Make fun where you can.

So, you know, it's a funny little world we live in. We had to go to Calgary for a doctor appointment this week.  We have to go 3 or 4 times a year, and we have some very good friends who have to go as well, they go much more frequently than we do, and we always hope that someday our visits will coincide so that we can go for dinner in the city, but it never happens. It's frustrating how often our mutual appointments are within a day or two of each other, but never the same day. *sigh*. We've just given up trying.

Part of our routine on the trip is stopping at Timmies in Invermere for a coffee (or an Ice Capp, depending on the season) and a pee break. Steven was in the men's room and commented on how they needed more urinals, it was a tight fit in there, and the fellow In front of him joked and said "As long as no one pees in my back pocket" and turned to leave. Yup, you got it, it was our friend.  

I love when that type of thing happens. Is it fate? Coincidence? Does it happen for a reason unknown to us, but is relevant to our future lives? Hard to say.

We chatted outside for a bit, and then decided to meet up at the Timmies in Canmore for our next pee and coffee break (because face it, we're old and Canadian, the oldness means more pee stops and the Canadian part means we automatically pull into any Timmies on the highway)

Just a few miles out of invermere we saw the highway in front of us filled with bumper to bumper traffic, and thought "yikes....Sunday in the summer on the road to Banff....gonna be a long trip", however as we came to a dead stop, we realized it was an accident. A bad one, 3 or 4 ambulances soon passed us, fire trucks, police cars and the Stars Air Ambulance (our medical helicopter service, for my non-Canadian readers). The highway was going to be closed for 4-6 hours. 

Our friends were just two cars in front of us, so we walked up to them to figure out what to do. Either sit for 4-6 hours in the heat, or turn around and go back to Cranbrook (about an hour and a half) and then go to Calgary the other way, 4.5 hours. Which would make the total trip about 8 hours....1.5 here, 1.5 back, 4.5 there, plus pee stops....this is why we leave for our appointments a day ahead of time.

Anyhow, our friends have a relation who used to live in the Invermere area, and he's a logger and knew of a back way around, a forest service/logging road. He said it would be rough and dusty, but only about a 45 minute detour and we'd be back on the highway! So hooray for cell phones and friends!

The drive was quite beautiful, we had never been that way (I mean, unless you're a logger, who would be that way?) The scenery was lovely, what we could see of it, because when he said it would be dusty, he was not exaggerating at all.

Hack, hack, cough, choke.

  

However, every now and then we could look over the valley. The highway we should have been on is waaaaay over there, on the far side of the valley.

As the road wound down into Radium (where our junction to turn towards Banff was) we did notice a really nice looking campground by the river, a possibility for future trips. Well, not likely, but good to know.

So, a scant hour after stopping for the accident, we were right back on track. Which brings me to these thoughts:

If we hadn't seen our friends in Timmies and chatted with them, would we have been past the area before the accident even occurred? Would we have driven to Calgary as usual, no visit and no detour?

Or...would we have been one of the first at the accident, and not having seen our friends we would have had to have waited the 4-6 hours, or turned around and ended up with an eight hour trip?

Or...would we have been involved in the accident?

Did we run into our friends there for a divine reason? Or was it luck? Or something greater? I guess we aren't meant to have all the answers.

We continued on through the parks (Kootenay National and Banff National...so gorgeous), had our coffee and lunch meeting at Timmies in Canmore and continued on to Calgary where we met them for a great dinner at Nicks Steakhouse in the city. Finally! Schedules coincided!  (Seafood fettuccine)

Next day was a quick hospital appointment, then a bit of shopping, then a doctor visit, then dinner.

We went to Montana's, generally a decent restaurant in a chain. It was pretty bad. We went once, about two years ago and it was awful, but I believe in second chances. We went a year ago and it was "ok".... Not great, but average. It's right beside the cinema we go to, which is also by our hotel, so it's handy and within walking distance, so we decided to give it another shot.....third time's a charm and all that. Well, I'm here to tell you, third time is not a charm.

The coffee was excellent....served in a huge ceramic mug. That was all that was good and picture-worthy.

Husband had a small steak, with 4 wings and waffle fries. She asked if he would like mushrooms with the steak and he said "sure", and also a small clamato on the side for the draught beer. So. They forgot the wings, the waffle fries were all stuck together, the mushrooms were an additional $6.99, I knew there would be a charge, I thought $1.99, maybe even $2.99, but come on...six dollars and ninty nine cents? Plus they were out of draught beer and still charged .99 for the clamato to go along with the tall boy they brought. (My non-Canadian Aussie friends, yes, clamato is clam juice with tomato and spices and we mix it with our beer. It's yummy. Don't squinch your face up, you guys eat Vegemite)

I had a grilled chicken breast, kinda dry, grilled prawns that were not hot, barely warm, the "seasonal veggies" were chunks of zucchini, red peppers, and something yellow, soggy, in a bowl. I may have had rice as a side, I honestly can't recall. We never did get our water, nor the offer of more coffee.

Plus, I forgot how annoying the constant shout-out (with age announced) of birthdays every 5 minutes is, along with horrible singing, but I'll also concede that that isn't the fault of the staff nor the cooks.

There was, however, the cutest baby beside us. Maybe 8-9 months old, chubby as all get out, with a dark black shock of hair and black eyes and incredible dimples. I know he had dimples because every time he peeked our way, he'd go into fits and gales of laughter. Made my day. Laughing babies. Better than any meal.

So,  I try to not be "that person" who doesn't tip, but in this case neither the food, nor the service was any good. It wasn't busy, there were lots of servers working, there was no reason for it. She passed by us quite often and never once stopped to ask how things were, or if we needed anything. And plus, the food was not good. So I did not leave a tip. 

Then we went to the show and I watched Matt Damon being all buff and Matt Damon-y and I had jujubes too, so all was well in my world again.

Next day we had to run to the hospital for husband to give a blood sample. We walked over to the hospital, walked into the lab, I pushed the machine to get a number and before I even had a chance to grab the ticket, a nurse came out and called us. Wow! That's either luck or awesome staff scheduling, in either case it was literally less than a three second wait. Literally. We had originally planned to stop a clinic after the doctors visit yesterday because the hospital lab was closed, however the one lab we walked into had a wait time of 2-3 hours minimum. My heart sunk, thinking we'd be spending all the next day waiting, so the three second wait was pretty thrilling to me,

Did a bit of shopping at the Costco, done and done. Out of the city by noon.

Now. I have to tell you about this place: Chiniki Village. Have my local friends heard of it? I'm sure you've seen it, it's about an hour west of Calgary, I believe on the Nakota land. There was a gas bar/restaurant/native handicraft place there before, but it burned to the ground (arson) a few years ago. However, it's finally been rebuilt and reopened and I've wanted to stop there for a while now. And, am I ever glad we did, it's fabulous!

The gas bar is just a gas bar, the convenience store is large, clean, well stocked, sells lots of native items and handicrafts as well, but still nothing too special. But walk around the side, go up a few stairs, and there is the restaurant. It's huge! It's bright, with massive windows and a huge open beam ceiling, kind of a tee-pee idea I think. The staff were super friendly, and the service was excellent as well. The lunch menu was burgers and sandwiches, soups...the usual, except instead of buns and bread, it was on bannock and fry bread, and lots of elk and bison. I had a bacon, lettuce, tomato, egg and cheddar on bannock, and he had a clubhouse. Gotta say, it was excellent, and only $6.99.

Nice view from their deck.

The seating area was circular, all around the fire place in the centre. The little gift area you can

see in the right, sells elk tendons (packaged for soup), elk antler ground into pills, elk 

antlers still in velvet etc, with lots of writing in Japanese. You know the tour buses stop

here and the Japanese men probably buy as much as they can carry! (Again, my Aussie and 

European friends....elk antlers are an aphrodisiac. That's probably a rumor started by

North American hunters)

And then we hit the highway and came home. 

So it just goes to show how attitude can make or break you. You can: "sigh....have to go all the 

way to Calgary just to see a doctor...hotels, gas, meals. Waste of money" or you can "Whoop! Road trip! Let's  try and find something new and exciting to try!! Yippee!"

 I try to be the "yippee" kind of person.