Economic parity, and those darn nice Canucks.

One day late on the blog today. The internet at the hotel worked fine until everyone got on it. 9 story building, 16 rooms per floor, one internet line. Not good math.

Speaking of math, and economics for that matter, the Canadian dollar is on track to become even with the U.S. dollar. Some economists up here are predicting it may even surpass the U.S. dollar. Which has both positive and negative affects.

For me, it's all negative affects. Way back when, when I first started touring, it was about 60 cents to the U.S. dollar. Which was great for shopping. You could get items here that you can't get in the state for cheaper. Most notably would be Levi's Jeans. Not that I ever wore Levi's, always found them too tight, but Levi's for sale in the U.S. are made overseas, while Levi's in Canada are made in the U.S.. Go figure. So a pair of U.S. made Levi's in the U.S. averaged $100 dollars, while in Canada the same U.S. made jeans were $80 Canadian. Big savings.

Now, with parity around the corner, it's not worth shopping or buying anything in Canada. The prices of goods are still inflated to meet or get close to the cost of goods in the states a few years ago, while the U.S. dollar continues to plummet. As an example. I went looking for a cheap digital camera yesterday so I can take with me when I go for a bike ride. The cheapest camera I could find was still $119.oo Canadian. Which, back in the old days would have panned out to less than $100 U.S.. Now, since the dollars are almost even, the camera is cheaper in the U.S., because there, it still lists for less than 100 U.S..

Another good example would be magazines. I went and got fantasy hockey magazines in Winnipeg to study up. I checked the prices, $5.95 was the average price. But when I got to the counter, the total bill for 5 magazines was $51.00! My mistake, $5.95 was the average U.S. dollar price, $9.95 was the Canadian dollar average.

Really cutting into my day off shopping time.

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We stayed at the Black Knight Inn here in Red Deer last night. 10 hour drive from Saskatoon the night before putting us at the hotel around 10AM. When I got to my room I was greeted by this very nice gift plate. You can see they actually took time to print the Blue Man Group logo on the plate itself! Sadly, though I didn't get to drink the water or eat the cereal bar or apple. I had planned to have it for breakfast this morning before I got on the bus, but I set my alarm clock wrong and was lucky to get up and get on the bus!

On this tour, with our keys and rooming list, they've included a questionnaire of sorts for the hotel to answer. Basic, but useful things like, nearest shopping mall, laundromat, 24 hour restaurant, movie theaters, etc. Most hotels just fill the answers out in the blank spaces next to the questions. Not the folks at the Black Knight Inn. No, these people printed out Google map directions to everything. The key packet was so thick with paper, people who normally open the packet and grab their key were forced to open the included novel.And the topper of all toppers... The travel size toiletries in the bathroom, nothing special really. Not fancy Aveda or Gilbert and Soames. But... is that... lip balm in the middle?
Those darn nice Canucks.

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Last thing to note, is I got in a bike ride yesterday. I had looked on line a few days before and there's about 150 kilometers of bike trail in Red Deer. I even found a nice ride someone had mapped out. I saved the page, and was going to write down the directions yesterday before I headed out. But alas, the interweb was slower than molasses if it connected at all, and it was just easier to get on the bike and ride.

I headed out and found a nice country highway with a large shoulder. A similarity I noticed with Red Deer and Grand Forks, lots of big trucks. I swear I was passed by the same truck 14 times while I rode.

I also realized, I'm fat. I headed out into the rolling hills outside of town and watched my heart rate slowly quickly rise to 180 bpm, while my speed slowed down to 8 mph on the climbs. 10 miles out was time to turn around which also showed the reverse on the computers. 154 bpm and 32 mph. I think I liked going up better because it was around the mid 40's Fahrenheit, which is a little nippy when your speeding downhill into the wind.

Day off tomorrow in Calgary with the all important fantasy hockey draft in the evening...