Haloranch

This was our first experience with the ATC and it was fabulous! We drove to Pocatello the first night. That's 11 hours from Calgary. Long, but doable because on the first day you're keen to get going and cover as much distance as you can. Our hostess Kathleen is a retired teacher and quite charming, though possibly lonely because she had a lot to say. That was no problem because one of the things she said was that Ming's had great Chinese food and we had already decided that was what we wanted to eat. Since the ATC "gratuity" for your host is a paltry $20 per couple per night, we invited her to join us as our guest and had a lovely dinner followed by an even more pleasant evening lubricated with a little wine before heading off to an early bed. After a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs, she sent us on our way with apples, pears and a bag full of tomatoes from her garden. She even wanted to include sandwiches. So, for the cost of a dinner and twenty ...

We overnighted at the Double A Ranch in Calgary before heading south for Mesa. In the middle of the night, around 3:00 a.m. I heard a car start up. It's the wee hours of Wednesday morning and I'm pondering the few reasons why someone would get into their car at that time. It could only have been a tryst.

Driving around and through Winnipeg, what struck me first were how many churches I saw. Churches with steeples,and bells, which is something I haven't seen much outside of Quebec. And other than churches, the most plentiful item we saw were parks. Gorgeous green parks everywhere. Down Portage there's an incredibly wide boulevard flanked by rows of huge, mature trees marching in a straight line down both sides, facing the streets. The center of the boulevard is lush greenery with park benches and looked very inviting. I bet on a nice day it's full of people. Today it was empty. Ergo, not a nice day. Also Sunday, so maybe the people were in some of the many churches. Lots of the little buildings and older shops downtown are brightly painted with flowers and other pictures. Looks cheerful and cute, and much better than being graffitied with tags from the local gangs. On the outskirts of the city, heading east on TC #1, the road was a patchwork of repairs and hideousl...

We're off to the Rotary International Convention. First stop, Mike's place in Calgary where we enjoyed a beautiful evening but short night. Barely 5 hours of sleep and off we were on a long drive to Winnipeg. In the end, it took us *only* 12 hours of concerted driving to get there. Hans, as always, did the lion's share while I suffered through 2 hours of driving. SASKATCHEWAN Saskatchewan: an old Indian saying meaning, "No hill high enough to jump from and hurt yourself." Saying the road in Saskatchewan is boring is an understatement. It could have been the minimal sleep, or the straight but bumpy road, but soon the silver tanker truck in front of me was shimmering. It was unclear whether my eyes were out of focus or the sun was to blame but luckily, it was time to fill up the car and then Hans took over again. HILTON HOTEL SUITES Well, this turned out to be everything we hoped for! We have a one bedroom suite. You walk into the living room with desk, sofa,...

I should write a bit about Sugarloaf, which gave us some stunning views of the city, mountain and ocean. But now that the vacation is over, I'm strangely remote from it all. Already it seems so long ago. In the next week I'll post some photos throughout the blog where appropriate, and tie everything together. And then the blog gets a rest until our next adventure.

Our fabulous day in Rio was bookended by a dismal disembarkation system and an even worse boarding procedure at the airport. But in between it was great. More about that later. Due to an unusual sea current which was completely unexpected in this part of the ocean, our already overdue arrival in Rio was delayed by a further 30 minutes bringing us to 11:30 at the dock. Original docking time was 7:00 a.m. Luckily, we had let Princess know we had independent travel arrangements and were being met at 9:00 a.m. so we were amongst the first groups to disembark. However, that still took us to almost 1:30 and I wondered if Paulo, our tour guide who was meeting us at noon would still be there. The entire delay can be laid at the feet of the Brazilian officials who have an archaic and ill planned system of granting entry. First, the officials had to board the ship and set themselves up, 4 here and 4 there, to personally view every passengers passport. Yes indeed. And once inspected for t...

Wow. This is a gorgeous, gorgeous city. On our approach we sailed right past Sugarloaf, so close we could have swum to its base. We could see the cable cars moving back and forth between Sugarloaf and its smaller sister. Couldn’t wait to get there! In the distance facing the harbor we could just make out the enormous Christ the Redeemer statue. It was still early, about 9:30 a.m. and a light haze covered the city so the statue was just faintly visible, almost just an impression of itself. Again, couldn’t wait to see it.