Day trip or so

Today I had a training seminar in Calgary on a piece of science equipment I want to use for my research. So, yesterday evening I rented a car and drove down to Calgary.

I wasn't super organized for this trip, since I was really busy over the weekend, what with the skiing and the homework and all... So on Monday, I looked up maps and got directions for Kathy's condo, where I spent the night. I also called car rental places to book a car for the next day.

Now, I ask you, does it seem unreasonable for me to expect there to be a single car available for me in all of Edmonton.

In my opinion, there should be lots of cars in Edmonton ready to be rented. However, apparently I am wrong - I called Enterprise (We Pick You Up): "I'm sorry ma'am, we have no cars available in Edmonton," they told me.

"No cars in ALL of Edmonton?" I asked, disbelieving.

"No cars," they replied.

Hmm...I thought perhaps Enterprise in particular was affected. Budget and National were my next choices.

Same problem.

At this point, I was fairly baffled. I mean, between the three car companies and all their stores in Edmonton, how many cars do you suppose they had? I would guess at least a hundred, probably more (Addendum: I found out from a cabbie that both Budget and National have at least 200 hundred cars each). And they have NO cars? Who are these people who are renting all the cars? What are they doing?

I figured I might be hooped for getting a car, but I didn't give up yet. I called a few more places - Avis: busy signal; Thrifty: SCORE! They had a car available. At this point, I didn't really care what size it was, so I ended up taking a 'standard' size. This turned out to be a PT CRUISER! Awesome!

After that my trip went a lot smoother. I picked up the car without a hitch (although the taxi ride there was interesting, but I can save that story for another time) and started on my way. I made good time to Calgary and found Kathy's place with little delay. I stayed in their spare room (quite comfy) and got up bright and early to hit the morning commute to U of C.

The drive actually wasn't that bad. Traffic was moving, if a little slow at places, and I had no trouble finding my way there. I parked in the hospital parkade and made my way to the room where the seminar was taking place.

The seminar was really great actually. Although I got a lot of comments like "I can't believe you drove all the way from Edmonton for this!" (it's only a 3 hour drive people, get over it!), it was totally worth the trip and I learned a lot of information that will help me immensely. Not only that, but I also got to sit down with the application scientist for the machine itself and he helped me design a lot of my experiment! EXCELLENT! That sort of help is invaluable and would have been worth the trip on its own.

After my seminar, I planned to drive over to my cousin's house for dinner (yes, I was invited). I called Sam and Mike and wrote down the complicated directions to their house, and set off. I figured it would take me about half an hour to get to their place.

Little did I know.

Calgary traffic is CRAZY!! Ridiculous crazy!

It took me 35 minutes before I even got to the Deerfoot freeway that would take me to Sam's. To give you a reference, it only took 15 minutes to drive that same road in the morning.

When I finally saw the Deerfoot approaching, I was appalled by the number of cars. Three lanes each way, completely full of cars as far as the eye can see (and that's pretty far in Calgary - no hills), all moving about 60 km/hr. Once on the Deerfoot, I came to a dead stop three times!

So, eventually I made it to Sam's house, although it took me an hour to do so. I don't know how people can live in that city and commute everyday. It would drive me insane.

Dinner was really nice, because my aunty Carol was out visiting Sam and Mike as well. Sam is actually due REALLY REALLY soon to have her baby! I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to visit them, since I suspected Sam might be having or have just had her baby when I was down there. But unfortunately for Sam, she was still pregnant! She was huge, but super cute. I had a really nice time visiting with them and their daughter Taylor was very cute and actually gave me a hug and kiss this time!

I drove home Wednesday night, arriving sometime around 9:30. I basically got home, put away my stuff, talked with Garrett on the phone and then went to bed. I was pretty tired! But it was a pretty good trip overall.