Saturday, August 24th – Calgary, Alberta  As with most of my Backroads trips, I try to add some days at the end or beginning of the trip to see more of the region – I started with Calgary.  Calgary, my entry into and exit out of Canada on this trip, started out as a fort in 1875 to protect the fur trade and was named Fort Calgary in 1876 after Calgary on the Isle of Mull, Scotland. It officially became a city in 1884, with a population of 4,000.  It is now the largest city in Alberta with approximately 1.4 million people, located just east of the Rocky Mountains. Known…

A story of how something lost can lead to discovering what community is all about.

It is forgivable to give your children affirmation when they do not deserve it.  It is unforgivable to not do so when they do.

Thank God for those who do not stand on the dots….. As I sat on my deck drinking my cup of coffee on this rare cool August morning, I read the following from my favorite blogger: On the dot  Hardy came home from school and proudly showed his mom the cheap plastic trinkets he had earned that day. “I stood quietly on the dot and so I got some tickets. And if I stand on the dot quietly tomorrow, I can get some more prizes!” First grade! That’s one way to indoctrinate kids in both obedience and consumption. It’s rare we see it so brazenly and vividly executed. Is standing…

Dear James, Here is the 4th and final installment of “The People We Meet” from my Basque Trip. Day 16 – The Tour de France in Bilbao, Spain – The Mother The “Grand Depart” of the Tour de France would occur in Bilbao with the first stage starting and ending there. Through very fortunate circumstances that occurred in South Africa of all places, I was given VIP passes for the start and end of the race, allowing us to be near the teams. As we mingled at the finish line in our VIP tent, I met a family with three teenage sons. Americans, they now lived in Japan. I told…

Dear James, Here is the third installment of “The People We Meet” from my Basque Trip. It covers the cycling part of my trip in the French Pyrenees and the Rioja Region – days 10 through 15. Day 10 – The Swimmers in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, France We left San Sebastián early in the morning, took a train across the border to Biarritz, where we met our Cycling Group. We cycled 16 miles to Jean-de-Luz, a beautiful French Basque Coastal town. I decided to go for a swim. Because it was later in the day, the only other swimmers were two teenage boys jumping off of a diving platform located 75 yards…