NOTE: Yesterday’s blog contained a video, which may have been easy to miss. Look for the little arrow on the picture, and give it a click…
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So, the photo above is a glimpse into a typical moment in the Such Is Life world as we know it.
Yesterday, Mrs. That Dan Guy, one of her colleagues, and I departed Calgary for a work event of theirs that we had bought tickets for. A ride on a restored steam train, to be spiced up by a mock train robbery, and eventually topped off with a delightful roast beef dinner, before returning to the station, and then returning back to home base.
Such was not the case…
After allowing ample time to make the trek out to Stettler Alberta, we departed on what started off as a blue-skied, sunny day. And drove into an angry, pelting rainstorm. It was coming down like liquid bullets, from an unseen machine gun.
But that didn’t really affect our travel. It was just funny that we managed to hit a bad storm along the way.
(Did I mention the bold lettering emblazoned on the tickets, warning that the train would leave right on time, regardless of your own prompt arrival? That comes into play, later…)
At any rate, we continued to make what we all thought was great time, classic music from the 1970’s playing in the background. We agreed to make a brief stop in Red Deer, to have a quick meal, before we completed our drive to Stettler. We chose to stop at a combination Wendy’s/Tim Horton’s, where the Wendy’s was fairly quiet, but the Tim Horton’s was lined up out the parking lot, and well into Saskatchewan.
I was able to eat my entire meal, before the ladies had even shuffled halfway through the lineup to Timmy’s. Allowing about the time of conception-to-birth for an infant kangaroo, they eventually were able to order beverages, and we made it back towards our chariot.
As we reprogrammed the navigation system, we became somewhat aware that our nominal pee break stop may have pinched our timeline somewhat. We did a quick bit of math, and determined that we had about 15 minutes to drive a distance equal to being 30 minutes away. Somehow, this was not obvious to us BEFORE we stopped.
With MTDG reading the declaration of train departure rules off of our tickets, MTDG then did something she has never done before. She advised me to put the pedal to the metal, and “fly like a maniac”.
So, I did in fact break my long-standing respect of the laws of the land, and drove like an idiot, well above (but respectfully mindful of) the speed limit.
However, Stettler is located in rural Alberta. It also happened to be harvest time in rural Alberta, so we frequently sped up to enormous, hulking, wide loads of farm equipment being moved around the various acreages. Going about 12 miles an hour, if even that fast.
Bobbing and weaving like a cartoon character in a video game, we navigated like giddy bees at honey time past all these freakin’ roadblocks, but still found ourselves about 16 minutes away, with 1 minute left on the clock.
You can probably guess what happened. Despite racing and defying death, the picture above shows me standing beside an empty train track, at a deserted train station. We missed the boat, so to speak.
This is just the sort of thing that happens rather frequently, here at the Such Is Life household…
Chow for now!!
After allowing ample time to make the trek out to Stettler Alberta, we departed on what started off as a blue-skied, sunny day. And drove into an angry, pelting rainstorm. It was coming down like liquid bullets, from an unseen machine gun.
But that didn’t really affect our travel. It was just funny that we managed to hit a bad storm along the way.
(Did I mention the bold lettering emblazoned on the tickets, warning that the train would leave right on time, regardless of your own prompt arrival? That comes into play, later…)
At any rate, we continued to make what we all thought was great time, classic music from the 1970’s playing in the background. We agreed to make a brief stop in Red Deer, to have a quick meal, before we completed our drive to Stettler. We chose to stop at a combination Wendy’s/Tim Horton’s, where the Wendy’s was fairly quiet, but the Tim Horton’s was lined up out the parking lot, and well into Saskatchewan.
I was able to eat my entire meal, before the ladies had even shuffled halfway through the lineup to Timmy’s. Allowing about the time of conception-to-birth for an infant kangaroo, they eventually were able to order beverages, and we made it back towards our chariot.
As we reprogrammed the navigation system, we became somewhat aware that our nominal pee break stop may have pinched our timeline somewhat. We did a quick bit of math, and determined that we had about 15 minutes to drive a distance equal to being 30 minutes away. Somehow, this was not obvious to us BEFORE we stopped.
With MTDG reading the declaration of train departure rules off of our tickets, MTDG then did something she has never done before. She advised me to put the pedal to the metal, and “fly like a maniac”.
So, I did in fact break my long-standing respect of the laws of the land, and drove like an idiot, well above (but respectfully mindful of) the speed limit.
However, Stettler is located in rural Alberta. It also happened to be harvest time in rural Alberta, so we frequently sped up to enormous, hulking, wide loads of farm equipment being moved around the various acreages. Going about 12 miles an hour, if even that fast.
Bobbing and weaving like a cartoon character in a video game, we navigated like giddy bees at honey time past all these freakin’ roadblocks, but still found ourselves about 16 minutes away, with 1 minute left on the clock.
You can probably guess what happened. Despite racing and defying death, the picture above shows me standing beside an empty train track, at a deserted train station. We missed the boat, so to speak.
This is just the sort of thing that happens rather frequently, here at the Such Is Life household…
Chow for now!!
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