the pod bay door

.: The Winnipeg trip is nearing its end, and I’ve had a great time so far. Other than having to deal with hot and muggy weather, it’s been eight days packed with activity. I reached Winnipeg around 0030 hrs on Wednesday, 19 July 2006, after a long drive from Edmonton. I arrived late in the day because upon leaving Edmonton in the morning, I realized I’d forgotten a few items, and had to drive back to my house to get them. (A day later in Winnipeg I realized I forgot even more stuff, which had to be shipped Priority Courier to me by a friend, to whom I am deeply indebted!) I was pretty much a vegetable the first couple of days here, and on Thursday evening, did the family thing. My folks and I attended a Reichardt Family picnic at St Vital Park. A couple cousins from out of town were there as well – Ian from Dallas TX, and Kathleen and her family from Simcoe ON. Before we left, we had a group photo taken by someone passing by. Afterwards, we visited cousins on my mom’s side of the family for a couple hours before heading home.

On Friday, I attended Part 1 of the WPC Class of ’71 High School Reunion. This included a visit to the high school where a brief open house was held, followed by a classic Winnipeg social at the local community club. On Saturday, Steve George and I paid our annual visit to Chester Cuthbert, well-respected Winnipeg book collector who will turn 94 in October. It’s always great to drop by and catch up with Chester, who is still in good health and reading actively. In the mid-1970s during my sf heydays with the local Winnipeg fan group, we spent many a Saturday afternoon at Chester’s discussing sf, fanzines, and the like.

Saturday night was the pig roast and bonfire with the high school gang. We had the dinner at the local church hall in Oakbank MB, just east of Winnipeg, and followed that with a bonfire at the home of Barb and Doug Zawada two blocks away. Barb was in the 1971 class. This was another great evening with old friends, and this time around, a few classmates attended who had passed on the previous two events, in 1996 (25 years) and 2003 (when we turned 50.) This included my dear friends Barry and Liz Zilkie, neither of whom I’d seen since the mid-70s. We spent much time catching up, and I know I will stay in touch with these amazing people. The day before Liz and Barry left Winnipeg, we met at The Forks, where Barry and I took lessons on riding Segways – what a blast!

Subsequent to the Segway experience we headed to Assiniboine Park (aka City Park) for lunch and a stroll about the Conservatory follwed by a walk about the Assiniboine Park Zoo until the heat and time overtook us.

Pictures from the high school reunion events are here.

On Monday night I moved across town to Mike and Susan’s house, and upon arrival, Mike and Steve took me on one of their now-legendary bike rides, as documented since 2004 at Bike With Mike. About halfway through our ~25.5 km ride we stopped to refuel on water and Gatorade before returning to Mike’s house.

On Tuesday night it was over to Steve’s for a bbq with Steve and his family and Mike and Susan. This is a tradition whenever I am in town, and was a good time as always. Tonight (Thurs) I am off to my parents’ place for dinner, and then back to Mike’s to pack up for the trip tomorrow. Then in two weeks, NYC…

Pictures from my latest Winnipeg trip are available on Flickr, but need further editing to include descriptions, names, etc

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 26th, 2006 at 14:24 and is filed under On The Road. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.