13 Jul 2011
Posted by Dave under Dave's Thoughts,Family,Photos
Archive for the 'Photos' Category
06 Nov 2010
Posted by Dave under Dave's Thoughts,Photos
Heart Mountain Hike
The first week of November has been marvelous with clear sunny skies and warm temperatures – I’m pretty sure that the worst day this week was better than any day in September! At least that’s how I remember it, don’t go confusing me with any facts to the contrary…
With such fine weather it was only natural to try and squeeze in the second hike of the year with my brother Scott. (My second hike, not his – Scott’s been out 16 or 17 times.) The days are getting pretty short and mornings cool – we didn’t get out of town til after 9:00 and I had to be back to Calgary by 3:00pm, so we picked something close; Heart Mountain, just south of Exshaw. I’ve never gone up the mountain, just up Heart Creek and that was at least 25 years ago.
The trail is a pretty steady uphill grunt and I don’t think that I was going as quickly as Scott normally would. The trail is up the north face of the mountain and it was cool in the wind with no sunshine to warm things up. 
There are a couple of little scrambly bits near the top but we stopped just before the second one as we’d used up half of our time. I was a little disappointed not to make it to the top. The disappointment did fade some on the trip back down when my knees started to give out. The last half hour getting back to the car was pretty painful and I was glad that we’d not gone any further!
It was a good outing, but boy, am I ever stiff and sore now. I’m just not used to that kind of effort. I’m wondering if it is possible to rename the trail to “Robaxacet Ridge”…
06 Aug 2010
Posted by Dave under Dave's Thoughts,Photos
Lancaster Tour
In my earlier post, I mentioned that Brenda’s work at the Aerospace Museum of Calgary this summer has revolved largely around the preparations for the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum’s (CWHM) Lancaster bomber western tour. On Tuesday, when the Lanc arrived in Calgary, there was a reception for the CWHM crew and local dignitaries as well as a number of veterans. Once Brenda’s duties at the door were complete, I joined her and we spent the pleasant summer’s evening chatting with some of the staff and volunteers from Hamilton and touring through the Lancaster.
There were only about 150 or so in attendance at the reception, so there was plenty of opportunity to spend a bit of time in the aircraft, the CWHM personnel were unfailingly pleasant and knowledgeable and more than willing to answer any and all questions. They even put up with Brenda’s cheekiness! (Go ahead, ask Brenda how to tell the difference between a Canadian-built Lancaster and a British-built one.)
It was quite the fine evening and a rare chance to have a really good look at one of only two remaining airworthy, operational Lancasters in the world. Although the Mynarski Lanc is a museum piece, the fact that it is actively used and flown lends realism to the historical artifact – it smells of fuel and hydraulic oil. And, as we discovered today when the Lanc overflew our house, the sound of those four roaring engines is unlike any other aircraft today. The sense of history is profound when you consider the 10’s of thousands of young men that risked or gave up their lives in Lancasters.
