Even though our flight wasn't leaving Calgary until tomorrow, we were getting awfully nervous due to a winter storm warning for Red Deer, Calgary and the south end of the province. We had dropped Jazz and Star off at Joe and Char's place yesterday so we made the decision to try and beat the weather and left home at 1:20 p.m. From Edmonton to Innisfail it was raining moderately with a bit of wind. However, just past Innisfail the snow started and came down heavily right through to Calgary.

By 5:00 we arrived at the Acclaim Hotel which is located a couple of minutes north of the Calgary International Airport. Now it was really snowing and blowing, with 70 km winds and zero visibility. It didn't matter too much to us anymore as we were finished our highway travelling for the day. We wrestled our luggage into the hotel, checked in and settled into a great room that was new, well appointed and clean.

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At around 6:30 p.m. we again braved the elements and drove over to Cross Iron Mills mall. Our intent was to stop in at BassPro Shop for a bit of shopping and find a restaurant for dinner. Our only purchases at BassPro were a couple of t-shirts and all we could find in the mall was a food court. That wasn't very appetizing so we again jumped into the vehicle and made our way to Airdrie and Athens Pizza. And guess what? We had pizza... with wings on the side.

While we were chowing down, I got a call from Harold on my cell. They had left home 10 minutes prior to phoning and thought we could expect them around ten or so. And the Nikolaj's did show up at the hotel right after ten, weary from the drive but in one piece. The roads were so bad Harold had to use the "stupid switch" (automatic 4 wd) from Edmonton to Red Deer and full-time 4wd from Red Deer south. The storm still hadn't let up and had in fact worsened. The temperature dropped below freezing, the snowfall increased and the winds had cranked up to over 90 km per hour.

  
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After they checked in, we helped Harold and Wendy haul their luggage to their room and got a reward. Harold had brought along a small cooler from Edmonton with some beers for him and a bottle of bubbly for the rest of us.

    
    
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It had been a long day. Lee and I made our way back to our room at midnight and it was off to bed by 1 a.m.