The Noise

Saturday April 25, 2015

We made a trip into Calgary today, which isn't unusual in it's self. What was unusual was the mode of transportation. We road the C train from the west end-of-the-line to SAIT for a volleyball game in which our middle granddaughter was playing. Lexi is one of the seventeen year old girls on the Maple Leaf Volleyball Club.

At SAIT the gym is split into four courts for the time of the tournament. Large floor to ceiling curtains separate the gym in half and each half has a curtain that drops to eight feet above the floor. These are the colour as the SAIT Trojans, the home teams that play in this gym during the school year, bright Red.

Why, you ask “Noise” for a title? Well when you put 10 to 12 girls on a team that play a team of 10 to 12 girls on four courts, that adds up to 48 screaming girls playing at the same time and them add another 4 to 6 teams watching. That's a lot of noise.

The C-train stops right at the SAIT Gym entrance. So we were able to walk through the halls to find the gym and then a court-side chair. Once the two sides we full, it was standing room only. There is a real shuffle of seat when one game ends and the next one starts. Lexi was in the first of the best of three games which they lost. She was side lined for the second game. Their team lost the second game and we gave up our seats to the new game spectators.

Now we were back on the C-train again. This was a first time adventure and we had purchased day-passes so we headed to Calgary's downtown core. We debarked at the 3^rd Street Stop. The outside temp had not increased at all. It was lunch time so off we walked to the nearest restaurant for a bite to eat. Our choice was Earls. Feed up and on foot we headed across the street and up the stairs to the second level ped-way. Lorraine saw a chocolate store and could not resist. In the center of the mall was a group from a band school demonstrating what they had learned to everyone in the place. This is where the next part of the “Noise” title comes up.

Back on the C-train we continue south and only got to the Chinook Mall and Community Food Store. The C-train line from that stations to the south was under maintenance over the weekend. We were told to get off and take a bus around the work to rejoin the train. We didn't want to ride a bus so our tour south came to an abrupt stop. We were hoping to see southern Calgary from a different view point but we got on the next North bound train, destination Tuscany where we had park the big red ram.

The C-train travels above and below ground on a good part off the route. When it goes into a tunnel the sound of the wheels on the track is quite loud, hence another “Noise” to contend with. This coming from a man that drives a truck with a Cummings Diesel Engine. Ha Ha.

We made it back to the End-of-the-Line and there was the truck looking so lonely in an empty parking lot. It may have been sad that it had not been along, which it most always is, for our day of adventure.

So until next time remember to “Discover It and Live It”.