Date: November 21, 2005 - Kilometers Traveled: 530 Weather: Warm and cloudy

We arrived in Calgary at about 1:30 local time. We are now in the Mountain Time Zone which is 3.5 hours behind Newfoundland. For those of you who have been asking why the postings have been so late in the past few days…this is why.

Coming through Saskatchewan we saw a herd of antelope (or pronghorn). I got a couple of pictures, but they were so far away that I had to use my film camera with the telephoto lens. I will have to get the film developed and scan the pictures for a future posting.

Aside from some deer and the antelope the only other things of note were the oil dereks and the Rockies. The oil pumps are dotted all over the farmscape out here. They sit on the ground in the distance, silently pumping black gold into their pipelines. The volume of oil production here must be massive, if the number of dereks one can spy from the highway are any indication. It’s no wonder that the province of Alberta is getting set to post a surplus in the billions of dollars this year. I wonder if Newfoundland and Labrador will ever be in that position?

We will be staying here in Calgary for two nights because we have a bit of sightseeing to do – the Calgary Tower, the Saddledome, McMahon Stadium, etc. Lorie has lived here – in the early 1990’s, so she knows a little about the place. Calgary is a clean city, there isn’t much trash kicking about and one can tell that there is money in this city. The University of Calgary has some impressive facilities for sport.

Lorie did most of the driving today, which was a welcome break for me. The driving, again, was a pleasure because of the wide, divided straight, flat, highways, the 110 km/h limit, and the excellent weather. Tonight here in Calgary one can comfortably go outside in a t-shirt - pretty impressive for November!

Cheers for now!