Day 5: June 20, 2016
1 W

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My evening of Tweeting with Verizon cut into my picture editing time so I'm posting last night's room this morning. I originally thought this was an independent but have learned that Thriftlodge is a sub-brand of TravelLodge. Had I realized that sooner, I might not have posted any pictures of it at all (I don't normally post chains.) but these pictures already existed.

Johnny Carson left the Tonight Show a mere twenty-four years ago and his memory is still fresh in some of our minds along with the memory of Carnac the Magnificent. Carnac answered questions in sealed envelopes which were opened once his answer was announced. An all time favorite of mine is the answer "9W" followed by the question "Mr. Wagner, do you spell your name with a V?"

Plotting a particular route can often require defining lots of intermediate points. Not so here where few alternate paths exist. It took just a single point to nail down the path from Moose Jaw to Calgary. The DeLorme assigned name for the point was simply the highway name, "1 W" (a.k.a. Trans-Canada Highway). I spent more than 400 miles (The GPS is displaying kilometers.) with "1 W" on a screen in front of me. I couldn't help but think of Carnac and Mr. Wagner which led to the name of today's journal entry.


The World's Largest Teepee was created in 1988 for the Calgary Olympics and moved to Medicine Hat in 1991. It can be seen from 1 W if you're into drivebys. The teepee is decorated with ten circular paintings by various artists. The two I've shown are Treaty # 7 and How Medicine Hat Got Its Name.

Yesterday, when it started looking likely I would reach Calgary today, I looked into some tours but found the ones I was interested in filled. Thinking that the Calgary Tower might be something of a substitute, I asked about it when I checked into my motel. The young clerk told me he had just recently eaten at the restaurant at the tower's top and that it was a great experience and not overly expensive. It wouldn't be terribly busy on a Monday, he told me, and street parking was free after 6:00.

All parking in the immediate vicinity of the tower was taken when I got there but I easily found a spot a couple of blocks away. I set off eagerly for the tower. I even took a cutesy picture of the restaurant sign in anticipation of eating there before discovering that the whole place had been booked for some sort of private party. No dinner with a view for me. The observation deck was open, however, and I made do with that. The view was clear and the scenery wonderful. That's the Saddle Dome and Stampede Park in the second picture and the Rocky Mountains in the third. The next picture is of a piece of the 16 kilometers of enclosed walkway that people use to get around town in the winter. The tower's height is given as 191 metres but I don't know if that is the observation deck or the top most point. Foe dinner, I settled for bangers & mash at a nearby Irish pub.


There was plenty of light for a picture of the motel when I returned. The sun set a little before 10:00. Here is my classy and reasonably priced room. I've a hunch that reasonably priced rooms are about to become scarce.

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