Day 189 Calgary Event Day.

 Strategizing in the lobby of the hotel. Day 189 of the relay was an event day. Some of the events team and other relay staff attended school events, while a few of us were rostered to gather information on accessability of businesses and facilities for the Global Accessability Map, a new initiative introduced by the Rick Hansen Foundation last fall.

A few of the relay crew were G.A.M. (Global Accessability Map) ing in Calgary, so a group of us decided to head to Canmore, Alberta,  just over an hour west of Calgary. We will not be passing through Canmore on the relay, so we thought it was good chance to check it out. We passed the Canada Olympic Park just west of Calgary, home of the 1988 Winter Olympics.

What's that I see, for the relay crew that are from B.C., a familiar site, the Rocky Mountains!

Pat was the captain of the ship (shuttle bus) today.

Wow, breathtaking!

It is hard to tell from the picture, but in the middle of all the beauty, they have decided to plunk down a casino right on the Trans-Canada. Oy Vey!

This is close to the entrance to Exshaw. I remember this little town from the relay, with the back-drop of the rockies, it was very picturesque .

Except for this cement plant just east of town. Limestone is mined just behind the plant.

For late February, there is not a lot of snow in the area, or on the peaks.

Canmore has about 12,000 people. Originally a coal mining town, it depends on tourism and the ski industry. It boasts the  Canmore Nordic Centre, a legacy from the 1988 Olympics.

Wow, the entrance to Canmore.

A shot of the the three sisters. (faith, charity, and hope)

Downtown,

The buildings in town follow along the same building patterns, looking like a ski village.

Including the Canadian Tire store.

It was a beautiful day to walk around downtown, the temperature was around freezing (mild compared to what we have seen lately)

I think it's a match, Pat! (and that's all it took to make the door open!)

grin and bear it!

We went into a brew pub for lunch, there was an old church outside the window in the forefront of the rockies.

We got the sampler tray, which included lite, dark, stouts, reds, and even a rasberry ale.

One of the more eye appealing lunches I have had, the ginger beef melt with snow peas, and a house salad with raspberry vinegerette dressing. I would definately go back, and the accessability is alright as well!

A bronze statue to commemorate the miners of yesteryear

Wowsers, this kind of marketing makes me want to get my dabber and rush over!

If you can't read the sign, it says this bench is reserved for the comfort of our seniors, well I hate to admit we are all pretty close!

Please feel free to add your own caption!

We stopped at the local McDonald's to grab a coffee (after all, they are a relay sponsor), and Pat treated us to the newest baked pie, the oreo! Well it certainly was tasty, but 3 days later, the sugar high is still lingering.

Heading back into Calgary for one more night. We did manage to combine a little sight-seeing with our gathering of information for the Global Accessability Map, all in all, a good day!

Day 188 Calgary to Airdrie, Alberta

Wow, day 188 already, and it seems like an eternity since the summer and fall days at the start of the relay back in Atlantic Canada.

After breakfast, I went back up to my room for a minute and the t.v. just happened to be on CTV , and they were interviewing Lisa from our marcomms (marketing and communications) team. CTV was doing a live broadcast from St. Mary's high school in Calgary, where day 188 of the 25th anniversary Rick Hansen relay was starting from.

they also interviewed a couple of the medal bearers, including Leanne.

They school band was getting warmed up as well.

and another interview with Randy.

Back down in the lobby I saw Kyle and Lonnie our endurance athlete. After one month on the road with us it was time to say good-bye. I will miss his sense of humor and his positive, upbeat demeanour. He represented the relay well.

I was back on shuttle bus today with Kyle, and we took a cab out to the bus (5 kilometres from the hotel). It was cold, but not as much snow to scrape off as yesterday.

Still a little ice on the windshield as we head out to our first medal bearer meeting point of the day.

Crossing the Bow river, with the city in the far background.

Branton junior high school was prepared for our arrival.

Class is in session! Kyle is teaching Rick Hansen 101

Now there's a statement!

The students all came out onto the street in anticipation of the arrival of the relay. CTV also had 3 on air personalities in our medal bearer group to take part in the experience.

There's that Canadian pride I saw so much of on the Olympic Torch Relay .

 Following our pilot vehicle, heading down 16th ave. north in Calgary.

The "Craig cam", Craig is documenting his medal experience from start to finish, awesome!

We drove by this architectural marvel, a new campus building for SAIT (southern Alberta institute of technology.)

Another relay first, Dave ( who has suffered a brain injury), wanted to do his segment on his own cycle that was built just for him. Congratulations, Dave!

What is wrong with this picture? (Nothing in the eyes of the relay). but I noticed looking in the side mirror, there was no traffic coming. The relay has temporarily closed down the east bound lanes on 16th ave, which happens to be one of the busiest streets in Calgary and more affectionately known as Trans-Canada Highway 1

After Kyle and I finished dropping off the last medal bearers in our group, it was time to head north on highway 2, not as far as Edmonton, but to Airdrie, (population 40,000)  about 30 kilometres from Calgary.

Kyle and I had to make a pit stop at the Wal-Mart in Airdrie to pick-up a couple neccessities like toothepaste, tooth brush, deodorant, (okay, you get the picture)

In the store I saw this story about Rick and our end of day celebration in Calgary on Sunday. (day 187 in our world)

Our meeting point and our end of day celebration was at the Airdrie Legion.

We had our meeting in the lounge section of the Legion, another relay first.

Our end of day medal bearer, Cedric, is a veteran, and a long time member of the legion. I think a pint was certainly in order!

The sun is definately shining on another group of difference makers.

CTV (who are a sponsor) set up a remote satellite truck outside of the legion.

A panoramic of shuttle back at the legion after we dropped off all of our medal bearers, and the convoy coming down the road towards our end of day location .

Here come our end of day medal bearer, Cedric, and his contingent.

Which included fellow members of the legion in their uniforms. (actually, Cedric had his uniform on under his yellow jacket!)

Back at the end of day celebration, Jeremy congratulates Cedric.

and Kyle and I head back for our last night in Cowtown

Okay, how does that saying go, it's good to be lucky? after I dropped Kyle off at the hotel I decided to wash the bus and on the way back to parking I got a little off track, but I ended up in this residential area above the Saddledome and with a pretty incredible view of Calgary. He shoots he scores!!!