the best day of driving that we've had with never any snow on the road. The sideroads off the Trans Canada were a different matter. You could see the snow on those roads, whether they were paved or gravel. There is not much snow on the ground, but then again, with it being so flat you probably don't ever see deep snow.

We arrived at Sue and Don's before 5:30 pm Central Time and had to contend with the two dogs going crazy for a bit. Abby, of course, goes crazy with new people. Yuki (sp?) went crazy with having company of the human and canine sort. Yuki is a 6 month old yellow lab, a beautiful dog and very calm for a 6 month old, after that first period. During dinner she stayed in her crate without a sound while Abby lounged on one of the three dog pillows.

It was Don's turn to cook -- he is the cook on the weekends -- and we had fresh Saskatchewan pickerel -- what a treat -- "hunter carrots" as he called them (stir fried), noodles and salad. We ate well and chatted into the evening. Don usually turns in before 10 p.m. so the joke was that I shouldn't be shy about turning in myself. I did so around 10 p.m.; I read for probably 3 minutes; I slept like the dead. I think that Sandy and Sue stayed up yakking; I have no idea when Sandy came to bed.

Today there are no big plans. Don has gone to work at the hospital - he's a doctor - and will be back after noon sometime. Sandy and Sue are still in bed. I'm going to Mass at 11am, less than 1km from here. I may walk. That will depend on the ambient temperature. There will be a gang for dinner tonight, the usual Sunday night family dinner, so our timing is perfect.

Sue and Don still have their Christmas decorations up. To give you some idea of what that entails, it takes Sue two weeks to decorate for Christmas. It's amazing ... I'll have to take some pictures later. Don's responsibility is outside and he, as usual, built a castle in the front yard. He's done this for many years, well into the teens if I remember correctly, using 70+ milk and juice cartons to freeze water into bricks. All of the neighbours collect their cartons for him; it's quite the showpiece. We had seen pictures before but they did not do it justice. More pictures are required ...

I'm sure the day will pass quickly. I'm sure that tomorrow will pass much more slowly ... especially if I spend it sitting at the BMW dealer just to emphasize the fact that I want the car as soon as possible. It's only 6km away, so if it comes down to that I'll get a ride back to Sue's.

Onward, as always. Time always moves onward, even if we're sitting still for a day.