Last year, when I was in Houston, we went on the Level 9 tour at NASA. For $3 more you could get a year long membership. So, since I’m back here, I should make the most out of that and use it before it expires.

They still have the big airplane carrying a shuttle on its back, cluttering up the lawn like some advanced redneck. Only this time, you can actually go in. But it is a classic bait and switch. Only after you go in do you find out that it isn’t a real space shuttle, but an advanced facsimile. The real ones are too radioactive to let people near. It is the real plane, so you can see cool stuff there. They have even left some of the ballast that they needed to help keep the front of the plane heavier for an even flight. That really makes you wonder about overweight baggage fees. (Sorry. Old joke. Couldn’t help myself.)

They had a lot of other cool exhibits. We saw an IMAX movie about “Journey to Space”. They had the actual shuttlecraft Galileo from the original Star Trek. I geeked out a bit with that. They also had some of the original capsules from early missions in beautiful displays. 

There were also a lot of games. In a way it was like the Telus World of Science. Probably with a bigger budget. There was one game where you try to control some blimps to go through a hoop. Unfortunately I think the air conditioning was too strong so the blimps just huddled in a corner, no matter how much engine power you used. Another display let you compare upright and recumbent bicycles. I couldn’t tell the difference, because the bicycles were sized for little kids.

But overall it was very cool. I saw amazing things that are a great part of human history. There was fun stuff to do. The train routing game was a hoot. The hover chair was easy to abuse. I am terrible at landing a space shuttle on a runway. Crew capsules are cramped. And they have an evil gift shop. I don’t want to talk about that last one.

2016-3-2 0:00

I gave up buying candy for Lent, but since I still have such a stash it hasn’t slowed my actual consumption. However, there have been other effects.

I drastically cut down my consumption of pop a year ago. It is probably healthy for me. I have contented myself to just having my daily hot chocolate at work. Then I made the mistake of looking at the nutrition information. If I have two hot chocolates, it is the same as one can of Coke. Actually reading the nutritional information of any product can scare you with the amount of sugar. So, I have found myself stopping having a hot chocolate in the afternoon.

And the weird thing is that I can feel the difference. After lunch I start craving something. I can ignore it, but it is definitely there. So apparently I have a sugar addiction. I don’t feel any healthier from my self-denial. For all I know I’m crankier.

For Friday lunch I usually buy something from the bistro next door, along with a dessert. By dinner, yesterday, I was accused of being wired. So maybe that brownie is affecting me more.

And once again Lent is upon us. As I’ve stated before, I’m not religious, but I like the tradition of self-denial.
As usual, the interesting thing is figuring out what to give up.
About a year ago I drastically dropped the amount of soft drinks I consume. I now only have a Coke when I need a shot of caffeine to stay awake. But that is not a common occurrence, maybe once a month if that. I believe it has helped me be thinner. (I can’t say it has helped me lose weight because that fluctuates too much because of muscle gain/loss.)
I regularly drink a hot chocolate at work, once a day, because it is nice to have something warm to drink, and I don’t like coffee. Then I made the mistake of reading the nutrition info. Like everything else, it has more sugar than I would like.
I’m seeing friends give up sugar, and I’m thinking that might be the way to go. But there are quality-of-life issues. Besides, on some runs I need quick energy. But I think I’ve come up with a good compromise.
For Lent I will give up buying sweet things.
This is far more effective than anything else. I admit I have a problem; I like to buy sweets and candies. Unfortunately, I have no real need to eat them. So my place has been filling up with very good chocolates and candies that have not been getting eaten fast enough. It will be a real accomplishment if I don’t buy any new ones. Maybe I can make some progress on getting rid of the ones I already have.

There was a good article about surprisingly sexist origins of everyday things on Cracked. The point that drew my interest was about wristwatches. #4.
To summarize, wristwatches were initially thought of as “girly” because they were like bracelets. Men would instead use a manly pocket watch. Then “The Great War” came along, and wristwatches found their niche. Pocket watches were too cumbersome in that environment, and a hands-free device was much more useful.
Now I feel justified in my love of my wristwatch. If you know me, you know I will get uncomfortable if I am separated from it for too long. Everyone else around me keeps saying they use their cellphone to tell the time. That is just an update of the pocket watch, except without the convenience of a chain to keep it on your person. Although I will admit they are referred to as an electronic leash, so I may be a bit weak on that point in my argument. Mind you, I think a lot of people with cracked screens would prefer if their cell phone had been on a chain.
Now I just have to convince people that I am preparing for a land invasion of France and I will reclaim what I laughably refer to as my “coolness”.

I was listening to the news yesterday and they were talking about the earthquake that happened in Fox Creek. They had mentioned that it was felt as far away as St. Albert.
My first thought was that that was silly. I work in St. Albert, and I didn’t feel a thing. Then it dawned on me that I had.
On Tuesday it sounded like the building cracked. It felt like a big gust of wind had suddenly hit the building. But if you looked outside, none of the trees were swaying in the breeze. I forgot about it soon after. Until I put two and two together with the news report.
This was my second earthquake that I was aware of.
My first was in the Dominican Republic several years ago. Back then I thought it was a gust of wind as well.
I have apparently been in another earthquake but not been aware of it. This was in Los Angeles. I didn’t feel anything, but my friend immediately left the building. She was an expert at dealing with them I guess.

I saw the Magna Carta yesterday.
The Durham Cathedral copy is making a tour of Canada, so I took the opportunity to see an important historical artifact and the foundation of the modern legal system.
The Federal Building near the legislature has been under construction/renovations for several years. And this was my first time even going to the area for probably five years. I must say it looks very nice. The living wall is a nice touch to have during the winter months.
Since I was on time, but we were waiting for people who weren’t, we checked out the 4D interactive movie about the history of Alberta. It was fairly well done with nice special effects. I got snowed on at one point. And it has the closest we are going to get to holograms with modern technology.
Anyway, the exhibit on the Magna Carta was good. I found the best part was just listening to the curator talk about the document and answer questions. The actual document isn’t that spectacular until you know the facts. It is in abbreviated Latin, so it wasn’t very approachable for the common man. The curator also had speculations about Scribe “Bob” who is the speculated pseudonym of the scribe who wrote out this draft. “Bob” started out with big writing, but two thirds of the way through, realized he was running out of space. He started crunching in the words tightly and made them smaller. (Sounded like a high school student.) You can’t move on to another sheet of paper or write on the back.
The accompanying document, “The Charter of the Forest” actual sounds more important. The Magna Carta is for the nobility. The Charter of the Forest is for the common people and starts to give them human rights.
I would recommend going.

So I did it again. I signed up for the Sinister 7 as soon as it was open.
I had said I wanted to get out of doing ultra marathons. This is going against that. But I still want to do the Mont-Blanc ultra again, and to do that I need to qualify again. And to do that, I need to run ultra marathons. It is a vicious cycle.
It also helps that I have forgotten all the pain and suffering of the last few.
At least I have the Blackfoot Ultra in May to help ramp me up for this.

On the drive to work today I was listening to the radio. They were trying to get people to define art.
For the record, I am not an arty person.
I was thinking of what would be a nice definition for art that would be good for everyone. Then I realized I shouldn’t.
I should only come up with a definition for myself. Firstly, because I don’t feel a pressing need to share this information. But truly because I am the only one that needs to know it.
I am mentally unfit for art. I am not a real artist. I won’t be one. Ever. My opinion should not be forced on others, but I should not have their definition forced on me.
And what scares me is the knowledge that I will not change in this respect. I am not going to change personality and be someone open to art like that. I am who I am, for the rest of my life. Whether I like it or not. I have to acknowledge that I won’t magically become someone else.

For the record thought, my definition would probably be something along the lines of “What I like to look at or experience.” Arty people seem to want to “start a conversation”.

After all the headaches of travel, I need to look back through the haze and pain and remember the last few days in Costa Rica.

The second last night was actually the last night for a number of friends. So we had some special celebrations. Due to situations beyond my control, I was part of an auction whereby I had to do a sexy dance for the winner. That had actually been negotiated down from what the organizer wanted to auction me off for. In any case, I had one woman who really wanted me to dance for her and bid very high. That’s a good feeling. Sure, I may be treated like a piece of meat, but it’s nice to be a wanted piece of meat.

I did my dance, for her, but she wanted everyone to see it, so there was a crowd of people. Apparently I am good at dancing. In the middle, one of the girls shoved me out and took over the dancing. After awhile she was corrected and I got to continue. The crowd loved me.

Then, something touching happened. Because I had been interrupted, and because I had been so helpful to everyone for the entire week, a bunch of the girls were going to do a dance for me. That meant a lot to me. I crave being appreciated. And I hate asking for anything. So it was really nice that my friends, totally unasked for, would do something like that for me.

And about thirty seconds in, I was shoved out so that the girls could dance for each other.

That put me into a funk for the rest of night. I still stayed up until the sun rose. I wanted to spend as much time as possible with my friends before they left. It was also a clearer night, so I went out onto the beach to look at the stars. It wasn’t dark enough because the clubs near the beach kept their lights on. So although I didn’t see the Milky Way, I saw lots of stars. This was close to the equator, so I was hoping to see new constellations. The North Star would only be ten degrees above the horizon, so that was new. Howeve, the bright star I saw that I hoped might be Alpha Centauri, was actually a conjunction of Mars, Jupiter and Venus.

On the actual final day, I rested a lot. I made a token effort to get out into town to see what it had to offer. Tourist trap.

I then hung out with some friends. I noticed that the sun was about to set and proposed going to the beach to watch it. They agreed, and we wandered off there. It was beautiful. And I lucked out; I got the settings on my camera correct and we got glorious photos. One of the girls even did an impromptu photo shoot.

It was only after it was dark and I had returned to the hotel that I noticed my sunglasses were missing. I had lost my good pair earlier in the week, and this was my only backup pair. They would be somewhere on the beach, that was completely dark. I grabbed a flashlight, and gave it a shot. Then a miracle happened. I walked out, straight to the shoreline, and directly into the path of my sunglasses. A miracle! Just one more and I’m up for sainthood.

In the evening, we had a subdued party. A lot of people were gone and we were tired. There were fresh strawberries and blackberries that some friends had gotten from when they toured a volcano. I enjoyed talking with my friends, and getting to know acquaintances better.

And then I was appreciated. A friend decided to reward me for all the help I had been during the week, and to compensate me for the ruined dance from yesterday. For a brief moment I was treated like a king. And it meant a lot to me because it was unasked for and freely given. A wonderful endnote to a week. I went to bed after because there was no way the evening could get any better.

I had a lovely day in Houston, spending it with my friend. I got to the airport in plenty of time, and then everything went south.

I boarded the plane at around three. Takeoff would be at 3:40 for an early arrival of 6:55. But we waited at the gate for quite some time. They amused us by doing the safety demo and handing out the customs cards. Then we were told there was a problem with the lavatory, so we would be down to only two for this flight. Fine, I probably won’t need to go. Then they announced that the wall by the lavatory looked weak. They eventually determined it wasn’t structural, so it wouldn’t be hazardous to fly. Unfortunately, there was some worries about the weather in Edmonton, and they would need to take on more fuel in case we were diverted to a different airport.

These delays wouldn’t have been so bad, but I didn’t have a lot to entertain myself. I had run out of movies on my iPad, and was trying to use the United Personal Device Entertainment system. But the network kept going out, so I was only able to watch a minute of movie at a time.

With that, we were able to leave the airport and head to the runway. Ha ha, no. We did do that, then we stopped and turned back. The flap around the lavatory was not correct, so it would need to be repaired. Or we would need to get a new plane. Back to the terminal.

After awhile they decided to let us off the plane to stretch our legs. That wasn’t a good sign. Stay in the area because they want to be able to board us quickly. I got off and went to relieve myself, then I started to plug in devices; I had used a lot of phone power waiting. Then, five minutes later, they asked us to come back, where we seemed to needlessly wait in line. Eventually we got back on.

With the plane repaired, we just needed to wait for a new cabin crew. I guess the previous ones had been on duty for too long. They came on, and preparation started. A bit later, there was another apology and one of the stewardesses announced that she was illegal. I assume she didn’t speak French and therefore couldn’t steward to Canada. She exited the plane. I have no idea if they got a replacement or are we flying with below the standard number of stewards. They showed us the safety demo again.

The plane finally took off at 8:18.

I am looking forward to what problems they have had with my luggage.

2015-10-26 23:19

This is not the post I wanted to write. I wanted to summarize my last few days in a tropical paradise. Of the hopes and dreams I’ve had that have been raised and then dashed, only to arise more powerful than you could imagine. Instead events are happening now that I feel I should document while they are fresh in my emotional core.

My flight home from Costa Rica was going to be long wi tight connections. I knew this, but the website thought I could make it, so I accepted its judgement. I am lucky that hurricane Patricia is hitting Mexico and not Costa Rica, but Houston is having its own inclement weather, which shouldn’t be a big problem because I’m not staying there. (That’s foreshadowing to those taking notes.)

Well, my flight left Costa Rica late, probably because the plane I would travel in had trouble leaving Houston. It was only half an hour, and I asked the ticket agent about it, but she pointed out I had an hour in between flights which should be enough time.

The flight was fine, but problems happened when we landed. Apparently some other plane was bogarting out gate, so we waited on the tarmac for longer than I was comfortable with. Eventually we went to another gate, E16. That’s not too bad; my connection is leaving from E24. Probably close by to each other. Even though my flight had been boarding for fifteen minutes before I even got off my plane, I should be able to make it, although my checked luggage probably wouldn’t.

I though Oklahoma City was a bad airport, but Houston has gone above and beyond to claim that title. Really, Oklahoma fell into the title, and didn’t put in any real effort. Houston wanted it more.

It accomplished this by treating connections as a chance to immigrate. So, we are shuffled away from the plane I want to board and go for a lovely hike to go through immigration. After they determine that I am fit to be in this country, I get to get confused as to whether or not to look for my checked luggage. Eventually finding out I shouldn’t, I proceed to go through security again to get into the exact same terminal.

I didn’t make it in time. My airplane had taken off ten minutes before I even got to the gate. Ticket agents were long gone. Fortunately there is a United customer service desk across the hall. And they joyfully close it right in front of me. I need to go to the one that is across the entire terminal.

By the way, I haven’t eaten since breakfast this morning.

There are no flights today that I can make or fit in. And because it was a weather delay, no compensation or a hotel. Fortunately I have a friend here. A friend who wasn’t answering texts. Eventually I find she was taking a nap, so I have a place to stay. And I took a later flight so I can spend time with her tomorrow.  

2015-10-25 21:03

It was easier to update my journal in Europe. Every day was different. Here the days blend together. And I am not getting enough sleep so it is hard to justify writing on a tablet at 3am when the bed is right there.

I’ve had a few anxiety attacks; usually the alone in a crowd feeling. Everyone around me is in conversation and I don’t feel I can join in anyone. A friend has told me about a good anti-anxiety drug I should try. The pharmacy around here apparently trusts people and doesn’t require a prescription. Probably not smart. In the interim I’ve been experimenting with alcohol and trying to find a happy medium. I think I’m getting it. (Hint: 4 vodka orange juices and a shot of tequila in a 20 minute period is possibly too much, but it did shut my brain down in the manner I needed.)

On the fun side, I went swimming two days ago. I put on sunscreen before I went out, although I could have done a better job on my back. Then I let some friends know I was going out, and I went across the street to the beach. It is a surfing beach so the waves are fairly big. There was a sign warning of riptides, so I wasn’t too brave. I played amoung waves and was always able to touch the bottom. It felt like I was being pushed towards shore more than anything else, so I was safe. I played out there for an hour before coming back in.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t aware of the drama going on in my absence. In the morning, another person had gone swimming and had an incident with an undertow. (He is fine now, just a bit shaken up) so when the organizer heard I was gone, and had been awhile she got into a panic and sent people out to find me. I never saw them, but they saw me. But I kept being told to see her when I got back. Apparently the whole resort knew I was swimming.

And I got a light sunburn. Over all the places where I put sunscreen too. The waves are rough. 

Yesterday we went on an aerial tram tour. A short drive to a nature preserve and then we go on a tram that took us up a mountain into the foliage, then back down. Then there was a short nature walk where they showed us some of the bounty of Costa Rica.

My take away from it was that Costa Rica is one big nature preserve. Everything here seems to be to support Eco-tourism. There is no hunting, and vast areas are off limits. They do good work here, but the tour wasn’t really worth it. It was interesting, but not exciting. I just absorbed information, and didn’t interact much. I did hold a millipede though. 

Or is it the third. Hard to tell. I got my final luggage, so it helped me relax.

Yesterday was slow because I was exhausted. The resort here is small, but I know everybody who is here. We’ve taken it over. The beach is across the street, but it looks ominously threatening with the big waves and threat of riptide. I went at about 1:30 in the morning with a friend to look at it. She lost her (non smart) phone in the waves where it quickly disappeared. It may look nicer in the sun. 

I did a lot of drinking yesterday, but it wasn’t great. Too much responsibility needed to drink water to stay hydrated. After awhile you get sick of water, but you need to keep drinking it so that you don’t feel sick the next day. Drinking may be more trouble than it’s worth.

Tonight I have volunteered to be part of a stage show. I wonder if I will be able to eat dinner, or will I be too busy getting ready. 

2015-10-18 13:40

Th flight from Oklahoma took a long time to get going. They boarded us and then had us wait for an hour. Then finally they started loading the luggage on board. I even got to  watch my bags be put in the cargo hold. A half hour later and we finally got to take off. I was actually starting to worry that I might miss my flight. But I had an hour for my layover where I could buy a small wrap as a dinner.

I didn’t get to see Catalina, but we did FaceTime for awhile. Then I got onto my final leg.

Costa Rica does not go on Daylight Saving Time. So despite being in a different time zone, it is the same as Edmonton. Because of the change though, my flight here was longer than I expected. But I have arrived, gotten through customs and I’m on the way to the hotel right now.

However, it did not go perfectly.

When I packed, I had one checked bag, and two carry-on. One of the carry-on was just an excuse to take more stuff. I didn’t need it for anything while flying. I had put all the toiletries in it, instead of the checked because I was going to definitely have it when I arrived.

But it was heavy, so when someone in Edmonton offered to let me have it be checked, I took it. It seemed like a good deal, and it would be less hassle. I was so quick on the acceptance, I forgot to put a name and address tag on it, but when I asked about it in Oklahoma they assured me it wouldn’t be necessary because my name was already on the tag. And I did get to watch both bags being put on board.

Now if a bag was going to go missing, which one do you think it will be?

United says that it rarely happens that luggage goes missing permanently. It was last seen in Houston and I should have it before dinner. Let’s hope. This is the company known for breaking guitars.

My driver tells me that it only rains at night here. So far his story checks out. But my first thought was, “I wonder what an ultra marathon is like here.” But that way lies madness.

In Canada, we have deer crossings. Here they appear to have iguana crossings.

2015-10-17 2:10

I don’t really see a good reason to be here, yet here we are.

They put a mechanic on the plane, but they hinted we should go get someing to eat. I had a burrito. I could have spent $65 to get an entire Brisket to go. Which sounds ominous and I wonder who buys that when they are boarding a plane?

It sounds like they are getting us a new plane.

I’m pretty sure I will make my connection, but I won’t get to see Catalina. Well, maybe I will. We’re not that far from Houston. 

2015-10-16 14:06

I’m flying to Houston now. From there I will continue on to San Jose, Costa Rica. This is my annual Caribbean vacation where I will spend a week in a tropical place, hanging out with friends. I have a seven hour layover in Houston, but that’s okay because icanspend time with Catalina. 

For the past while, I have not had a lot of free time. First there was the trip to the Alps, followed shortly by Catalina visiting for nearly three weeks. The next weekend was Thanksgiving, which was somewhat relaxing because I spent it with my family in Priddis. But it also meant that I was unable to get ready for this trip.

Long story short: I was up until 1:00 in the morning getting ready for this trip. And I got up at 5:30 to get to my flight. Let’s be honest, I didn’t sleep very well. I think at one point I got up to try repacking something. It’s a little hazy now.

I’m also finding issues already with my preparation. I put some movies and TV shows on my iPad to watch on the flight, but I didn’t think I would need them, because United has a good inflight entertainment system where you can watch their movies on an iPad. Let me amend that though. Had. They HAD an inflight entertainment system. It appears to not be working.

I finished my first movie on my iPad, “Riddick”, which was pretty good. It was a lot more similar to his first movie and got him away from the events of the second movie fairly quickly. If you liked “Pitch Dark”, I would recommend this.

Then I went to watch some of the TV shows I had. Unfortunately, I didn’t test them beforehand, and they are all corrupt. I will not be watching them. So I only have one movie left for this entire trip.

And now the pilot has just announced a problem with the generators on board. We’re diverting to Oklahoma City. Further updates as they warrant. 

2015-10-16 12:45

Hopefully. I’m praying the title of this entry won’t doom me to ill luck.

At 4:15 a plane arrive to take us to Houston. We were supposed to board at 4:45. It hasn’t quite worked out. The computer crashed and they didn’t want to make new boarding passes. And this is a smaller plane. So we’re supposed to act like adults and just try and find the closest seat to our original. I’m just happy to be on board. I probably would have been fine with being in the luggage compartment. Just get on the plane and go. We are only on it for an hour.

The Will Rogers Oklahoma Airport is not a good place. There are overhead speakers blaring about lost items at security. Or just telling us not to be stupid. Whenever they are blaring, it is impossible to hear the announcement from our gate person with actual relevant information.

I’m tired. Possibly cranky. I may not see Catalina for very long, if at all. But hopefully I will make my flight to Costa Rica now. I have four hours to make it.

I wonder if I could have driven from Oklahoma to Houston in the time I had?

2015-10-16 17:15

I did a lot of hiking this weekend.
Yesterday, I drove out with Catalina to the River’s Edge ultra. I had a friend running it so I wanted to go out and cheer him on. And it was a new ultra so it would be nice to see. I would have liked to run it, but a test run last week left my quads unhappy with me, so I figured I wasn’t ready for an 80km run yet.
When we got there, it was raining. The drive had had pleasant weather, but that didn’t last. Fortunately, the rain didn’t either. After twenty minutes it was over, and I got to see my friend come in at the end of one of his leg’s.
After he went off, we took a pair of walks in the area. It was quite beautiful. Unfortunately, I think I have damaged my iPhone camera, so the pictures I took all have a streak across them.
Today, we drove out to Elk Island to see some bison. This is a prelude to eventually eating part of one. We saw some wood buffalo on the highway before we arrived at the park.
We asked the information guy for some suggestions on what to do there. Usually Bison Loop Road is a good place to sight them. And we were looking for a two hour hike and he gave a suggestion of the Shirley Lake trail.
The Bison Loop road didn’t provide a good sighting, so we continued on the Shirley Lake Trail. That trail looked a little long at 12.5km. So we decided to start with the Simmons trail, which was a subset of the larger trail and only 5km long. We could then decide to extend it if we felt like it.
At about 3pm we started. Unfortunately, I didn’t look at the map closely enough, and we started on the Shirley Lake trail by mistake. Part of the problem was that the park assumes everyone will go a certain way on the trails, and so if you go in the wrong direction, the signs are all behind you. This will be important later.
We only realized we were on the wrong trail after half an hour, when we met some people going the other direction. They also mentioned that there were a lot of bison 12km ahead, on the Tawayik Lake trail. Because Shirley Lake trail and Tawayik overlap, except that one is 16.5km.
So, with that in mind, after an hour, we turned to continue on Tawayik instead of staying with Shirley Lake. We wanted to see bison! And after several hours of hiking, we encountered them. When the trail went between Tawayik Lake and Little Tawayik Lake, the forest changed to plains, and there was a herd of about 50 bison laying about on the trail, acting like they owned the place.
We took pictures and avoided them, although the alpha was a ways from them and seemed a bit upset at our presence. We didn’t have a problem though, and we parted amicably by going off what might laughably be called “the trail” and circling around the herd.
However, we never really found the trail again. It wasn’t clearly marked, and it assumed we were going in the other direction. So the trail we eventually found had actually been made by bison with no sense of a goal, so it ended abruptly. With no easy way to find the trail, we headed back to the lake and stayed close to it and headed in the general direction of the end.
Thankfully it wasn’t wet, but there was grass that was higher than us. It was a slog at times, and annoying with the knowledge that the real trail was probably close by, but we had no way to find it without going dangerously cross-country, and the map was not helpful. At least the iPhone map gave us a direction to head.
We did get back to the parking lot at around 7:30, when the sun was already setting behind the trees. There was a very nice path going into the trees too, clear as day. I wish we had known what we were going to do at the start and headed in that direction to begin with.
On the drive home I noticed that the moon was in the half phase. Which struck me as odd, since it was full last night. Oh yeah! The eclipse.
There was a large group of people on Bison Loop Road. We joined them and took some pictures. But it was cold, we were hungry, and it was late. We drove home, keeping the moon in sight as much as possible, until it was completely gone, replaced by its blood version.

I got an email this morning asking me to check in for my flight. Internet wasn’t great, but I was able to get in. Oddly, there was no seat assigned for the Geneva-Montreal leg. And the flight was delayed by fifteen minutes. When the Alpybus got me to the airport they said they would assign me a seat at the gate. I think the delay had something to do with them being unable to organize the seats.

I said goodbye to my friend, who will now wander the mean streets of Geneva; I gave here the best advice I could and it sounds like she will be go to the U.N. first.

I got through the Duty Free without issue. Oddly, I did not pick up anything. With the Canadian dollar so low, I didn’t really want to get any alcohol that I probably will never drink. I know, that is out of character for me. 

At the gate they took my boarding pass and said they will assign me a seat when they can. I made the request for a window seat, but I would be happy with just being on the plane. I waited quite awhile, napping a bit. I’m more tired than I realized. Eventually I heard my name and I got my seat.

Business Class!

So this is how the other half lives. I do not have a window seat; when you are living in the lap of luxury that no longer seems important. They have already handed me an orange juice while the lower classes board. They tried to pawn some sparkling wine off on me, but I knew better.

And they’ve handed me a lunch menu. We haven’t even taken off?!

Appetizer: Balik salmon and lemon dill shrimp with fennel salad, zucchini, apricot chutney and caper apple. (I don’t care if I’m allergic to shrimp, it is going down.)

Salad: Mixed greens with carrot julienne and tomato served with balsamic vinagrette. 

Main Course: I have a selection of four to choose from

Chimichurri lamb chops accompanied by Rosemary jus, mashed potatoes and vegetable peperonata.

Chicken breast presented with morel sauce, rösti potstoes and mixed vegetables.

Salmon fillet offered with chive sauce, wild rice and a vegetable medley.

Orecchiette pasta served with light lemon sauce, Ed pepper and leek julienne.

I’m going to have the lamb. If “Airplane!” Has taught me anything, you don’t have the fish.

Selection of cheese: Tilsiter, Taleggio and Reblochon served with crackers

Choice of Desserts: Swiss chocolate, macadamia nut and vanilla ice cream with chocolate garnish.

Fresh seasonal fruit.

I must say, this is very nice.

I’m now going to listen to the preflight announcement, put on the swanky, noise canceling headphones, Take my boots off, lift my feet up so it will feel like I’m on a couch, and then watch a movie.

Living th dream!

2015-9-8 12:35

We went from the hotel to the hostel this morning. After we had checked in, and got our pass for all the cable cars, we did a short hike to the Cascade du Dard. It was only half an hour, and then we stayed in the cafe there and had a pleasant lunch. The weather was beautiful today, so it was a great time to just chill in France.

We then took the bus back into Chamonix and then went up the Télécabine de Planpraz. That took us up a good height, but I had been there before and it was nothing new. Then we went up the next cable car from there, the Téléphérique du Brévent (2525m) and there the view was amazing. We had gone to the top of the mountain and were seeing the other side. A spectacular wilderness and you could see so far away. This was better than all of the views for hiking the TMB. Which was somewhat depressing. Especially since we could see good chunks of the TMB from this new vantage point. Some clearer than when we were on them. Stupid bad weather.

We then went down and crossed town to go back to the Téléphérique de l’Aiguille du Midi (3842m). We had been there before we went on the TMB, but it had been at closing and we had missed going into the glass booth that hung over the edge. I had thought there would be better uses of our time than to repeat a cable car, but this was worth It. For one, the sky was much clearer and we could see things we hadn’t before; the peak of Mont Blanc was clear and seemed very close, despite being 1000 meters above us. The glass booth was okay, but it did let us get up even higher for the views.

My only regret is that we didn’t go to La Flégère today. It would have been nice to see the scene of my defeat. But, for some reason, it was closed today.

We just had a nice meal back at the hostel of tomato salad and salmon lasagna. This hostel seems to have only four people staying here. One woman was still here from before we had left; she still remembered me as I have a reputation now for eating a lot of salad.

Tomorrow I get up early and catch the bus back to Geneva and my flight home. This has been a good vacation. It could have been better, but I have enjoyed it.

2015-9-7 20:56

Of course the weather would be beautiful today. We were even in the perfect place to go up to the Fenêtre d’Arpette. However, I would like to quote the guidebook:

Many people consider the traverse of the Fenêtre d’Arpette to be the highlight of the Tour of Mont Blanc. Some await this stage with eager anticipation, while others view it with trepediation, but everyone agrees that it is one of the hike’s most unforgettable moments. The long climb up the rugged and barren Val d’Arpette to the narrow notch of the Fenêtre d’Arpette, a sabre cut in the high rock ridge, leads to an even more spectacular descent overlooking the magnificent Glacier de Trient.

That all sounds well and good, but the facts are that we would start at 1627m and climb to 2665m, before descending to 1280m. My energy has been drained by all the bad weather. That does not sound doable.

The mountain has failed to keep its promise. I tolerate horrible climbs in return for beautiful views. When three of the four days do not provide the scenery, there is a failure in the social contract.

So, we had a half hour hike back to Champex and then we bussed and trained to Chamonix. Some of the views from the train were equivalent to Tour scenery. We got an adequate hotel for a reasonable price. And having a relaxing day made me realize how tired I have become. Stress and cold do not help my energy level. Being able to sit and listen to a lederhosen band without worry is probably what I needed.

2015-9-6 17:50

It started so beautifully. We awoke in Courmayeur in a nice hotel. It was sunny out, and we only had a short hike today, just over one mountain. We had even found a bus that would take us to Arnuva (1769m) to start the hike.

Well, it may have been nice in Italy, but it wasn’t in Switzerland. And that bad weather was pouring over the Grand Col Ferret. As soon as we were out of the bus, the wind was strong and it was cold. The bus ride had not been good for my friend, so we had to wait awhile for her to recover. Then it was slow going up. It took us an hour to get up to Refuge Elena (2062m). There we stopped for some lunch, and we got back into the game.

It took us anothe hour and a bit to climb all the way to the top of Grand Col Ferret (2537m) and the wind was howling the entire way. It was snowing too. We were in the clouds so there was no view to enjoy. We got there around three, which means we spent a total of 24 hours in Italy.

Going down it was wet and miserable. We warmed up in La Peule (2071m) where they were attempting to have a fire going in the refuge. Then we continued down, past Ferret and into La Fouly (1593m). We were just in time at a quarter to seven to catch the last bus that would take us to Champex.

This is where things went worse. Last night, I had looked for a place to stay. The website for planning hiking Mont Blanc listed only one place with space in Champex, so I had paid a deposit to guarantee we had a place to sleep for tonight. That was Relais d’Arpette. I later discovered that there were other places with room, but by then I had already paid.

Unfortunately it was not actually in Champex. The bus took us to the edge of town, and in French told us which way to walk. There wasn’t anything there. We were cold, tired and hungry. I phoned the place and discovered it was a half hour hike. We were not happy.

Fortunately they sent a car to pick us up. But this place seems to be catering to people hiking, and is on the trail to the hardest hike of the whole trail.

We are tired of hiking. The weather has been lousy. All the effort would be okay if we got some good scenery out of it, but that has only happened on one day. This is no longer worth it. We are going to travel back to Chamonix and get a hotel there so we can have some nice memories of this place.

2015-9-5 21:40

Yurts are cold. This is true. However, it was a very comfortable night. They gave us a lot of duvets and blankets. It was nice being in stuff so soft. But my head was cold, so I should have worn a toque while sleeping.

When we got up, we had breakfast. Today was beautiful. Finally. There were a few clouds, but overall we could finally see the views we had been working so hard to earn. We left late, and then climbed up even higher. Once we got over the pass, it was a long downhill to Les Ville des Glaciers. That took about three hours. A half hour later we got to Les Mottets. The place was packed already, but I went in and cancelled my reservation. It was too early to stop on such a nice day.

Then up, up, up for the Col de Seigne. It took about two hours of solid climbing to get there, but we were able to cross the border into Italy. It became a special challenge to keep going because there was a tour group of 15 people right behind us. You don’t want to let that pass you or you’ll never get ahead of them.

The views down into Italy were great, and it was all downhill. We even got a car ride from some nice people for the last half kilometer.

We learned that Italy is in the middle of a dumb experiment. They are stopping all bus service in Courmayeur and surrounding villages for September until December. As part of our plan to do this hike involves skipping boring parts and using the bus, this is suddenly becoming expensive. Even our taxi driver acknowledge it was dumb, even if it is helping him earn even more money.

We didn’t even try to go to a hostel. We’ve been burned too much on that. So instead we went to a hotel. It was somewhat hard to find as we were using a local to phone for us, and one of the first that had vacancy was charging €1,100 a night. Which is a little steep. But we have a nice one now with a raging river just outside.

2015-9-4 23:42

Well, today was epic. Good in some ways, terrible in others.

We got up early in Refuge de Truc. Breakfast was bread and jam with a choice of hot beverage. We also ordered a picnic lunch which gave us access to some fruits and vegetables that were sorely lacking in our diet. Of course, my watch band broke right as we’re heading out, but I’ve “repaired” it with some duct tape.

We got on road by about 8:30 and headed down to Les Contamines. There I was able to visit a bank; with our new plans, we were spending more time in Euro zone and less time in Swiss zone, so I would run out of Euros at these places that were cash only. You don’t want to argue with the guy that has shelter when you are on the side of a mountain.

Then we hiked up, up and more up. It was about time we started crossing paths with the UTMB and it was interesting to see the difference in daylight. Unfortunately it didn’t last. As we got above Le Balme, the clouds rolled in. At times you couldn’t see more than 50 meters. I could honestly say the view under the full moon of the UTMB was better than these views. But we continued on, because there wasn’t much of a choice. The rain that happened above Col de Bonhomme wasn’t welcome.

The entire time I was getting stressed. We didn’t have reservations for the hostel we were heading to, Croix de la Col de Bonhomme. So I wanted to get there as early as possible to maximize the chances of getting a bed. My friend was slowing down and stressing me. I eventually figured out part of the problem was a lack of energy on her part and force fed her some SportBeans. That helped a lot.

We crossed the summit, and the weather cleared a bit. We could actually see mountains and, dare I say, a view. And there was the hostel, perched lovingly on the side of the mountain. I descended and then met true terror. I entered the common room and it was completely filled with people. A quick check confirmed, the hostel was fully booked. And a phone check of the next hostel two hours away confirmed that it was booked solid too.

The proprietors weren’t happy about us being there, but they did offer a grudging solution that we sleep on the floor of the common room. It was the same offer a party of six got. It was better than nothing. And it gave us a chance to take a shower (without hot water) before dinner. Dinner was bread, beef stew, polenta, some cheese and a piece of light cake without frosting. It was very nice after the stressful day. There is no electricity in most places here. I think they get their power from solar energy and today was not a good day for sunlight. Dinner was by candlelight, making me very sleepy.

And at the end of dinner, we found out that they had discovered room for us. So tonight we will be sleeping in a yurt outside. I’m not sure this is an improvement, because it is warm here and cold outside. I’ll let you know tomorrow.

2015-9-3 21:25

When I was young and visiting my grandparent’s farm in Denmark, there was a nasty plant in the area. It didn’t look like much, but if your skin touched it, burning pain. I had forgotten about it until today. Because today I discovered that same plant lives in France. So if you go off the beaten path on the TMB while wearing shorts, you may encounter some.

We got up early for our first day of trekking, but as we are wont to do, we didn’t get off as early as we would have liked. It didn’t look promising when I woke up; it was so cloudy/foggy that I couldn’t tell if we were in the mountains. We missed the train we wanted, so had to wait an hour for the next one, but spent a pleasant while by a small lake, where my friend went wading. Then we got the train to Les Houches, spent far too long trying to find a grocery store to get a lunch for later, then took the cable car to Bellevue. 

The hike would have been more impressive if we could see anything. Occasionally the clouds would part and we would see the hint of something awesome. But we never got the postcard pictures. That said, we were far more likely to look at the view, because it was always changing. The clouds would accentuate different parts of the scenery.

We crossed a suspension bridge (1760m), climbed up to the Col de Tricot (2120m), then down to Miage (1570m) where I encountered hostile plants and a dead cow. Then up to Le Truc (1720m) where we came upon the Auberge du Truc where we are spending the night.

It is rustic here. There are no power outlets that are accessible. No showers. Two toilets without lights. A dorm style sleeping arrangements that I think I’m sharing with about 20 others. We did borrow buckets and used them to soak our feet in cold water, which made us look ridiculous, but cold water heals a lot of injuries. And although my quads were feeling better this morning, all the down part to Miage has made them, flare up again.

Dinner was nice; carrot soup, macaroni, an omelette, some of the FRESH cheese they make here, and a Creme Brûlée. It also had a nice fireplace which really helped warm me up. It is cold in the mountains. I’m typing this while sitting next to it,

We changed plans for tomorrow. It seems obvious we won’t get to Les Mottets, so I hopefully moved the reservation a day further away. It is hard to tell when there is no internet access here, and I’m using expensive foreign cell service.

2014-9-2 21:00

My friend, Catalina, arrived yesterday. We had planned to start hiking around Mont-Blanc today. That did not happen. I was not looking healthy; limping, swollen ankle. So we have delayed our departure by a day. We will try tomorrow. I’m already feeling better, but I still get tired easily. Hopefully that will go away.

It is fairly good that we didn’t depart today. It is wet and miserable here. Not ideal for hiking. We have equipment to deal with that, but let’s be honest, it is nicer to hike in good weather.

We hit the ground running yesterday. As soon as she had gotten in, we set out for Chamonix. The hostel had given us a pass for the tourist attractions, so we took the cable car to Aiguille de Midi. This is way up on Mont-Blanc, and if you were so motivated, you could take all the way to Italy. We didn’t go that far, because it was late, but we got to hang out on top of a mountain. Not the highest point in the Mont-Blanc massif, but still two miles up from Chamonix.

Today we didn’t rush either and took an old train, train du Montenvers, up the mountain and visited a glacier, la Mer de Glacé. The rain made it a bit depressing, but it was still nice. There was an ice cave with a bunch of ice furniture. They had a crystal museum that displayed all the crystals that have been found in the area. Which after careful research, seems to consist entirely of Quartz. That was a let down.

The plan tonight is to go to bed early and be ready for the hike tomorrow. We will be cheating a bit and taking a train to a good starting point, and then a cable car up. But after that, we hike.

On a personal note, I am feeling a little more down about my run. I keep thinking what would have happened if I had ignored the helpful people and just walked from there on. I probably could have gotten to the aid station and gotten cooled down, then just a downhill run to the end. But, at the time, I didn’t have the energy to put up a fight. But it is what it is, and you can’t change the past. I don’t think I’ll be doing any more ultras. I’ve done enough of them.

2015-9-1 19:00

So I “ran” Mont-Blanc. I didn’t finish unfortunately. I only got 160km of the 170km. I missed a 10km run downhill.

Now I quote “run” because it has come to my attention that there isn’t much running in this race. If I was giving advice to someone doing it, I would tell them to practice climbing, going up stairs, or just continually lifting yourself. The reason this race takes 46 hours, is that you can’t run it. You are just doing a very fast hike. The only running I really did was down mountains.

I was lucky that it was a full moon, because I could see the landscape at night. And that is when you are most prone to enjoying the scenery, because it was too hot during the day. You’re not enjoying anything then.

I thought the batteries in my headlamp were fresh. (They weren’t.) I didn’t notice because the moon was bright, and there were a lot of people with really bright headlamps. I only clued in when I was running down a long mountain. My first thought was that my headlamp had burned out lights, or was just old, because there were fresh batteries in it. Fortunately, the race requires a backup light, and that illuminated the darkness. Even better, when I got to the town at the bottom, Petzl (the headlamp manufacturer) was giving out free batteries. And testing the old ones. Mine failed.

By the time night was ending and I was crossing into Italy, I was feeling down. My friend, Mike, had often given advice that you always feel better in the day. And that was true. Once it was light out, I felt good enough to keep up my spirits. Until I got to Courmayeur in Italy. They had 4km in short switchbacks which went down 750 meters. By the time I got there, my quads were shredded. Of course you have to climb up another mountain soon after. I’ve found if you keep doing the same thing, your quads can adapt, but when you keep going up and down, you have nothing but pain.

In Courmayeur, there was the major transition. This is where you can pick up your bag that you deposited earlier. It felt like a gong show though. I got my bag easily enough but there wasn’t any support for using it. This is where I wished I had had a support person. Someone who could have fetched things, or just gotten things out of the bag.

I wish I could have said “I crossed the mountains into Switzerland under cover of night, just ahead of the Germans.” But I couldn’t wait until night. Also, I’m not sure there were any Germans behind me.

The second night was bad for me. One mountain was very treacherous. There really wasn’t a path up, and it was mostly climbing over boulders. When I got above the tree line, I did not feel good. I had caught a 20 minute nap in Lac de Champax, but I was feeling bad. I think I was delerious. I really started thinking I needed to drop out. I kept going, slowly, to an aid station. There I took another nap. I requested 20 minutes, but I think they only gave me 15. I just wanted to get to the end of the section. Then I decided to throw up, because that usually makes me feel better. (For the record, not anorexic.) and it helped. Maybe the altitude was getting to me.

I kept going, and was doing okay. Always staying between half and hour and an hour ahead of the cut offs. Daylight helped.

On the second last leg, it was up to Le Flegere. That was a 800 meter mountain/cliff that was directly in the sun. I think it was +33°. I was mugging people for their water, and frequently was out. That was not a healthy combination. I was trying to make a balance between not over-exerting myself, and trying to make the cut-off. I got to the top, and had hoped they had put an aid station there. No. It was still a few kilometers away. I was not sure about my timing, and what exactly the cutoff was, so I was forcing myself to run in the heat.

Then some random bystanders insisted I stop. I was “running” like I was drunk. They put me in the shade and gave me water. I eventually got well enough that they walked me to the aid station, stopping once to recover again, and taking a truck when I got to the road. The rest of the course was all downhill. Maybe if I hadn’t been pushing so hard I could have made it. 

I think it was hard for all Canadians because I met another Edmontonian who was also pulled, due to dehydration

Last night I was saying I was okay with not finishing. All I missed was the finishers jacket and being able to run through the cheering crowd. And I certainly proved myself. I’ve essentially covered the entire course. The part I missed, I walked the last time I was here. Today though I’m feeling a bit more down. I would like to be able to say I finished with no conditions, and for my friends to see it happen.

When I got back to the centre, I went to the medics. Blood was fine. Pressure was fine. Temperature was 38°. They put me in a cooling tent for awhile. I then stayed. In Chamonix for awhile talking to another Canadian, and then waiting for the racer’s meal. Unfortunately it kept me out well past the bus system. 

2015-8-31 14:40

I run in 3.5 hours. It is hot here. I am nervous. I keep needing to go to the bathroom. 168km.

This will be hard. I have a plan to try and get at least 60km in the first 12 hours. Then 40km in the next, when the heat will be hitting. Hopefully that will give me a good window of success. 

2015-8-28 14:35

I’ve been feeling somewhat out of it all day. Have I been eating enough? Is the altitude bothering me? Could it be because my roommates were crashing around at 4am, getting ready for their race? Maybe it is all the pills I’ve been taking to help me sleep?

Nothing much happened today. Other than being in an exotic foreign country. I took it slow, which burned me later. I eventually got out to Chamonix carrying my race bag, which is depressingly heavy. They want us to be prepared for inclement weather in the mountains, while also dealing with +35° temperature. (Although my weather app implies it won’t be that bad.) I then checked into the race and they certified that I have the required equipment.

I’m racer 2716 if anyone asks. If you go to the UTMB website you should be able to follow my progress. They will even have cameras along the course and predictions as to when I will pass them.

I then went back to the hostel to dump my stuff, clean up a bit, then right back to Chamonix. I’m at the mercy of the bus system here so I can’t always do as I please. I tried to get to a cable car, which is practically free with my hostel, but I didn’t get there in time. They shut down at 4:30, which is earlier than I expected. Guess I shouldn’t have taken it slow. I did get to the Maison de Montagne and got some information. I had already done a lot of what they recommended, and I got their opinion of what I have planned. They think I am too ambitious for my second day. Challenge accepted. 

I’ve discussed it with my friend who will be joining me. We don’t need to do everything hardcore. We can take cable cars and buses where appropriate. For instance, the 7km from here to Les Houches is, by all accounts, boring. Take the bus or a train. The reason I can get away with this, even though my personality screams not to, is that I will (hopefully) have run the whole thing and have nothing to prove.

2015-8-27 10:25

I checked out of the hostel, went to the airport and took the Alpybus to Chamonix.

I see no reason to ever go back to Geneva. The only thing there worth seeing now is my cousin and her family. And I only saw them twice, once when I arrived and another time this morning for ten minutes. They are too busy with the twins to spend much time with me, which is how it should be. I was glad that they were able to spare a bit of time. I have covered everything else in that city. That expensive city. I can give recommendations to anyone else going, but I’m going to try and avoid the place.

I couldn’t check into my hostel until after five o’clock, so I stored my luggage and took the bus into town. I checked out the expo. It is easier coming back, as I don’t need to buy things I already have. And I see no pressing reason to have a second marmot. I did get one t-shirt, and some compression shorts for the worst-case-scenario that my shorts rip while on the trail. (This is a very real possibility as my compression shorts have a tendency to make a break for freedom.)

The expected temperature for the day(s) of the race is +35°. Columbia was giving demonstrations of their cooling technology in their products and OMG it was amazing. (I apologize for the use of that acronym, but it seemed appropriate.) I was then informed that the race shirt is made of the same material. This leaves me in a conundrum. According to Mike, it is bad luck to wear the race shirt before the race, and never if if you haven’t finished it. And as much as I ignore that superstition, it has left a nugget in my brain. I can’t afford any negativity while I’m running.

I then got down to the task of planning my after-ultra activities. Mainly doing the hike around the mountain. I went to the Chamonix tourism information office and discovered a big fat pile of useless. Their recommendation is a book store a bit away, so I picked up a map and a guidebook to hiking in the area. Better late than never. I would later learn from the hostel about the “Maison de la Montagne” which will probably be very helpful; conveniently located ACROSS THE STREET from the tourism office.

What kind of clown college is running this mountain? Since it is France, it must be a mime college.

The hostel hasn’t given me the best room. The one I initially was given seemed awfully convenient, except the key didn’t work. And because this is France, it is easier to give me another room than to fix the door. So I was the last person in the new room, giving me the top bunk. That is going to be loads of fun to climb up and down after the race.

I had dinner at the hostel. When I was last here, I found the meals to be better and cheaper at the hostel than at an actual restaurant in town. And tonight it was salmon with pepper sauce. That brought back memories of the salmon and peppers I had three years ago; so good I got the recipe from the chef. (Still untested.) Unfortunately, it was not the same. It was still good, and the sauce was quite different, but it is hard to compete with memories. It was also my first real meal in Europe; not a kebab or a pizza, but a real local dish.

2015-8-26 22:35