Cowtown Trip

Ah Calgary. It’s the Canadian city of exponential growth and recent, devastating flooding. It’s also the home of my closest cousin, my sister-from-another-mister, Barbara-Anne and her family.It has been about six years since I last rode out to Cowtown and I was due. I love Calgary. I lived there for a month about a hundred years ago and despite many visits, I still can’t find my way around. But the city and the province of Alberta are beautiful and every Canadian should experience them.

It was a wonderful trip with sights I haven’t seen in decades and others I’ve never seen before. BA missed the flooding by two blocks. Her area in Bowness was evacuated but thankfully she and her daughter Carlyanna, her son Lukas and the dogs Nipper and Dodger returned to a dry home. We walked through the neighbourhood where the swollen Bow River overflowed into basements, livingrooms and bedrooms, ruining property and in some cases, the houses themselves. Every one that has had work done has a new set of wooden steps at the entrance.  Heartbroken families reluctantly moved from their ruined homes on quiet streets, many of them denied insurance coverage because the flood was considered “an act of God”.

If you look closely, a waterline is visible on the brick of this home’s garage.

There’s silt and river gunk all over the place. Volunteers assembled by the thousands to help with the salvage and clean-up.  And the signs show how grateful the residents are for their assistance.

It’s very humbling to walk past what used to be a popular variety store and to see it and the small home out back that housed the owners and their family boarded up and rendered uninhabitable. BA also took me downtown to the southeast where most of the media coverage was centred. And on one of our drives we saw the results of the overflow near Canmore. Some areas will take years to repair. We are but specks in the eyes of nature!

Next week, more from my trip including the Royal Tyrrell dinosaur museum, hoodoos and beautiful Banff!