11:28pm: Stop to drop off some more people. Only God knows where we are. About 9.5 hours to go!
10:33pm: Stop to get some BBQ Pringles and water.
9:29pm: Passed an accident. Crews are frantically working to repair some train track where some freight cars have been derailed. Looks pretty catastrophic.
9:04pm: Stop in some place in the middle of Banff. There is a small walkway around the back of the shop that leads to a bridge with a brilliant view of the Rockies. Shame it is too dark to take a decent photograph.
8:37pm: This view is the best I have seen in Canada. Sometimes you can't see the sky because the mountains are so large.
7:49pm: Bus is packed. I can wave goodbye to my double seat, which I need for sleeping. There is a guy at the back playing a guitar and singing. I can tell I am in hippie country now.
6:50pm: Leaving Calgary. Great view looking back at the city, and we pass the ski jumps used in the 1988 Calgary Olympics. Was Eddie the Eagle at that one?
5:29pm: Coming into Calgary, the temperature is 7 degrees! Also, have caught our first glimpses of the Rockies past the city on the horizon!
4:35pm: Stop in some one-horse-town to pick up two Native Indian gangsters (they both look like an Inuit version of Tony Soprano) and what looks like a prostitute. Two great additions to our travelling band. One of the Indian guys goes on to tell us the name of every field and mound that we pass, which his Indian Reserve owns, and everything about everything. Again, I was 'interested'.
4:04pm: Pass Bassano, a town which is "The best in the West, by a damsite", according to the sign. That slogan is backed up by the fact that every entertainment venue in the city is on a sign that includes 24 spaces, and there are still plenty of gaps.
3:25pm: Welland for a ten minute stop. Another classy place; the toilet stank of piss, and therefore the station stank of piss. Glorious.
2:19pm: On the way out of Medicine Hat, I see my first drive-in movie theatre! Dave and I discuss whether there would be a horizon if the world was completely flat. There is definitely an element of 'time-filling' in this conversation.
1:28pm: Medicine Hat, home of the World's Largest Teepee, is a great little place. When we stop for a break, Dave and I wander down to a park nearby, where there are a couple of photo opportunities:
12:56pm: Sword Song is finished! I had been putting off reading it as much as I could, but the result was inevitable. This could mean extended boredom from now on.
12:16pm: Maple Creek- halfway between Regina and Calgary. I have only one ticket left on my line of tickets! That means I have used tickets to get to:
Ottawa, North Bay, Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, Regina and now Calgary. Only Vancouver to use!
10:30am: Bus sign changes to VANCOUVER! There are loads of children on the bus, which could be annoying. They have been well behaved so far. Dave and I have had to abandon our double seats, and are sitting together now.
8:13am: There is a sign for Swift Currant. Makes me think of a joke: "Did you hear about the bloke that died in a sea of raisins? It was the currant that got him" haha! Luckily, I kept this joke to myself.
8:00am: Moose Jaw- it is just like those Wild West towns in the cowboy films.
7:30am: Totally flat through Saskatchawan, it is prairie country now.
6:30am: Breakfast at a 'Robson's' in Regina. They have totally ripped off Tim Horton's Roll the Rim to Win promotion
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