Home from Canada

Calgary to Santa Cruz

We had one more full day in Calgary, Wednesday July 22, 2026. We had just one must-do task: obtain three more bike boxes and get our bikes packed. The bike shop was working on it and would text when the boxes were ready. So we decided to be tourists in the morning.

We walked to the nearest train station, Saddletowne, which happened to be the end of the line. We went downtown getting off at City Hall. It seemed pretty dead for 9 am on a Wednesday, but we did find the inevitable coffee shop. It took two tries as the first one had an inferior coffee machine. Connoisseurs know these things.

After breakfast, we walked to the Calgary Tower and took the elevator up. It was built to celebrate Canada’s Centennial, over 50 years ago. It used to be the tallest building in Calgary but is now eclipsed by quite a few buildings. The view is great and the weather was perfect. We could see just how flat the area really is.

We went for more coffee and snacks at a bakery where Wednesday is pudding day, so we had double banana pudding. Wytze went off to get a haircut and visit the bike shop Andrew and I had been to while the rest of us took the train home.

I prepared my bike while Andrew napped and Daniel explored the neighborhood. By 14:00 I called the bike shop, starting to worry that they were dropping the ball. But no, the boxes were ready and we had to come down right away as they were taking up valuable space. Andrew and I jumped in the car and drove 35 minutes and found three nice looking boxes waiting for us. When in Calgary we recommend The Bike Shop for your biking needs. Central tried but failed to help; North assembles more bikes and is the place for boxes.

Back at home we worked on packing for an hour but had to leave for our dinner reservation downtown before we were done. We drove in rush hour but going into town was fine. Shokunin is a modern Japanese-style fancy bistro. We had a round of rice beer, raw scallops, kale salad and squid tempura appetizers, then a really interesting Kama dish each. Three of us had my favorite, gindara (sable fish aka black cod). It was served with Thai basil and lettuce pieces to wrap. We had tiny scissors to cut the basil too. And some salsas and delicious fried garlic chips to go with it. Not Japanese, but unique and delicious. Dessert was yuzu miso Crème brûlée and sake tiramisu, both great.

It was a very different meal from usual which was fitting as our final meal of this trip which had more daily variety than any other I’ve done.

Back at home we finished packing and watched The World’s Fastest Indian. This was also very fitting because in this movie a foreigner travels through the United States meeting people and discovers how friendly and helpful they are, a little bit like us, riding the Great Divide.

In the morning, Wytze and I left at 8 to gas up and get breakfast. We had granola with yogurt and mango and blueberries with cherries and warm chocolate croissants. Soon it was time to head to the airport, luckily only a few km away.

It was a two-stage operation. First I took Wytze and three bikes the 20 minutes to the international terminal. Then back for the last bike and the other three. It worked perfectly.

Daniel and Wytze went in as their flights were first. I returned the car then went in with Andrew to find it was too early to drop our bikes off. We all sat in the Marriott for a last round of snacks, drinks and settling up the last debts on Splitwise, the app we use to keep expenses straight.

Andrew and I had a couple of hours to kill, reading in the comfortable Marriott lobby. At 16:00 we could check in and it was nice to get rid of the boxes as always. The whole airport seemed so quiet, including check in, no waiting at all.

Then it wasn’t so great. First, the incoming plane was late so ours was delayed 20, 30, eventually 45 minutes. We taxied out to takeoff position then a very long pause before the announcement, “A maintenance issue we just found requires us to fly lower but we don’t have enough fuel so we have to return to a gate.” Additional fueling took a long time then once we were flying, our predicted landing time was the exact time our next flight would take off. Using the free, fast Starlink on the plane allowed us to see that we were automatically rebooked on a flight the next morning. In Seattle Alaska Airlines gave us a hotel nearby. So we ended up sharing one more hotel room, a nice comfortable one.

In the morning we left at 8:30 on the shuttle back to the busy airport. Security took some time then we had breakfast. The San Jose plane left on time and the flight was pretty painless. We landed after 13:00 and had to wait for our bikes but we knew from our trackers it was just a matter of time. Andrew waited with the boxes while I took the bus to the economy parking lot where my best friend Scott had stashed his pickup truck the day before. I picked up Andrew, the bikes easily rode in back.

Friday afternoon traffic over the hill to Santa Cruz was a little slow. But what surprised me was how normal it felt. It was like those 65 days had not passed. We cruised into Santa Cruz and pulled up at home. Katie was at work but we unloaded and stepped into our clean, cool, quiet and familiar house. It was over 24 hours door to door due to the flight delays, but I felt wonderful to be home. Andrew will relax with us for a few days, then make his way back down under.

When Katie came home, we walked down to one of my favorite breweries, Sante Adarius. Of course we had delicious hazy IPA and Bookie’s pizza. That was a fitting end to an epic trip. I’ll post some stats and thoughts from all of us on the trip in the near future.