6000 Mile EV Road Trip - Stay 11
Calgary, Alberta, Canada | July 4-6, 2024
Written by John Martinson
At 7:00 AM (Arizona time) on July 4, our daughter was picked up at our home and driven to the airport in Phoenix to catch a 9:15 AM flight to Calgary International Airport. At 7:00 AM (Alberta time), we were having breakfast at the Prince of Wales Hotel in Waterton.
At 8:30 AM, we departed our hotel to pick our daughter up at the Calgary International Airport, expecting to arrive about 30+ minutes prior to her arrival. We ended up taking a different route than I originally planned because I had not set my routing software to Tesla’s Fort MacLeod Supercharger station, but once I set the Supercharger using the car’s GPS, the routing was divergent from the routing software. The new route was decidedly different, off the main highway on rural roads, which we prefer. In fact, the new route would be 20 minutes longer. Regardless, we set on our way along the car’s course.
Since Suzanne does all the driving (it is, after all, her car), my role is navigator and researcher, as I have explained in previous posts. One of the spots along the route was we passed by was the Blue Ridge Hutterite Colony in Hillspring, Alberta. Unfamiliar with the Hutterites, I read the entire Wikipedia listing out loud, and it was fascinating. The Hutterites are a communal “ethnoreligious branch of Anabaptists who trace their roots to the 16th Century,” and they mostly live in Alberta in Canada, with some in the U.S. in Montana and North Dakota…but I digress.
After charging up in Fort MacLeod (we left a Tesla cache here), we went straightaway to Calgary International Airport and just as we were pulling into the airport, our daughter texted that she had just landed—another great example of random coincidence.
After a night at the Westin Calgary Downtown and a fun and cowboy-themed festive dinner at Joey Eau Claire, we attended the Calgary Stampede Parade the next morning, with more than 100 entries (and an estimated 700 horses). The parade was a multi-ethnic affair, a reminder of what I love about Canada. Later, we attended the Calgary Stampede, an annual rodeo, exhibition and festival held every year (save one due to COVID) since 1912. We had great seats and watched several exciting rodeo events, such as saddle bronc riding, tie-down roping, barrel racing, bull riding, and bareback riding.
Although we didn’t get to experience all that the Calgary Stampede has to offer (some people spend days there), we had a great time.
