Percy and I have returned from a 25 day vacation. For me, a trip of a life-time:
We left June 30, our daughter Christy and family dropping us off at the Calgary International Airport. From there we flew to Frankfurt, Germany and on to Oslo, Norway. We were met in Oslo by my cousin Jan and Irene Langnes, catching the train for a six hour ride to Trondheim, Norway, a thousand year old city with more history than we could comprehend. We spent three weeks with Jan and Irene in many beautiful places. The highlight of the trip was traveling to the town of Levanger where my father, his brothers and sister as well as Jan and other cousins were all born.
Other equally exciting places were Roan, where Irene’s brother Inge took us fishing on the Fjord and The Sea (Big Boat) and met Irene’s mother Rognhild and Johan; on to Steinkjer, where we met Jan’s son Roger and family; family dinners with cousins Liv, Aud, Astri, Rolf and Eli, Jan’s sisters Elfrid, Liv and Per Arne, and his brother Olaf and Arocha; and very pleased the younger generations, Roger, Martin, Vibeke, Ingrid, Christine, Ellen and Terje all speak very good English.
We also enjoyed a day trip to Sweden to shop. Then the task of packing the suitcases to come home. Christy, Matthew, Clayton and Josie were at the Calgary airport to pick us up on July 23. The flying time from Vernes, outside Trondheim to Calgary is 12 hours. The actual awake time is 26 hours. It was great to go and great to be back.
Congratulations to retired outrider, Frank Dahlgren, who was honoured at the Calgary Stampede this year for his many years of outriding in the past. Blaine Fisher drove Frank to Calgary where he and about 20 others rode in the parade, was taken to the infield performance and wagon races where they were all introduced. Frank hadn’t seen many of these men for years and was thrilled with the day. Oris Lyster who could not attend due to health problems was also invited to the event. Best wishes to Oris as well.
An update on Neal Walgenbach, who finished sixth in the aggregate in Calgary and is automatically invited back to Calgary next year. Neal spent this weekend in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan.
Margery and Wayne Glasier took a week in July, drove to Kay and Doug Hankinson’s and the four of them headed to Yellowknife where they spent two nights before returning home. They crossed the McKenzie River by ferry, saw the Hay River and were amazed at the wild bison, so much bigger than ours. They had to stop to let them cross the road. Although it was a short time they enjoyed everything, saw much and put 3400 km on the car.
The Robinson reunion was held at Westwoods July 11 and 12 and was well represented by the Jack Robinson family, the James Robinson family, the Earl Robinson family and the Edna (Robinson) Kinnon family, totaling about 60 people traveling from Grande Prairie, Airdrie and areas in between. A nice supper was prepared by the Westwoods ladies. The next Robinson reunion will be in July 2011 at Westwoods.
Sincere sympathies to Diane Baird who attended her grandmother’s funeral this week in Vegreville.