We have arrived safely in Calgary after the long flight across the Pacific. Other than some occasional turbulence and lots of tedium, the flight was uneventful. We sat next to a young guy who had been in Australia on an exchange to look at our beef farming practices. As such, he visited cattle stations in exciting towns such as Dubbo and Wagga Wagga, not places often visited by tourists. The only problem we encountered was in Vancouver, where it took almost an hour for our luggage to appear at the carousel. After waltzing through immigration in two minutes, we waited and waited, only to find out that there was a blockage of suitcases that had crashed into each other in the chute from the tarmac. 

As per our tradition, it was off to Tony Roma's for dinner: original baby back ribs, fries and coleslaw.

 

After a bit of sleep, we visited our favourite camping store and bought bear spray. It's a bit harder to buy now after some idiots used bear spray to hold up a store here in Calgary. Something we hadn't realised before is that the can only holds six seconds of spray. Apparently, you use a two-second spray in the face of the bear, preferably on its nose, and then "reapply" it if the bear doesn't move off. It almost sounds like directions for applying sunscreen. Hopefully, we never have to use it.