I am the Burgerfan!

Route not exactly as mapped

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14 days…

Outlet Mall Stores that are closing shop! So, in addition to their regular 40% off retail prices, the store had 40% off final prices due to the fact they were closing in a few weeks (due to lease issues). That means I got shoes and a new jacket for 36% of the regular retail price (or, 64% off the regular retail price). Holy smokes that is cheap! Boy did I pick the right time to need new shoes…

[Round Rock outlet stores]

Tuesday, September 16, 2008:
You’re 30! Surprise! You’re going to LA tomorrow for five days, you’re already packed! And by the way, you have a ticket to go see The Price is Right!

Tiffany sure knows how to make a surprise… the show taped two hours after our plane arrived, and after driving across L.A. and miraculously making it just in time to be last in line, I got to see the Price is Right, live! That was pretty amazing. The show aired today, and I managed to creep into the scene a few times.

My car has rolled over another milestone in its lengthy history. This morning, the odometer rolled over 400,000 kilometers! Lucky for me I was able to hit some light traffic to watch the nine’s roll up in mesmerizing fashion. I can’t imagine that you’d get the same experience from a digital dashboard.

In honour of this event, I have assembled a collection of related milestones. With this information, it appears that I have had an average speed of 1.75 km/h all day every day over the last decade.

June 11, 2008 – 400,000 km – near Whitemud Amusement Park, Edmonton

August 21, 2001 – 300,000 km – near Didsbury, Alberta

October 7, 1998 – 250,000 km – Ardrossan, Alberta. Just as I rolled onto the cement pad at home. I do not have a photo from this, but I did manage to dig up an email I sent from my University account!

Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1998 19:40:27 -0600 (MDT)
From: Christopher Christou <christou@ugrad.*****.ca>
Subject: Milestone!

My car rolled over 250,000 as I got home from campus today!

WOOHOO!!! Time for another quarter-million! :)

Chris

Other Milestones — Heat

August 9, 2003 – 322,744 km — 37°C – Okanagan Region, B.C.

July 25, 2006 – 365,525 km — 53.5°C [WTF???] – Kelowna, B.C. This was what registered after being parked outside for an hour. It was actually in the high thirties out that day

A few weekends ago I took Tiffany canoing down the North Saskatchewan. She held up well, and we didn’t get sunburned! It started at Devon and ended at the Valley Zoo. Looking on a map afterwards, it turns out we covered 30 kilometres, which is amazing. If somebody had shown me that route beforehand, I wouldn’t have gone, so I am glad that did not happen. Its neat to see a different view of an area — usually the only river sights afforded to me are those seen from the roads that cross the river.

Its impressive to think how ‘people power’ can actually get you from A to B. We have covered lots of distances on foot when backpacking and hosteling, gone around foreign towns on rented bicycles, and voyaged downstream in this boat, all thanks to our own efforts. Its neat to realize accomplishments without mechanized assistance. However, I am not about to give up my cars and airplanes anytime soon.

To celebrate the fourth anniversary of our marriage and continuing adventure, Tiffany and I spent the September long weekend back down in Drumheller.  Only this time we weren’t camping, but enjoying a more luxurious retreat at the Heartwood Inn and Spa.  We spoiled ourselves with a nice room and a massage.

To top off the weekend we even headed out to a Live Dinner Theatre.  Rosebud is a small town that is about 20 minutes away.  If you look on the map, you will see that the town is composed of about four roads.  While you’d think that some production "in the middle of nowhere" would be an amateur quality show at best, you would be dead wrong.  The Rosebud Theatre Company is an amazing find in Alberta.  The dinner is an elaborate (and delicious!) al you can eat buffet.  You are seated in one of five separate rooms, taking away the "eating with everyone" feeling and making it a little more intimate.  Afterwards you head over to the 200-300 seat theatre and enjoy a fantastic production.  It turns out there is an acting school which feeds into this theatre, so this whole ordeal has successfully reinvented this town and kept it from fading into obscurity like so many other Prairie Towns

While it is about 90 minutes from Calgary, it is still worth checking out sometime (we will probably go back on one of our Calgary ventures).  Even better — stay in one of the nearby Bed & Breakfast locations for a weekend adventure of your own!  There is a local museum and stuff that will amuse you and shed light on the history of the region for at least an hour, so go early.

The Drumheller scenery provided us with a great backdrop yet again, and as an added bonus: we watched the sun set twice!  After it set on the town, we drove up out of the valley to see it set once more.

• Heartwood Inn – http://www.innsatheartwood.com/ (Check out the room photos!)
• Rosebud Theatre – http://www.rosebudtheatre.com/
• More information on the Town of Rosebud – http://www.rosebud.ca/