Getting to Canada - Aug. 7, 2015

In typical Walters fashion, it was a convoluted process to get the uniting factions to the resort in Canmore, just outside Banff.

I was flying up from DC via Ottowa. Valerie was flying up from Atlanta via Salt Lake City. Ben was flying up from Atlanta via Toronto. We were scheduled to get in within an hour of each other, with my flight being last. I was to meet them at the Hertz counter where we were picking up a car.

Getting to the counter, I didn't see them. I wandered out to the garage... no sister + boyfriend. So I turned on my phone to connect to the free wifi at Calgary Airport.

Oh, speaking of the phone - I had spent the last hour in DC downloading some podcasts, checking email, and just generally running the battery low. This wasn't a problem until I rooted through my bags and couldn't find the charger that I thought I threw in. When I got to Ottowa, I spent an hour and a half of my two hour connection standing at a counter at the Apple Accessories store and playing on their iPod Touch while my iPhone was charging. I figured I'd save up that 80% for when I was by myself in Toronto at the end of this trip and just use others' devices while with them in Banff.

Back to the rental counter - Valerie had shot me an email that she was delayed by thunderstorms and Ben had missed his flight, so both of them were now coming in around midnight instead of 10pm (this is Mountain Time, mind you - so that's 2am Eastern). So I asked the guy at the counter if he could switch the rental to my name so I could do the paper. Nope - Valerie is a Hertz Gold, so needed her to get the discount. But, he did let me pick out the car then.

"I think I know what you're going to choose," he said, and began working his way through the keys. Mid-sized SUV - eh. RAV4 - eh. Jeep Wrangler? Yeah, put that one aside for us!

Valerie made it through customs and to the rental desk in the next half hour. We had just finished signing the paperwork and were going to check the status of his flight when he got off the elevator. Thanks to the built-in GPS, it was an easy ride to the condo, and we got into bed at 2am. The shuffling of pieces actually worked.