Comments by "smwca123" (@smwca123) on "DownieLive" channel.

  1. Ski Patrol provides first aid at Canada's #1 music festival, Ottawa Bluesfest in early July - though not for the past 2 years because of COVID. I've been a volunteer there for 20 years, currently as a gates supervisor and often in charge of the main gate. If you're ever in Ottawa again, Bluesfest would be a great subject for another video. So much happens in areas other than Gates that I don't know about, and IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
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  2. I've never been on a seaplane, so that's high on my list for the next time I'm in the Big V. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
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  3. 1. Hong Kong's modern airport reminds me of the old Kai-Tak airport, which was one of the scariest to get into and out of. There was (maybe still is) a Checkerboard Hill that pilots watched for on approach. https://youtu.be/YdVupou9ZZA?si=r_uF02Ie8aDGmUug 2. The A380 has thrust reversers, which help slow the plane after touchdown, only on its 2 inboard engines # 2 and 3. That's all it needs, and the 2 outer engines 1 and 4 often overhang the runway and might ingest foreign objects that could damage the engines. 3. The camel traffic just past 10:00 reminds me of a nickname for the long-ago British Overseas Airways Corporation: Better On A Camel. BOAC merged with British European Airways (Back Every Afternoon) in 1974 to form present-day British Airways (Bloody Awful). 4. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
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  4. I once heard it called BOSNYWASH - yes, it overlooks Philly.
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  5. Bombardier Transportation no longer exists; Alstom bought them earlier this year.
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  6. I already suggested a song that Stompin Tom Connors, a New Brunswicker, could have written: There was a vlogger from Vancouver, his name was DownieLive, He travelled all across Canada sampling everybody's lives...
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  7. Wirth hats off?
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  8. Mike, did you pass through Gibsons on your way? That of course is noted for being the setting of the TV series "The Beachcombers"; Molly's Reach still stands there as an active restaurant. I was there once on my first visit to BC in July 1983, on a Beachcombers filming day. Someone spotted Robert Clothier (Relic), but I was too far away to spot him. On the way back from Langdale aboard the Queen of Alberni I met a pen pal of the previous 2 years, who I knew worked for BC Ferries; he turned out to be the Chief Steward. Does BC Ferries Sunshine Coast fare still include, on a single ticket, either Horseshoe Bay-Langdale, then Earls Cove-Saltery Bay, or either of those 2 legs as a round trip? IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
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  9. Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass helped popularize mariachi music in North America throughout the 1960s. Even before that, Johnny Cash used mariachi style on his hit "Ring of Fire".
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  10. I think he especially wanted to go to Canada's oldest flying school.
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  11.  @DownieLive  You earned it, Mike. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
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  12. Yes.
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  13. The day after Gord's death all city buses in Kingston, Ontario showed GORD, WE'LL MISS YOU on their electronic destination signs.
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  14. The dining table would need a train to carry the salt and pepper shakers around!
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  15. Greyhound et al run on highways built, maintained, and paid for on the public dime.
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  16. Reminds me of a much more ordered version of the 1965 movie "Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines", a comedy about an air race from London to Paris in 1910. I highly recommend it but beware of the theme song! Once you get it in your head there's no getting it out! IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
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  17. Runs in the family, I guess. I've seen videos with Mike's sister, she's just as enthusiastic as the most famous member of Clan Downie.
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  18. Mike probably wanted to fit in more of Ottawa, but he has only 23 minutes per episode. In fact Ottawa may be worth an episode in itself - and he's already done videos about the Peace Tower clock and carillon. I don't know where he's going next, but I know I'll be there with him.
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  19. 1. Happy Birthday Mike, and many more! 2. Ottawa's original football team was called the Ottawa Rough Riders (2 words). When they were playing Saskatchewan, the standing joke was: "The Roughriders are gonna win tonight". They later became the Renegades, and are now the Redblacks 3. About it getting dark early, at 14:35: Saskatchewan stays on Central Standard Time year-round. Depending on when you were there, the time would have been the same as in either Alberta or Manitoba. 4. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
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  20. Don't forget the discount code DOWNIELIVE to save 10%.
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  21. 1. Wow, this must have been your longest-ever single video! Almost equal to riding through the Canadian Rockies. 2. Ottumwa, Iowa was the home town of the M*A*S*H character Radar O'Reilly. Iowa generally is associated with "The Music Man", so there should have been a band with 76 trombones waiting for you. Imagine your ears after hearing that kind of a welcome! 3. Did you pre-order some flowers for your hair once you got to San Francisco? 4. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
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  22. What's the SPF? Anything under 30, forget it.
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  23. Yes, it did. The 1980 movie "Airplane" was mostly a spoof of "Flight Into Danger" - with a side lesson on how not to greet a friend named Jack in an airport.
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  24. 1.Thanks for the news about the Cherry Blossom Festival, I didn't know Vancouver had one. Washington DC, is also noted for its cherry blossoms. If you're ever in Montreal, you may be interested to know that the brake shoes of its Métro (subway) cars are made of cherry wood lubricated with peanut oil. Fodder for another video, of course. 2. The SkyTrain Stadium Station: I went to Expo 86, and remember the Canada Place shuttle. At the Waterfront end, the platform was split in half. The Expo shuttle used the Howe street (west) exit that led directly into the Canada Pavilion. 3. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
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  25. VIA requires it.
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  26. Almost fits the tune of Simon and Garfunkel's "I Am a Rock".
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  27. The waterfall looks like a smaller version of Ottawa's Rideau Falls. In fact the word "rideau" is French for curtain; Samuel de Champlain so named it. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
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  28. Did you get to attend the wedding? IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
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  29.  @MattMort  Certainly it should become more popular, if not the most, once the Burlington extension opens.
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  30. In a way, you're still using your marketing degree. Every video you do amounts to marketing for the subject of that video. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
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  31.  @fotomann40  You can always go back and edit.
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  32. Every video is better than the last - but not as good as the next one will be! IDKWHGNBIKIBTWH.
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  33.  @DownieLive  Is it from one of your previous rail travel videos? I seem to recall the restaurant named on the shirt.
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  34. You could have easily fit in Fogo and Moreton's Harbor...all around the circle. You'se the b'y!
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  35. One of the Canadian Pacific Railway's CEOs was born in Revelstoke: Norris Roy "Buck" Crump, on whose watch (1955-1972) steam operation on CP ended. He once said about senility: "You know, there are three signs that you may be going senile. The first is that you begin to lose your memory...and Goddamned if I can remember the other two!" IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
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  36. Again you came through, Mike. 1. I'm disappointed that you apparently skipped Calgary, where all my close family lives now - but it's not far from the Badlands, where they've all been before. 2. I haven't been in Edmonton since 1999; when I was there, I tended to spend as little time as possible at the Mall. 3. Could you feel the nearness of someone's warm soft kisses when you rolled into Alberta westward bound? At least you didn't have to work on an oil rig to make some money. 4. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
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  37. There is such a thing as getting too long. I like Mike's short and sweet approach to this video.
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  38. AA191 was a result of poor maintenance practices.
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  39.  @DownieLive  Copenhagen even has its own unofficial anthem, courtesy of Frank Loesser who wrote it for the 1952 film Hans Christian Anderson.
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  40. That's coming; just a matter of time.
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  41. Gerry and the Pacemakers got it right in the song "Ferry Cross the Mersey".
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  42. Canora is named for the CAnadian NOrthern RAilway.
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  43. He took his shoes off for that.
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  44. ​@lanners86 Australian seasons are 6 months out of phase (as electrical engineers say) with Canadian ones.
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  45. Canadian provinces have Premiers, not Governors.
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  46.  @pavelpekun5424  True, while the Premier, as head of government, looks after the day-to-day running of the province.
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  47. The flight over NYC is a real Miracle Over the Hudson. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
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  48. 1. The seats on that coach, with the fold-out leg rest, are called "Dayniter". Ontario Northland once had buses like that, maybe still do. 2. Although last refurbished in the 1990s, those coaches were originally built in the 1950s. 3. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY.
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  49. Make sure to tie your kangaroos down, sport.
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  50. 1. For me, Business Class is better for a trip of at least 4 hours in the same train, in a period that includes a meal time. Among trips I do regularly, only Ottawa-Toronto qualifies. For shorter trips like Ottawa-Montreal or Ottawa-Kingston, Economy is OK. Likewise for a trip where there's a change of trains, like Ottawa-Quebec City with a change of trains in Montreal and enough time between trains to get something to eat. 2. On both trains your coaches looked like HEP cars, and the Business Class car looks like it was refurbished to the same standard as LRC Business Class cars. My impression of it largely agrees with yours. Although I don't like riding backward in either class! 3. Do you have a VIA Preference account, analogous to Aeroplan? Last time I went to Toronto in Business Class I redeemed points. With the money I saved I stayed at the Royal York. 4. For your Windsor waterfront walk, I hope it was much shorter than your 28-mile walk along the Vancouver seawall, and that your feet held up better! 5. IDKWYGNBIKIBTWY!
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