For more years than I can remember Bus Route # 10 had the dubious distinction of being Calgary’s longest bus route.  That was before the 2017 redrawing of the route.  In the “good old days”  bus #10 seemed to run from Airdrie to Lethbridge straight down    Highway 1 South.  Now Bus #10 is designated City Hall/South Centre.

I was in trouble from the outset.  I walked along Macleod Trail from 9th Avenue to 7th Avenue, the entire length of City Hall, but could not find a #10 bus stop.  I had to “revert to the past”.  I went to the bus stop in front of the Calgary Tower where I remembered the #10 stop being.  Sure enough, in no time, the #10 appeared.  It traveled one block east and turned onto Macleod Trail north.  A traveler pulled the bell and the bus stopped, NOT AT CITY HALL but beside the Calgary Public Library.  Maybe in two or three years, when the restoration of the old City Hall is complete, the #10 Bus Route will start in front of City Hall.  For now the stop is on the west side of the Calgary Public Libraty – Central Library.

The bus makes a small north-west-south-east loop and stops in front of the Calgary Tower where I had boarded it some five or so minutes earlier.

We travel south on 1st Street past Victoria Park. How I would love to tell you the story of Victoria Park and the part it played in the lives of Calgarians who lived in East Calgary in the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

We pass Erlton and remember the Erlton Condo Fire of 2002 one of the worst fires in Calgary’s history.

Then up “Cemetery Hill” – Burnsland Cemetery and Union Cemetery (our Military Cemetery) on the east side of Macleod Trail,  The Chinese Cemetery, the Jewish Cemetery-  Chevra Kadisha, and St. Mary’s Cemetery on the west side.  To understand the lay out of Calgary cemeteries you have to know that the City authorized cutting through Cemetery Hill to allow the c-train to go south.

At Chinook the #10 turns into the C-Train station.  Now, and here is the surprise, it leaves the C-Train and turns EAST! ! !  It then goes down Fairmount Drive, through Fairview, Acadia, Willow Park, past South Center Mall and to Anderson C-Train Station.

I can remember visiting friends in this area.  Toones lived in Fairview.  Frank was one of Theo’s best outdoor companions in Theo’s archery days.  As a matter of fact it was Frank Toone who saved Theo’s life by pulling him from the Elbow River one gorgeous Sunday afternoon when Frank’s boat tipped over while the men were fishing up near Canmore.

I remember Theo and Catherine wandering through this area, sometime in the last three or four years, looking for the shoe store that carried New Balance Shoes.

What I missed most from the former #10 Route was the Calgary Co-op Home Health Care Ltd.  It is still in the area but on 90th Avenue and Macleod Trail.  The bus runs on Fairmount Drive.

The bus goes back downtown on the exact same streets and avenues it traveled to reach the Anderson Station.

The new #10 Bus takes 45 minutes round trip.

Our bus driver on Monday, July 10th was Kevin Walshe, a veteran Calgary Transit Driver of 40 years.

SOME UNFINISHED BUSINESS.

For those keeping tally, yesterday I did two City of Calgary bus routes – the #9 and the #4/104.

Yesterday when I did the #9 route, and today when I did the #10, I felt sad that these historically great routes, the #9 that had served the Bridgeland Area for years, first as a street car then as a BIG bus, and the #10, hailed for years as the longest route in Calgary, were now so reduced in status.  I realize that city bus routes must be redrawn to keep up with the times, but I wish the numbers of their buses could be “retired” and new numbers and/or names assigned.  This is not an easy thing to do.  Look at Calgary’s latest dilemma – how to change part of Stoney Trail to Tsuut’ina Trail.

Tomorrow I am hoping for another “double header” when I do the 11/12 SouthWest Loop.

“Thank you” to Kevin Walshe our driver today,

“Thank you” to my support group Al, Janine, Brian, Lee,

“Thank you” to the readers of my  blogg for their encouraging words,

and

“THANK YOU GOD!”