Another leg

Yesterday was a day of travel.   Coming off a fabulous Art of Hosting in Pembroke Ontario that was a deep personal exploration of source and the spirit of hosting for many who were there.   Thursday evening we gathered at Alastair Haynes’ home in the east end of Ottawa for a curry dinner followed by hours of music and whiskey, all of which wrapped up at 1am.   Friday morning my mate Kathy Jourdain and I left ofr the airport, she to fly to Halifax and me to set out on a milk run across the country.

We left Ottawa at 12:35 on a nice CRJ705 (a better plane than the little CRJs that Air Canada also flies) headed for Winnipeg.   It was cloudy over most of Northern Ontario, but clear over Lake Superior, the skies opening up over Whitefish Bay.   And hour later we were descending over the flood waters of the Red River Valley into Winnipeg where I changed planes to a small CRJ bound for Calgary and Kelowna.

At Calgary, we landed for a station stop and a crew change, but what was to be a half hour pause turned out to be more than an hour when the plane carrying our captain failed to arrive on time.   Eventually he was spotted rushing across the tarmac, and we set off on the third leg for Kelowna, out over the magnificent and clear Rocky and Kootenay Mountains.   We entered the Okanagan Valley from the north and landed in Kelowna 40 minutes later.

After all that travel the best thing to do was to hook up with Jeremy Hiebert for some animal protein and hops, malt and barley juice.   We jawed awhile about his evolving ice book, homeschooling, a little father to father talk about raising curious and lively kids. Funny that we didn’t really talk about music, except to note that we would both meet again in Princeton this summer for the 2nd annual Princeton Traditional Music Festival.

Here only for today, running an Open Space for the annual Assembly of BC Arts Councils and then it’s off early tomorrow morning to California, for the last leg of the epic journey of work and travel.