It was Tuesday 9 January 2018 and I woke up around 0800 in The Woodlands, Texas, a suburb of Houston, and I did my first brick workout of 2018. A brick workout refers to exercising two different types of workouts consecutively; in this case it was a bike ride then a run. I felt great after my workout and less guilty about sitting on a plane all day. I prefer planning my outbound flights for early afternoon so I can workout in the morning and casually get to the airport without being stressed for time. I decided to drive myself to the airport this time as opposed to taking an Uber ($15 Uber credit every month with AMEX Platinum) because I had plans once I returned from my trip prior to going home (I wish I took the Uber after I paid for my parking).
I showed up to the airport a few hours early and made my way to the Centurion lounge at George Bush Intercontinental Airport. The Centurion Lounge is exclusivly for AMEX platinum and black card holders. http://refer.amex.us/ADAMSwWt7?XLINK=MYCP The Centurion lounge is the only reason I get to the airport so early so I can relax inside of security and pretend I am important while I have a delicious and healthy meal. At the time, I was training for an ironman and was not drinking, so I excused myself from the free alcohol in the lounge but fully indulged in the kale salad and roasted beets (This was a mistake for I was in for a long day of delays and a tasty beverage could have eased the pain)! The lounge was unusually empty, probably because it was a Tuesday afternoon, but it was nice not having to fight for the good seats.
I flew Air Canada because I found a great deal through AMEX travel and used some of my AMEX points to purchase the ticket. We were on a very small plane, departing Houston to what I beliveid to e Calgary, with only four total seats across, two on each side, and it was unfortunately the beginning to my worst flight experience I have had to date (Thankfully the trip was AWESOME and mitigated the ensuing shit show). This first leg of the journey was delayed about an hour while we sat on the plan waiting for the FAA to find a new suitable alternative-landing plan due to the weather. We finally had the flight plan loaded and we were on our way…only it was to Great Falls, Montana to refuel instead of Calgary, then after refueling we went to Calgary, so it added an extra stop to the trip. The Calgary airport was one of the cleanest, friendliest airports I have been to and I will always remember it by the nice old ladies in red cowboy hats.
I picked up my rental car through Budget, which was quick and painless, and drove to Canmore, Alberta, a town about 45 minutes west of Calgary and 45 minutes east of Banff. The Calgary airport is on the northern side of the city so I didn't drive through Calgary when I left for Canmore. The roads turned pitch black once I left the Calgary area and the snow started to come down. The roads became almost impossible to navigate but cars continued to push through, so I followed, it felt extremly unsafe like I was going to drive off a cliff but who was I to not trust the locals.... Their came a time while driving, that I started to sense these gigantic mountains around me, but I couldn't see a thing.
I showed up to the Wyndam Grand Canadian Resort of The Rockies around 2230 and the check in was quick and easy with a girl that had just moved there from Chile. This was an Air bnb booking even though it was in a time-share at a resort. The resort was nice but didn't have any amenities that I was overly excited about. It had grills and a pool outside but those weren’t getting to much use since it was -20 when I got there, but the pool and hot tube were heated. I wish the resort had a store or a late night bar because all of the stores in town closed at 2300 so I had to resort to my protein bars I brought with me for a make shift dinner. All and all the room was well worth the $85 i spent on it through Air bnb and I could see myself coming back to this place if I were staying in Canmore for several days. After my shower, I ended up watching the local news for about 30 minutes realizing the news in Canada was more focused on America than it was on Canada. I wondered if that was Canada's way of making fun of us for our soap opera like politics or if they just didnt have much to talk about.