Xplane11.36 Oh Canada!

[John_Cillis 2,406]

Xplane11's default scenery, out of Revelstoke headed west in the Alpine vista's of British Columbia's Canadian Rockies.  There is a mountain in Revelstoke we called, in 1972 when I was there on my professional Secular/Gospel Choir's first Canadian tour, called "Mt Seven" because its glacier (which may have melted due to global warming) made a perfect seven.  Me and my choir mates had a blast on our tour, it was the last tour which I did with one of my brothers, David (RIP  1959-1992). 

Our church where we were performing did not get the message we needed a piano, so we had to obtain one from a store.  The Canadians saw us "Crazy Americans" as we drove with the piano in the back of a truck, with some of my choir mates playing chopsticks for the amused motorists they were passing by.  The tour was prophetic in a way, because our choir director and school Principal of St. John's Lutheran Napa, where I graduated from the eighth grade before entering high school in 1975, told us that one of our former students could not be on the tour because she had appendicitis. 

Fast forward just four weeks after I got home, and I was hit with an almost fatal bout of....drumroll..appendicitis.  And like Harry Potter, I have a wicked scar that I was embarrassed to show to the inquisitive girls, like Madeline in the movie Madeline, because it was and still is quite low in the abdomen.  The surgeons told my family they got to it in the nick of time, and the pain was worst than when I was run over in March by an SUV, which prepared me for that accident 47 years later.  Talk about luck in a way, the hurts we have when we are young build up our strength when we get old, it made me a Light Sport pilot because it takes will and mental strength to stay ahead of the aircraft.  I love the Icon A5 in these shots, it is the epitome of the Swiss Army knife of Light Sport and inexpensive amphibian aircraft, capable of water landings, and it flies exquisitely well in Xplane 11.3x...

I commend the Canadians so much, I even have a perm work visa up there, which marks me as a professor, since my BS degree is in retail planning.  I obtained it during one of my last trips to Canada, having spent an accumulated time of a year working up there between 1990-2000, on a snowy night in the first famous Detroit blizzard, while I was waiting to embark to Ottawa.  We were almost going to take off in Detroit when the jets behind our puddle jumper warned our pilot we had too much ice.  We tried to deice three times before the pilot gave up, returned to the gate, and turned off the engines leaving us in a frigid aircraft in below zero weather.  That was the cause of a class action lawsuit I did not participate in, finally they let us back in the terminal--they did not want us to have to clear customs again but they had no choice, as people were getting quite ill and getting severe chills and nausea.

So when I arrived finally in Ottawa some eight hours late, as I went thru customs they tried to get me to pay a NAFTA fee, which I had already paid on several previous trips.  Thank goodness I had available credit on my work issued card, but I told Canadian customs that I should not have to keep paying the fee which I already had.  At least I was honest, because if you lie to customs, you are banned from most countries you enter for life, which happened to so many of my other colleagues that I was one of two remaining colleagues allowed to reenter Canada.  I had warned my employer not to tell my colleagues to lie, they were angry with me at first but had they continued, they would have lost their business systems training contract with Best Western.

Every Canadian I have met on their home turf, or in the US, have always been kind, and in 72 when I was just a wee lad, every Canadian host I had, since we stayed in our audience's homes, gave me money, so I came home with more money than I left with, as did my other choir mates......  The only fight I ever almost got in was when I was defending my Canadian hosts two children as they encountered some bullies that were always hassling them, you know how kids can be.  I stood up for them, like the guy in "My Bodyguard" got between them and the bullies and said--you may hurt me, but one of you will get hurt back, take your chances.  They cried--we're going to tell our parents and ran off, but a show of force is better than force, and the fight never happened.  I bluffed though because I knew I'd get my behind kicked, but I have a good poker face, lol--my bark is worse than my bite.

I was kind to my new Canadian friends because they and their parents were so gracious to me, that was in Kamloops BC, between Revelstoke and Vancouver but we came there via the North Cascades park, the most unsung and beautiful US national park, America's real Alps....

Edit: I goofed, Mt. Seven is in Golden BC, and that is where the piano story happened, Revelstoke was one of our other stops...

John

 

Edited September 4, 2019 by John_Cillis

[John_Cillis 2,406]

I hate to say it, but someone hacked my post with an advertisement,it is not funny, it will FUBAR the one who placed it on my post beyond all recognition. lol......,

[Lieutenant_Dan 0]

Why would a moderator have to approve a response to this Person's post?  I wanted to look at the pictures, my father, who I was named after lived in Canada and I know John and the rest of his family well, he taught me how to fly trikes in Brenda Arizona, taught me photography, and from time to time he lets me come over to his home to practice for my IFR certification.

Michael

[Brian_A_Neuman 198]

5 minutes ago, Lieutenant_Dan said:

Why would a moderator have to approve a response to this Person's post?  I wanted to look at the pictures, my father, who I was named after lived in Canada and I know John and the rest of his family well, he taught me how to fly trikes in Brenda Arizona, taught me photography, and from time to time he lets me come over to his home to practice for my IFR certification.

Michael

Its standard for all new members to avoid spamming and other issues. 

[Lieutenant_Dan 0]

6 minutes ago, Brian_A_Neuman said:

Its standard for all new members to avoid spamming and other issues. 

Thanks, I did not know this, I am all for avoiding spam.

[Brian_A_Neuman 198]

15 minutes ago, Lieutenant_Dan said:

Thanks, I did not know this, I am all for avoiding spam.

No problem at all!