Today is Day #25 of The Road To Valour

On today’s ride I was joined by:

As an unexpected pleasure, I had another police escort from Okotoks to Nanton. Sally and Jason decided to join me and give me the guided tour. This ride just keeps getting better and better.

We arrived in Nanton with plenty of time to spare, so I went find a coffee and a wifi. Found both at The Because I Said So coffee shop. Went in and talked to the lady who owned the place. She asked me where I was going, so I gave her my card, grabbed my coffee and went out to sit and write. A couple of minutes later and I get an email that a Pam had subscribed; then an email that said Pam had made a donation. Great — who’s Pam? Then a couple of minutes later, another lady came out of the coffee shop and wanted to make a donation and said that she was inspired by what Pam said about me. So that’s who Pam is. I went inside to say thanks and when I came out, another lady came down the street and said that she had just read Pam’s post and wanted to come by to say Hi. Apparently, everyone in Nanton knows Pam and follows her social media.

One Stop along the Way

Bomber Command Museum

I had been waiting for this stop for a while. The Bomber Command Museum is home to many great aircraft, but what I came to see most of all is the Avro Lancaster. This Lancaster was one of the primary bombers of the Royal Air Force and other Commonwealth. 7,377 Lancasters were built during WW2.

The thing that also drew me to Nanton and the Bomber Command Museum is that this bomber has been marked up with the numbers for the plane that S/L Ian Bazalgette flew when he earned the Victoria Cross – F2T.

The Lancaster was used primarily for night operations and daytime precision bombing operations. These included the famous Dambusters using the Barnes Wallis designed bouncing bomb that was used to break several dams in the Ruhr Valley. It was also the only bomber in the war that could carry the 22,000 lb Grand Slam earthquake bomb.

I met up with my tour guide, Dan Fox, and tagged onto the back of a Corvette convention visit. There were 60 or so Corvettes in the parking lot. After the tour, Dan Introduced me and I made a short pitch about the ride.

After the tour, I went to find my home for the night. I found the Nanton Lions Campground and checked in. They asked if I was the guy who was riding to Winnipeg – yup, that’s me. The comped the stay. Pam was at work again.

Riding The Road To Valour