Arrived in Calgary

We dropped off Igor at a mechanic shop yesterday after lunch. He runs well, but idles a little rough on start up. Also, there is an odd chugging sound in between some gear shifts (and it's intermittent, to make diagnosis all the more difficult) but two different mechanics have said they think it's a misfire.

I had a quick look at the spark plugs, and they honestly look like they've never been changed. 

And it turns out that they may have never been changed because it's not an easy job. I've read articles from people who have done it and apparently five of the plugs are easy, and three are very difficult. And without the right tools, pretty much impossible. I would normally have done something like this myself, but decided to farm this out to someone better equipped.

And, on the way back from Nova Scotia last week I started to notice a pulsation in the front brakes. They passed both the Ontario and Nova Scotia safety checks, so the rotors and pads must be in decent shape, so maybe Igor needs to get the rotors machined or something. Or maybe a caliper is grabbing. Anyhow, I'm getting that fixed as well while we're gone. Hopefully he'll be ready to go when we get back to Ottawa next Sunday.

Our house sitting host arrived back and we said goodbye to the three cats. Then we made our way to the Ottawa Airport. We were going to need to get some dinner somewhere, so we decided that we might as head right to the airport and use two of our six annual lounge passes that are a perk of our credit card.

A glass of wine to start.

Ha... I look like I've already had a few, but I promise that's the first one!

The airport lounge is always a great way to waste some time in an airport. Unfortunately the food was not up to par, but we didn't leave hungry.

Ottawa to Calgary... about a 4 hour and 15 minute flight.

Our Air Canada flight departed 15 minutes late at 9:00pm. It was only about half full. I'm guessing that because their pilots had threatened a strike in mid September, a lot of people avoided booking with them to avoid having their plans disrupted.

Air Canada now gives out free beer and wine on all Canadian and USA flights, so it was nice to have a beer and a glass of wine. And the seatback entertainment worked well and we watched a movie each and a couple of comedy episodes. Uneventful flight, just the way you want it to be!

And the next thing you know, we're landing in Calgary at 11:15pm local time (with a 2 hour time zone change). My sister Alison was there to pick us up, and we had a half hour drive to her apartment in Cochrane, a town on the outskirts of Calgary towards the Rocky Mountains. Tired when we arrived, and pretty much went straight to bed.

Sunrise view from her apartment.

We got some hikes planned over the next few days, but for today we think we'll just go for a walk here in town. Weather is great with a high around 26C (79F).

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And in Canada...

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