Aylmer Express "MoHo" Extravaganza 2006

Calgary seems like quite a beautiful city, albeit a little spread out. The target today is the Calgary Tower. We employed our trusty GPS once more which brought us to the base of the cylindrical Calgary icon erected in1968. After entering the elevator and strenuously ascending the 525 feet above sidewalk level, we were afforded a lovely view of the Rockies which painted a majestic background all along the western horizon. Contemplating the plethora of massive mountains made me wonder how the poor little (well, maybe kinda big) JoRo MoHo, with the Matrix in tow, is going to manage to make it through to the other side in Vancouver. Time will tell. Our plan, should the mountains overwhelm the mighty V10 MoHo, will be to cut the Matrix loose and get Chantal to pilot the “toad”. Our tower tour also allowed us to take in lofty views of downtown Calgary including the Calgary SaddleDome. I'm sure we saw plenty of other things too but unfortunately I didn't recognize anything else so I can't tell you about them. Sorry!

Next thing on the agenda for the say was some biking. We ultimately selected the Glenmore Reservoir which is a body of water that drains into the Elbow River. It is a large park area in the south of the city with plenty of bike trails all the way around the reservoir. We made it around the top and down the valley to cross the “the Elbow” and then decided to make our way back. The hill down to the Elbow proved to be the steepest yet and I was forced to get off and walk up at least two thirds of the hill. Morgan was proud to inform me that he managed to ride all the way up the hill without having to walk his bike at all. He must have taken a LOT of rest stops since he didn’t manage to pass me while I was walking up. So I guess this goes into the books as Morgan being the only one who did not walk.

After our ride it was back to the campsite to get out our laminated maps of Canada and the USA and plot our trip with dry-erase markers. I still can't believable that we have not yet done this. The whole plan from the beginning was to have the kids learn about geography the fun way by plotting our trip as we go however we have been just way too busy doing things and having fun to manage to find the time for the maps. So today was the day. Of course, as always, there was a sudden change of plans. It all started after I decided to ask some fellow campers how much their MoHo costs to rent. The next thing I know I have a cold beer pushed into my hand and I am getting a personal tour of their vehicle. It turns out they are from Germany and are leaving the next day so they need to get rid of all their extra stuff. They open the fridge to show me that it is almost packed full with just Coke and Beer. Hey, I think I’m ok with that kind of helping out!
It also turns out that they have a son, Jan, who is André-Paul’s age. He has been dying to find some friends to play with so I let him know that I have two sons that would be happy to join him. I figure that he likes soccer so I tell him to grab his soccer ball and go knock on our MoHo door. He drops his head a little and says that he doesn’t have a soccer ball with him. When I tell him that we have one, he almost jumps out of his seat to head over to our MoHo. I jokingly say that perhaps Jan can teach my sons a few things about soccer. Little did I know. Jan is awesome! I couldn't get over the ball control this kid had, that is, until his father, Torsten, came out to join us for an impromptu soccer game after dinner. Torsten was untouchable. He is a Guy Lafleur look-a-like, who seemed to be able to make us all look foolish on the soccer pitch. He could have everyone, including the goalie, running to the left with him, and then somehow the ball would magically squirt out from his feet as he is running, and it would end up gently rolling into the net about 3 feet behind the goalie who was still moving in the opposite direction! I guess you had to see it to believe it. I must admit that it seemed germane to have someone from the host country of this year’s World Cup show us what soccer (or should I say football?) can really be like. And Torsten was lucky enough to be able to attend two of the World Cup matches live. I wonder, do you think Torsten is a “face-painter” or is that just the British who do that sort of thing? After the game we did our best to clear out their fridge. I introduced Torsten and his wife Kirsten and her mother, to the joys of Canadian rye whisky. I figured I could kill two birds with one stone. They get to sample a truly Canadian taste, and it would also be a good way to help finish off some of their Coke! Of course, being Europeans, they went with the classy option and chose to take their CC on the rocks. As the evening came to a close we realized that once again we missed our chance to check out the map. Maybe later.

But it was worth it. A-P and Morgan got along very well with Jan. So well, in fact, that Morgan stated that night before going to bed, that if he had to have two brothers, he would want the other one to be Jan! And while we were talking I found out Torsten gets a BMW 535 as a company car and gets 6 weeks vacation!!! After processing this information for a short time I determined that I think I want to move to Germany. Torsten also told us of some wonderful skiing he has available in the Alps and that got me contemplating a ski vacation in Austria. This is the final day of their 17-day Rocky Mountain tour and they are flying back to Frankfurt tomorrow. It was funny when I asked them how they liked their vacation, Kirsten looked at me with an expression that said “I guess I had better think of something nice to say since he is from Canada”. She then replied that the saw a LOT of nature. They drove from Calgary to Banff to Jasper then back to the Okanagan valley and on to Vancouver and then all the way back to Calgary again. Yup, that is a lot of driving … and a lot of trees. I can see why they might not have been that excited about it all … especially if they are already used to the Alps. Unfortunately for the boys, Jan will be leaving tomorrow. But now they have one more person they can email.

Today's word:

germane \juhr-MAYN\, adjective:
Appropriate or fitting; relevant.