8/14/2006 (Mon) - Direct Air Canada flight from Los Angeles to Edmonton.

While the packing too much longer and was much more difficult than expected, today's flight was relatively smooth, considering TSA has just raised the nationwide terrorist threat level to Orange in response to the recent incident at London Heathrow. Other than the fact that Air Canada charged me $50 extra for the bike stuffs (expected) and that a TSA agent took confiscated my peanut (that agent wanted to take it; another actually didn't - responding to the other that another agent took away peanut butters that these things "changed by the minute"; but in the end, they still took it), all went as well as possible.

The bike and trailer boxes made the journey in good shape, with only a tear at one of the handle holes. Getting through customs was also very easy. Later, I did have some problem finding an ATM that took my VISA checkcard at the airport. Fortunately, both taxi's and shuttles took credit cards. I eventually settled on taking a taxi since it cost only a couple of dollars more than a shuttle after the shuttle add in transportation fees for my luggage (the shuttle service also couldn't guarantee that the next shuttle would have enough space for my luggage).

The taxi driver was a nice guy originally from Nigeria. He was curious about my bike trip but ultimately thought it too dangerous - especially given my Asian look. He told me that there were a lot of "sick people" in this world - that a lot of people in the country didn't like to see foreigners roaming the country and "taking things over..." I thought the guy was a little paranoid but took his advice to be "extra careful" in stride.

The Ramada Waterpark Hotel was ok but not great. I didn't visit the actual "pool" but the room was decent, but the hotel was located in a semi industrial area though. As it turned out for me, the fire alarm in my room was defective. It would make weird noises every hour or so. Eventually, after my little trip to the local Greyhound depot to buy tomorrow's ticket, the local grocery store to buy some food, and a nearby MacDonald to get a snack (and plastic knives to open my boxes tomorrow), and walk to the river, I asked for a room change - which was begrudgingly given to me...

My walk to the river was relatively pleasant. It was about a flat 3-4 mile walk each way. I had hoped to get a panoramic river view of the side. Unfortunately, as the trees have grown quite tall and dense, I could not get much of a view...

Tomorrow I will get up around 5:15 a.m. to make sure I get to the downtown Greyhound before 5:45 a.m. for my 6:45 a.m. bus to Jasper.