After visiting their school the organizer, Richard Chase – a very, very nice man – drove me to Lethbridge (two hours), where I did an afternoon school visit. A girl introduced me dressed as Ambrose, and as the character of Ambrose. That was amazing – never before has that happened and I’m sure it will never happen again. I was really impressed!
In the evening was presented with my award. The award is a medal made of pure gold. Apparently they used to be the size of an Olympic medal, but as the price of gold has gone up, the medal size has gone down. Mine is the size of a quarter, in a very nice case. It should say “Break Glass In Case of Financial Emergency.” You never know, I might have to stoop to that some day!
Seriously, the awards ceremony was really nice. All these kids got up and did a performance dressed as word nerds, and even though a couple of them made a point of telling me and the rest of the audience that they had NOT voted for my book, and that in fact my book had only won by eight votes, my bloated ego was big enough to handle it.
That’s me and all the “nerds.”
The next morning Richard and his lovely wife drove me all the way to Calgary (three hours away)! We drove through Vulcan, and I saw the Star Trek spaceship. After visiting a school in Calgary they drove me to the airport, where I flew to Edmonton, rented a car, and drove to the Drayton Valley, an oil and gas town about an hour and a half outside of Edmonton.
I am getting very familiar with Holiday Inn Express hotels lately. And you know what – they’re not half-bad. Neither was the restaurant I went to that night, but sadly my addled brain has already chucked the name.
On Wednesday I visited a school in Drayton Valley, then drove to Edmonton where I did my last visit. It was then on to the airport, and home.
It was a whirlwind trip, but really fun, and the kids were terrific. Next trip: Newmarket/Barrie/Aurora/Toronto/Oakville in November …
