Just In Time

As I eluded to in my last blog, the weather in Calgary in September and October was gorgeous until that is, the weather forecasters began strutting their stuff on TV mentioning not only the likelihood of deteriorating weather coming soon, but also the increasing use of the "S" word was what really made the decision for us to get on the road and head south again as soon as possible.  

Prior to leaving, we had arranged to meet up with some of our good friends for lunch at the Danish Canadian Club.  We had a pleasant unhurried lunch with them and after some goodbyes in the parking lot, we let the rubber-hit- the-road and headed south towards the US border.

We decided to drive as far as Lethbridge, Alberta - grab a hotel room and go for supper with Donna's son Steve who is finishing his university courses in Lethbridge.  We had a good visit with him, and after bidding Steve goodnight, we headed back to the hotel and turned in for the night.

It was around 4:00 am when I turned on the bedside lamp and started clanking around the room trying to ever-so-gently pry my lovely wife from her sleep.  She got the message pretty quickly and after a groan and a few frustrated puffs later, she ever so slowly alighted from the bed, and was "up and at em" as she always is when she is going on vacation.  I reminded her that this vacation is hopefully forever.  By then the coffee maker had done its stuff and by 5:00 am we were on the road heading for the Coutts Border Crossing.

I love to drive in the dark, but over the years we have seen a lot of road-kill in northern Montana and Idaho and this early getaway would bring these points home once more.  

As we left the safety of the well lit roads of Lethbridge and disappeared into the darkness, it was not 15 minutes later that I saw through my peripheral vision, a gathering of large shadowy objects which turned out to be mule deer barely visible through the darkness grazing off to the side of the highway.  The radio was off to allow me more concentration, and I thought to myself, it's time to switch onto full beams and be extra vigilant as we sped silently through the darkness.

I could not imagine the amount of damage that would result from a collision with one of these magnificent animals.  We had just paid off the truck, so it was doubly important to keep my concentration on the road as we drove onwards toward the border.     

We pulled up to the US border customs at 6:08 am.  It was still pitch black.  We greeted the customs officer with a positive "hello how are you today" but it fell on either deaf or tired ears.  I wondered to myself, how long the gentleman sat inside the booth had been on duty at this relatively lonely outpost.  

I handed the customs agent our passports and Nexus Cards.  He stared out of his window at us and after issuing us a sharp and unfriendly lecture on why we did not need to hand him our passports AND our Nexus Cards he went on to say that we had obviously not read the Nexus Card Rules or we would have known better.  

I stared blankly back at him choosing to keep my mouth firmly shut.  He handed back our items and with a half smile on his face that resembled the stucco on the side of our house in Mesquite, he bid us a safe journey and we headed south on the Interstate 15 Highway.  As dawn took over, we switched on the radio and began to relax a little.

We drove to Pocatello Idaho, a 950 Km drive which took us about 8 ½ hours, and after a quick bite to eat in the bar we headed off to bed.  

The now all-too-familiar early morning shuffling around the room, again produced the desired result and we hit the road by 6:00 am pulling into Mesquite, just after noon - a record for us.   

It was 82 degrees Fahrenheit when we arrived as opposed to the forecast -20C (with the windchill) and 10 - 20 cms. of snow (4 - 8 inches for our US readers) expected in Calgary the same day.  

We were happy to be back at our desert home once again.  After calling in to Smith's Grocery Store en-route, and stocking up with the bare essentials for the next few days, we headed to our home and now looked forward to over two months of bliss.

      

The next couple of days would be spent renewing acquaintances with neighbours, catching up on the local news, vacuuming and dusting, and generally getting the house back in shape after a months absence.  

Two days later, would see about 20 of us set off for the one hour drive to Las Vegas for two evenings of Halloween fun.

We all arrived at the Golden Nugget on Fremont Street at about the same time.  All but two couples were housed on the same floor in the same tower……….now there's trouble waiting to happen.

We arranged to meet at Jerry and Liane's room at 4pm.  As more and more people gathered and the hum of laughter and conversation increased, we must have attracted the attention or the ire of one of the other residents on the same floor.

Donna and Carol with Sam……being Sam

 

Carol, Donna and Lisa discussing how much they plan to win in Vegas

Gary, Liane, Frank and Lanny 

Cydni with Anne and Carol

Sam, Carol, Frank, Bill and Judee at breakfast at the Golden Nugget on Halloween

As I was taking photo's of the gathering, I remember looking out of the open door and saw an unknown person talking to a few of the group.  With all the laughter in the room, I could not hear what was being said, but it did not look good.  

A couple of minutes later, I learned what was said was if the hotel staff had to come  back up to the room once more because of the noise, the occupants of that room would be evicted….Oh oh, not good.  

Immediately half of the room was transformed from Laughing couples to everyone creeping around the room, with index fingers held close to their lips shushing everyone else into quietness and explaining why.  

We all decided that maybe a better option would be to pack up our drinks and munchies and meet in one of the bars downstairs rather than cause someone grief.  

Liane and Jerry having a chat with Donna at the breakfast buffet.

Halloween is always a fun time, but Halloween on Fremont Street is something special.  Literally hundreds of people had put an awful lot of work into costumes for this night.  We walked up and down the street amazed at the amount of effort people had made to look the part for Halloween.

And then there was this!  Yup, Jerry is definitely into Halloween and ever so slightly outside his comfort zone.  

As they say…..Only in America.  

Jerry and wife Liane (his pimp)
on Halloween at the Golden Nugget

Jerry was getting dollar bills shoved down his cleavage or into his pockets from appreciative onlookers and in Jerry's inimitable way, before he left Fremont Street, he walked along handing those dollar bills to the homeless, and those down on their luck.  That's who Jerry is.  

Inevitably, we all ended up back inside the Casino later on and once more were reminded as to why they call Las Vegas, "lost wages".  Few if any of us came out with more than we went with.

Upon our return to Mesquite later that week, the girls went for their traditional slot tournament while the men went for the breakfast buffet at the Virgin River Casino as we do each week.  

Donna came back home excited she was on the list of the top ten and possibly therefore, in the prize money if no-one else beat her score on the slots.  

We had to return to the Casino around 3pm that day as the last of the slot players were winding up their games.  Sadly, we looked at the list and saw she was out of the running for cash that day.  Oh well, she enjoyed it as she and her friends always do every Thursday.  

Seeing as we were there, we decided to play the penny slots for a while then Donna disappeared off into another part of the Casino.  I continued to play and she re-appeared about 15 minutes later.  

How are you doing? I asked.  "I have $40 here" she said, showing me the redeemed ticket from a slot machine.  I am down $40 I replied, then she smiled and said AND….. she then pulled out of her purse almost $1000 in hundred dollar bills she had just won the jackpot on a minimum bet of 35 cents on the penny slots…..Yahoo!  We're in the money.

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As I write this blog, it is almost mid November.  The sun is up and it is almost 75 degrees outside at 11:00 am.  The forecast is for temperatures to cool a bit to the low and mid 60's then rebound in five days time.  What more could one want.  

As we head toward US thanksgiving on Nov 28th, there is just one more celebration to prepare for - Donna's Birthday Nov 25th.  As anticipated, she has chosen to celebrate it back in Las Vegas which is fine by me.  She always manages to find us free rooms.  This time, she found us a king suite in the Rio for two nights.  Yes free rooms.  They are out there if you look hard enough.  Good on ya babe!

In early December, we have agreed to have some friends around to learn how to cook East Indian food.  We will cook saffron flavoured basmati rice, beef curry, vegetable pakoras, batato wada and butter chicken.  It should be a fun time.  Our friends will all meet at our house.  Donna and I will show them the various spices and tell them where they originated from and how to use them.

They in turn will prepare the food and cook it at our home under our guidance and of course ably assisted by heaps of East Indian cookbooks and some great recipes we have down here.  After the food is all cooked, we will all sit down together and hopefully enjoy what we have made.  

These are great times for socializing  laughter and fun and needless to say, it's something different for them to do, as Americans are not as used to East Indian food as is Canada and the UK.

In anticipation of that, we have to find an Indian grocery store that stocks what items we need.  Thank God for Google.  I have found an East Indian grocery and food store in Las Vegas where I can pick up all the fresh spices and gram flour etc, that we will need to create our dishes  in early December.  Donna and I will pick up the supplies when we go for her birthday in two weeks time.  

On Dec 11th we and our neighbours next door are also planning a neighbours Christmas "open house" which are always fun gatherings at this time of the year.    

This will be the last of our posts for 2013.  The next one will come from Calgary in January sometime as we settle in to re-adjust our clocks for the time spent in the US and do some house-sitting for our friends who are going down to their home in Arizona for four months.  

While we are in Calgary, we will book our flights to Costa Rica for a two month stay beginning sometime late April or early May.  After that, we may head to Panama for a couple of months.  We are still looking for a place to retire too in the sun.  

One last thought before we go.  I just had an email from one of our former Realtors®, clients and a good friend who moved back to Ontario.  Jane was driving her vehicle out to the farm to walk her dog and on the way there, was injured in a very bad crash in Ontario recently.  Some idiot decided to overtake two vehicles in a no overtaking area and collided head on with Jane at 60 kmph.  

She has some breaks and cuts and bruises but is now recovering in a wheelchair.  Indications are, that she will be OK eventually, but looking at the car I am amazed she got out alive.  Thank god for the "Jaw's of Life" and for the wonderful Police, Fire and EMS Services that helped cut her out of the vehicle and got her to hospital and help.

The picture above is that of her vehicle, another reminder that accidents sometimes happen that aren't caused by the driver of the vehicle. 

We sincerely hope that Jane fully recovers as soon as possible and can get back to living a normal life.  We are thinking of you Jane.  I am sure that all who read this will be too.   

The reason I have included this is that It is also a reminder at this time of year, that if you are going to have a celebratory drink over Christmas and live in Calgary, please don't be tempted to drive.  We care about you all.  All you need to do is to call "Keys Please " by clicking on the link you can get the number.  It's a great service to use and they are just a phone call away.  They will drive out to where you are partying, pick up your vehicle, and drive it and you, safely back home for roughly the cost of a taxi.  It doesn't get any better than that.

So, as we close out our blogs for 2013 we would both like to wish you all the very best of the season be it Christmas or Hanukkah and to you all, have a Happy New Year and a fruitful 2014.  

For those of you reading this from Calgary, we will see you again sometime in the new year.    

Ken and Donna