Corn Tour Day 1

Day one of the corn tour was easily the earliest start. I had booked myself on to an 8am flight from Toronto to Calgary. I guess before I dive in, I should supply some context to both the purpose of this tour and why it was something new, and noteworthy. So, as part of my job, I am responsible for my function, to know the new corn genetics that are being tested. I serve as an advisor or "product development manager" in Canada as to what new hybrids should go where. I learn the current year's class, advise business teams on what to do with them and then prepare technical information for the commercial team to sell with. This is probably about 20% of my job and it ramps up significantly around harvest time as one would expect. So I have to go and see the corn in the field, evaluate it, and lead the discussion on it, hence the trip to see it. We've been testing corn all the way across Canada for several years now but I haven't been afforded the time to go out West and see things until this year. I have always been busy with other commitments and responsibilities. This year, with my right hand man in good position to hold the fort, I embarked on my journey. The other aspect of me choosing to share this tale is that I haven't been West much. I went a few years ago to a meeting in Banff which comprised of a flight to Calgary, in a storm, a bus ride into the mountains, in a storm,  and huddling in a hotel conference room for 3 days (also in a frozen storm).  It wasn't really capturing the flavour of the West. I was able to visit Saskatoon and Regina this summer which was a first real step in visiting the West, I'd added Saskatchewan to my list of provinces visited. So you can see, everything was going to be a new experience and I was pretty excited. I'd booked hotels and flights and kept everything on the cheap, which makes travel more challenging. I didn't book a car, planning instead to utilise my local contacts to ferry me across three provinces. So that is your context, you know the where, the why, the when, the what, and I'll share the how.....now.

So, as I mentioned, earliest day was day one. I got to the airport in good time, I checked in and printed my boarding pass at the airport, as I usually do. I had a long journey to my gate, cheaper flights mean less convenient gates I learned. My FitBit tells me it was almost two miles of journey to get from my truck to the gate. On the way, I was again pulled aside to be swabbed, as usual at the Toronto airport for me. This time I was rewarded for my clean bag by getting to the use the Nexus line, so security was very quick, which was amazing. Got to my gate and who saunters past but Brian Burke, former GM of the beloved Leafs! He was going to Edmonton to see his new team, the Calgary Flames, preseason games. He looks the exact same in real life as on TV. That was neat. The flight was pretty uneventful, well as much as four and a quarter hours can be. It was a newer plane with loads of leg room. One lesson I learned was that when my admin books the flight, she gets me my preferred seat type. When I do it, and check-in at the airport, I get middle. That ruins the flight for three people. I had learned the night before that my colleague was no longer able to get me, he would be harvesting. So I rented a car while sitting on the tarmac. Upon landing I walked to the Emerald Aisle and got into a small-ish Chevy Cruze and took off, so slick. I got to the farm, found my colleague, got his truck keys and directions and was on my way to the one site I needed to see in Alberta. His truck was nearly out of fuel so I had to stop, also go fuel for me while I was at it. Turns out I'd stopped in a huge reserve at a Subway, the "healthy" fast food.

This is the shed at their site. It is the same colour as mine but much nicer inside.

My rental rocket. I drove it very carefully. With fees it cost twice the price that was advertised.

I saw the site and pretty much did the reverse back to the airport. I was early enough for my 8:15pm flight to Regina that I was able to hunker down at the Molson Brewhouse and have some dinner. I went with the pulled pork poutine and the soup of the day, which was a disgusting rendition of harvest mushroom. They didn't know that I don't like onions and wouldn't have predicted them in a mushroom soup so that one is on me. I again got to walk a long distance to my gate, at ground level and got on my aeroplane to Regina. It was the type with just two seats on either side. I was in the back row window seat. I was hoping I'd be able to relax as we were warned that the conditions were treacherous and rough. Nope, one of the last people to board was a larger native dude who was as displeased as me to be sharing to seats. We silently got well acquainted over the intimate hour and half we spent squashed together on a hot and rough flight. The other noteworthy piece that I don't want to share necessarily is the flight attendant we had at the back. There was an open seat across the aisle beside a younger pregnant lady. The flight attendant, who was stunning, fun and overall awesome at what she does had to sit there. Her name escapes me at the time of writing but she explained that she'd love to move one of us but she needed the spot as on the previous flight, the flight attendant she was replacing shattered her ankle after falling during some bad turbulence. When you put it like that, rubbing against a strange man for under two hours doesn't seem as bad as a shattered ankle and screaming pain. I would be shattered as well if it had happened on my flight as a cost to my comfort.

So flight went up and came down, as they are wont to do. I found myself a cab and embarked to my hotel, the Holiday Inn Express. I was in a good mood after ceasing to be the meat of the wall/large man sandwich I'd just experienced and tried my hand at chatting to the cabby. Big T famously does it after all. So I sparked up a conversation. Mistake! I got lectured about the media and how ethnic minorities in Bangladesh were being murdered in the street by the millions over the last five years and there was no stopping it and people needed to help and muslims and I don't even know what. I tried to politely answer the hysteria but soon found myself wanting out of the cab. I was happy to enter the hotel, draw my ID and credit card and speak my name. Problem was, they had no record of me. As I would learn, there are three Holiday Inn Express hotels in Regina. I was at the wrong one. I turned around and the cab was gone (thankfully) but one pulled up and a man exited. I slide in and was on my way to a warm bed. I'd been awake for over 20 hours and had some big days upcoming and was glad to get the rest.