An ongoing adventure of travel and living while using a wheelchair. Tim has been disabled from birth. Darryl is his father and caregiver who travels with him.
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It's been a fun and eventful couple of weeks checking out history, natural phenomena, and even riding out a hurricane in Halifax, Nova Scotia but now it's time to make the long flight home.
Unfortunately, there are no direct flights from California so we have to change planes in Calgary before getting our last flight back to San Francisco. In between, we have a 16 hour, overnight layover.
To make things easier for us, I book a suite at the Delta Hotel, located in the terminal of the Calgary airport. It's not an accessible room but Tim's wheelchair will fit in and, really, we're just looking for some comfortable beds to spend the night in before catching our connecting flight in the morning.
Calgary is a big airport. Lots and lots of walking here and it's not always easy to tell the domestic checkin from the international. The U.S. has its own departure hall on concourse E. This is because U.S. Customs and passport control are here in Calgary, processing you before you board, so when you get home you can just collect your luggage and leave. It's kind of a neat system, saving you a lot of time when all you want to do is just go home.
The flights are uneventful but we were delayed an extra two hours in Calgary. It sure was nice to get home.
I feel like Danny Glover in the "Lethal Weapon" movies these days when it comes to travel...I'm too old for this shit. It's just such a marathon to get to some destinations anymore. It's two and a half hours from our house to San Francisco International Airport. My wife doesn't want to wake up and leave very early in the morning so I relent and book a night at the Embassy Suites Waterfront hotel, just south of the airport, for the night before. A faulty air conditioning tower in the parking lot next door keeps us up most of the night but it does allow us to relax a bit in the morning before hustling into the airport.
Inside, once we find the right counter, Westjet is accommodating to us on our first flight from SFO to Calgary in Alberta, Canada. I paid extra to be booked into their premium class (what most airlines would have called first class about 20 years ago) and to be able to sit Tim in the first row. This also allows me to tell the airline that I don't need help getting Tim on the plane. I can just bring his wheelchair into the door of the plane, have him bear his weight while I stand him up, and swing him over to his seat about five feet away. The flight to Calgary goes well enough...we were delayed about 20 minutes at take off and then about half an hour in Calgary because one of the ground crew didn't come back from his meal break on time...and we settle in for a five hour layover before the next flight. Going through passport control, all is going well until we get to the automated kiosks. They won't focus on Tim to take a picture, he's too low in his chair to get a good shot. We have to do it the old fashioned way, with an Immigration Officer. "Please hand me your previous flight's boarding pass," he asks. It's back on the plane in the seat pocket at my seat. "You'll have to exit the secure area and have the airline issue you a new one." Navigating from the exit to Westjet departure desk in Calgary is quite a walk. Once we get there, they just tell us to use our next boarding pass and go through security again. We're back in secure terra firma, browsing the Hudson newstand, looking for snacks, until it's time to head to our gate, number 73 in the C concourse. It's in a quiet, out-of-the-way part of the airport.
It's almost time to board. The gate agent, Jeffrey approaches us and asks to see our boarding passes then returns to the counter. In a minute, he returns..."we have a little situation." Situations are never good at the airport. Airports can be evacuated for "situations," you can be denied boarding for "situations," things are never good in "situations." "We cannot allow you to sit in the front row since you are special needs," he explains to us. "We'll have to reseat you in the back of the plane." Let me interrupt this bit of news to explain something...when we can and when we can afford it, I like to splurge on the front seats of the aircraft. This is almost always first class (premium class, business class, whatever the airline calls it) and means that we'll get a nice, wide seat with the most legroom on the plane. It also gets us the best service...hot towels, cocktails, nicer meals, free baggage, lounge access, front of line access at the ticket counter and security...and, most important of all, it gives me plenty of room to easily transfer Tim into his seat. Tim has explained the usual boarding process for the mobility impaired in a previous post. In short, it's a pain in the ass for him and he really doesn't like it. He'll put up with it when he has to, but he'd really rather not do it. When we're in the front row, I can easily seat him, as explained above. The flight crews are always impressed by this bit of practised boarding. To us, it's just simply easier and less prone to mistakes and injury. I've done this hundreds of times...many times, the boarding crews are just learning how to do it and make a myriad of dangerous errors. After Tim is seated and buckled in, I fold up his wheelchair into a nice, easy-to-handle 50 pound bundle for the baggage handlers to take. The whole process takes less than five minutes and no one has to wait around for the airport crew to show up. It's a true win-win for everyone involved. Back at Calgary's gate C73, I put on my debating frame of mind and ask Jeffrey as nicely as I can, why can't we sit in the front row? Westjet knew when I bought the tickets that Tim is special needs and uses a wheelchair because he cannot walk at all. I mention that this has never been a problem before, even on Westjet. In fact, we just flew on Westjet from San Francisco in the same situation and no one said one word about it. "It's company policy," he said. "No one has said anything until now. Your tariff doesn't say anything about it (Westjet's tariff - the document that explains their policies that must meet Canadian Federal laws - says that disabled are prohibited from the exit row and the aisle seat on a bulkhead row. Tim was assigned the window seat - Ed)," I replied. "Our equipment to seat him cannot be deployed in the front row." "How can that be?" I answered. "It makes it to the back of the plane where there is much less room and it is exponentially harder to transfer him to a seat. Besides, I'll be doing the transferring...you guys don't have to do anything." "I'll need to find a supervisor to see if we can approve this," he says and walks off to start dialing the phone. We're flummoxed as to why this is suddenly a problem (or "situation" as the airlines like to say) after all these years. It reminds us of the time where suddenly the batteries to Tim's wheelchair chair became a problem after many flights with no problems. We watch as he tries to get someone with authority on the phone. This is a late night flight so it takes awhile. We watch as he explains and we wait. We watch as the rest of the passengers are wondering why we haven't boarded yet. He comes to tell us a supervisor is on her way to explain things to us. In the meantime, he gets on the PA and tells the passengers in the lounge that boarding has been a bit delayed because of a "situation that needs to be cleared up." Oh, great. Now, we're a "situation" to the rest of the flight's passengers. The supervisor finally shows up and starts to explain things to us. I explain everything I've already covered here, plus told her that we paid a precious premium to sit in these seats on top of the fact that if something went wrong it would be much, much easier for me to evacuate my son from this seat than any other seat on the plane. She says she'll go to the plane and ask the pilot and crew if they have any problem with it. About twenty minutes later, we're told that the crew has given us our blessing and five minutes later, we're securely aboard. Jeffery comes and apologises, saying he's new and doesn't feel comfortable approving things like this. I thank him and in my thoughts think that maybe he doesn't feel comfortable but he sure didn't have any qualms about making up airline policy that doesn't exist.
Finally, we're on our way and five hours later, we're landing in heavy fog in Halifax, Nova Scotia. So heavy that I was waiting as we descended in the clouds for a clearing that never came...suddenly, the thump of the runway told us we were on the ground. At the gate, I could see the orange cones on the flashlight of the ground crewman right outside of my window but not the man himself. As we deplaned, the captain told us that he almost diverted to Moncton...a hundred miles away...but decided he could do a blind instrument landing. Oh my... Well, now we're safely on the ground. Navigating Hertz for our rental SUV was easy and we're off in the fog and rain at 6:30 in the morning to find our hotel. See you when we get there. Darryl Musick Copyright 2019 - All Rights Reserved
We've come prepared for the worst weather but we've had remarkably clear skies while here in Canada's third largest city and, for the most part, up north in the Canadian Rockies for the week before this. Maybe a sprinkle here and there but nothing more than mild and temporary.
Waking up on this last morning in Calgary, I look out the window. Fall and the sunny weather is nowhere to be seen. There is a blanket of snow on everything and it is still falling steadily. Hilton gave us a late checkout (2pm) and we'd planned on doing a couple of things around town before heading to the airport for our later flight home tonight at 7:00.
Those plans are pretty much dashed by the weather so we lazily spend the day packing up, eating the rest of our snacks, and gradually getting ready to go. Finally, it's 1:45 so we'd better checkout. I get the car from the lot across the street. It's now very windy to go with that steady snow and it's freezing outside. Gingerly, I transfer Tim into the front seat of our rental Ford Escape. This is where he'll stay until we pull into the rental car return later which is, thankfully, indoors and under a roof.
I have to gas up the car before we get to the airport so we find the nearest Costco where we get two pieces of bad news. The first, a mild letdown, is that our Costco Visa card nor our Costco membership card will work on the gas pumps up here. They use a Costco Mastercard up here and, despite our card being called Costco's 'Anywhere' card, we can not get it to work. The other, more tragic, bit of news we find out while Tim and I sit in the car while Letty runs into the main Costco store to look around...we hear that one of our favorite musicians, Tom Petty, had died of a heart attack. A Tom Petty marathon suddenly breaks out on the FM station that we're listening to. I find another station for gas and slowly make our way to the airport listening to a playlist of the best of Petty. We check the car back in with Enterprise, make our way into the terminal, change out of our winter clothes back into something more suitable for L.A., and check in our bags. One thing that's nice and convenient for U.S. travelers here in Calgary is that TSA, ICE, and Customs are all stationed here at the airport so, once you clear those three (which goes by surprisingly fast and easy), once you deplane in the U.S., you're free to go straight to baggage claim and leave the airport without any additional barriers.
Inside, we while away the waiting time at a very nice Belgian cafe in the departure lounge before taking a very easy and quick flight home.
There's one thing I do not want to leave Alberta without doing. This is Canada's premiere cattle country. There's the world's largest outdoor rodeo here each summer. The land is filled with ranches, cowboys, and oil workers. I want a good steak before I leave.
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In addition to that, there's been something looming over us at almost every step we've taken here. At over 450 feet above downtown, there's the Calgary Tower. If you know Tim, he just can't pass up a good, tall tower. He's been above the skyline in Seattle; to the top at the CN Tower in Toronto; gazed over the Empire State in it's eponymously named building in Manhattan; and even been to the top of the orange tower at Magic Mountain. It's Sunday and quiet in downtown Calgary. The weather's cooling off from the glorious few days we just had. Calgary's patios and pubs are nowhere near the hive of humanity they were on Stephen Avenue just yesterday. A couple of stops on the C-Train get us to where we need to be. Actually, two stops would have but we went three and now we have added another couple of blocks to our walk.
Eventually, we make it to the corner where the tower sits. After paying our admission, the elevator takes us pretty quickly up to the observation deck at the top of the tower. As soon as we roll out of the cab, we see the star attraction.
At 450 feet above the street, standing on a glass floor is not what you naturally want to do. It's bad enough to see other people do it but getting out there yourself is another matter.
Tim gives me a week's worth of butterflies when he rolls right onto the glass. I instinctively grab his chair with one hand and a pole with another as if he were to suddenly crash through the glass I would somehow be able to hold him and his chair in midair until rescue were to arrive. Realizing the folly of that, I let go and Tim is no worse off because of it.
I gingerly step out onto the glass. We take some pictures and then proceed to soak in the views from above Calgary. From here, we can take in the Stampede and the surrounding buildings that were raised for the 1988 Winter Olympics hosted here. The Bow River and Fort Calgary can also be easily seen. Several buildings down below have their names painted on the roof so people in the tower can find them when they get down. The Palomino Club entices me for a drink later. After seeing the sky-high view of the city, we exit through the gift shop and make the trek over to the nearby Inglewood neighborhood. It's here where Letty can browse one of the local yarn shops while Tim and I chat over a beer. Later, it's time for dinner. One more thing...we head to the Keg, which is in the lobby of the Westin Hotel, for some of that Alberta beef.
I'm torn between deciding on the New York strip and the prime rib but the roast eventually wins over the steak.
Letty gets a top sirloin topped with shrimp and scallops.
Tim gets some prime rib sliders. It's very delicious and easily satisfies my cravings for that Alberta cow I've been dying to eat. Darryl Musick Copyright 2017 - All Rights Reserved Photos by Letty Musick Copyright 2017 - All Rights Reserved
The one big activity we have planned while we're here in Canada's third largest city is to go see a hockey game. It'll be the most Canadian thing we do while we're here. It's Saturday night, which is hockey night in Canada, and the Calgary Flames are hosting the Winnipeg Jets in their final pre-season match before the season starts next week.
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We had learned from our adventures yesterday that it would be just as easy to walk the half mile from our hotel as to take the train. The weather report is a bit threatening but when it's time to leave, it's still dry. Walking it is, although we'll leave the return by train option open if the weather has turned nasty after the game. Straight as an arrow, we walk the street from our hotel to the Saddledome. As we're approaching, a police officer points us to the accessible ramp to enter the arena. It's pretty well hidden and it's no wonder we didn't see it on our walk yesterday. "It's the only way you'll get in," he tells us. Collecting our tickets from Will Call, we proceed inside. Of course, this only accessible entrance is almost exactly on the opposite side of the arena from the wheelchair seating so we have to walk halfway around to get to our seats. At least, this gives us a chance to see what kind of food offerings are available to us for this night of hockey. We get to our seats which are located on a row across three or four sections at the top of the first level. Basically, in this old arena, they just cleared out a spot on the concourse for wheelchairs. There is no 'built in' seating.
Another thing is that Canada today is like the U.S. was 15 years ago in companion seating requirements. We are only allowed buy one companion seat to go with Tim's wheelchair. I give that to my wife, my assigned seat is about 10 rows away. I decide to sit in the empty seat next to Tim until and unless the ticket holders for that seat show up...with the usher's blessing, of course. (As a side note, the ADA was amended a few years ago for the United States where is is now law that you must sell up to at least three companion seats for every wheelchair seat but, of course, this is not the United States)
The pregame activities begin with a warning that there will be fireworks. This turns out to be nothing more than flames shooting out of the scoreboard but it's still a nice effect. The game starts and about halfway through the first period, I feel a tap on my shoulder. A lady and her husband in a wheelchair are here to claim their seats. I immediately get up as nicely as I can but still get the wish-of-my-immediate-death stare from the caregiver. Jeez...is this an example of the famous Canadian hospitality I've heard so much about? I move to the other side of Letty and Tim. Pretty soon, a mother and her disabled son show up to claim the seats I'm sitting at. "No worries," she says, "we'll just scoot down one spot and you can continue to sit with your family." That's more like it. A little while later, an able-bodied man and his four able bodied kids encamp in the seats on the other side of the mom (the usher said it was OK but he'd have to move to his assigned seats if someone else showed up). When the mom and the kid take off to the bathroom, that family immediately scoots over to take the seats they just vacated. OK, this is getting a bit ridiculous. The lady was so nice to me that I feel obligated to defend those seats. This is a big, burly, mean looking guy but someone has to say something and it looks like it's going to fall to me. I steel myself up for a confrontation... "Excuse me, but those seats are already taken," I tell the gent getting ready for the inevitable shouting match. "Oh, I'm sorry...come on kids, let's scoot back over here," came his gentle and courteous reply. I guess that the first caregiver that gave me the death stare was an anomaly. There really is a overwhelming courteousness to these people. The game continues on. I get some hot dogs and popcorn for Tim and me...which were really very good...while Letty has some pirogi poutine. She says it's the best poutine she's had the entire trip. It's a hard fought game with the lead changing a few time. At the end of regulation, the game is tied 2-2. At the end of a five minute overtime, the game is still tied 2-2. If you know hockey, you know what comes next. Each team takes a turn sending a lone player onto the ice to shoot a puck at a lone goalie from the other team...it's the shootout! It's a very exciting and quick way to decide the match. A Jets player shoots and missed. Same with the first Flames player. Another Jets player misses. A Flames player scores. The games over and the audience goes nuts! Horns blow and more flames shoot out of the scoreboard. We make our way out and it's just starting to rain with a steady drizzle. We decide it's not too bad and walk back to our hotel. Hockey Night was a very fun night for us here in Calgary. Darryl Musick Copyright 2017 - All Rights Reserved
Darn. I have to finally get the rental car out of the parking lot for today's excursion. I was hoping I wouldn't have to drive again until we went to the airport but it is quicker, by far, to get to today's destination of Heritage Park by car rather than transit. The reason I'm not so happy about that is that it requires me to transfer Tim into and out of the car, not to mention folding up his chair and fitting it into the hatch of our rental car. I can do it...I have been doing it mostly up in the mountains...but it does get tiring and takes its toll after awhile.
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It's a bit cloudy and threatening but for the moment it's not raining. We take the drive to Heritage Park, find a spot to park, and head in. I downloaded a two-for-one coupon at the hotel before leaving. At the ticket window, I ask if they have any discounts for the disabled. I'm told no but a caregiver can go in for free so Tim and I get in for the price of one while Letty gets in for free. We get to pay for one ticket for the three of us. (As an aside, I've noticed that no one will volunteer that a discount is available at attractions while were here in Canada. Only when I've asked did I receive them. One lady at another attraction told me "you'd be surprised that no one asks for discounts." My response is "maybe you could volunteer that information?") A plaza is next to the ticket booth with a restaurant, cafe, and a couple of shops. An automotive museum called Gasoline Alley is just inside the gate. It's about a quarter mile walk from here to the heart of the park. up a slight hill. We walk up. There is also an accessible bus that will take you from here if your unable to.
At the top of the hill, there's a windmill, a train crossing, and a lake off to the left. Crossing the tracks, you are now in the village. It's kind of like a combination of Knott's Berry Farm and a museum.
It's possible to make a big loop and take it all in so we break to the left which takes us by some rentable party tents before getting to the antique midway.
Old rides, such as this caterpillar ride with wooden wheels, are available to ride on.
There's also a swing ride, a carousel, ferris wheel, and a few others. None are accessible. We watch for a few minutes before I see a station for the old steam engined train that makes a circuit around the park.
"Let's go see if that train is accessible," I tell Tim. We see nothing to suggest it is, there's even a sign that strollers must left at the station. I ask a gentleman working there if it is. "No, it's an antique train and it's impossible to adapt it to wheelchairs," is his answer. Now, we've been on plenty of antique trains south of the border that have very easily been adapted for wheeler with the addition of a portable lift at the station. This line of reasoning is not dealing with reality and points the way to assume that park management just isn't that creative when it comes to its disabled customer base.
We move on to the train shops and locomotive turntable, which are accessible, and check out some of the antique coaches and equipment stored within. Back in the village, we find accessible points on the boardwalk and are able to go into a few of the shops but the majority are still inaccessible to wheelchairs. It's not long before we're heading back down the hill. We make a stop at Gasoline Alley which is completely wheelchair accessible and take in some marvelous pieces of automotive history.
The complex is named for a large row of restored antique gas pumps that you can wander down in addition to seeing the old autos and trucks.
This Cadillac is left unrestored so patrons can get a look at what the vehicles looked like before restoration.
A couple of Auburns take their place at the head of the large room.
A family wagon and travel trailer are on display in a special 'family vacation' exhibit. We make our way out, and eventually back to Calgary when done. To address the elephant in the room, however, we do note that while Canada seems more progressive and inclusive for the most part than we are in the U.S., we continue to note that they seem to be a few years behind us in inclusion for those with handicaps. This visit to Heritage Park brings it home for us, much of this park can easily be made accessible and adapted for those with special needs without destroying the historical nature of the buildings and equipment but the attitude is 'it's history and your kind wasn't accomodated back then so we won't do it either.' Along with a real trial to find a good, accessible room in Jasper and the afterthought of the wheelchair seating at the hockey game, it's getting a bit hard to ignore (as was the inaccessible subway in Toronto a few years back). We hope that Canada, which is a wonderful country populated with wonderful people, can address some of these shortfalls soon. We can say that the transit in Calgary, the sidewalks, hotels, and many other attractions are greatly accessible but there are still a few glaring examples out there that need improvement. Well, we don't want to knock it when so much else is perfectly fine so we'll end today's report here and get back with some more accessible adventures on the next one. At least they only charged us for one ticket. Darryl Musick Copyright 2017 - All Rights Reserved Photos by Letty Musick Copyright 2017 - All Rights Reserved
It took us a little while to find where the pubs and bars of Calgary were but Stephen Avenue in downtown was filled to overflowing with all the watering holes having extensive happy hours there.
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While we didn't have time to partake in the beginning, we finally got around to doing a crawl before we left but then we found out why the pubs were so crowded on the preceding days...the weather was gorgeous, fall, "perfect temperature", outside weather and Calgarians were spending what would be the last of that great weather on their patios. Patios to Calgary are what biergartens are to Munich...great, outdoor drinking spots where local go to mingle and imbibe. Our day was decidedly chillier and most of those Calgarians seemed to be home in front of a cozy fireplace. No worries, we're still out and about, let's go see what we can find...
Starting off nextdoor to the hotel, we're at a popup beer garden put up by the National restaurant chain at evJunction, a container park with little shops in each shipping container and entertainment via a local hip hop group. The selection is a little limited, a blonde and a berry based brew are the canned choices here, and Tim and I lean toward the blonde while Letty likes the berry beer. The C-Train gets us over to Stephen Avenue where we hit three more pubs, all within a block of each other.
Our first stop is Bank and Baron, a huge pub in a former bank. The bartender invites us to go to the basement to see the old vault and take pictures. Tim and Letty go with the mimosas which are on special this day while I get my Molson Canadian fix. Yeah, it's a cheap beer but it's better than most of our cheap beers back home. Across the street, we visit the James Joyce Irish pub.
Here, we find a little privacy at a wheelchair-accessible nook near the entrance (while their 'secret' wheelchair accessible bathroom also comes in handy mid drinkathon). Tim goes fruity with a strawberry colada, Letty goes with their special Moscow Mule, while I have a reserve Canadian Crown Royal whiskey shot with a Shock Top beer chaser (picture at the top of this post).
We end up around the corner at the Palomino Smokehouse where we have the best, juiciest brisket we've ever had. Seriously delicious food here.
As for drinks, Letty has a Rock Creek cider and I go for a local craft brew, a Big Rock Traditional Ale.
From here, it's not a long walk back to the hotel. Wobbly, maybe, but not far. Cheers! Darryl Musick Copyright 2017 - All Rights Reserved Photos by Letty Musick Copyright 2017 - All Rights Reserved
