To California and back
FTLComm - Winnipeg to San Francisco - May 19, 2011
Editor's note: Regular readers of Ensign will have noticed that this May of 2011 we have posted only twice. We are not winding down the operation but things have been getting in the way of production. Since the new year we have reduced posting to usually once a week but we hope to get the number of posting back up but there's a garden to plant and some trips to take so we will do our best to get through the summer and sort things out in the fall a little more regularly.
This adventure came upon us rather quickly and I was able to solicit the help of Andrew to engineer the project. I caught a ride with my brother to Winnipeg on Thursday, May 5th then in the very wee hours of Friday morning my eldest son got us to the Winnipeg airport. For a quick journey like this you really have to pack carefully and we only had two carry on bags and the first challenge of the trip was getting through security.
Canadian security were just outstanding, they were pleasant and helpful so it took no time at all to get through their system. No nasty body scan or invasive body search just put the stuff in the trays, walk through the metal detector and put your shoes back on. Because of the nature of our trip we had some details with American custom officials but they were helpful and that was a painless process.
The first leg of our flight was on a United Airlines flight to Chicago aboard a Bombardier CRJ. I like this aircraft but it is a pretty tight fit. Andrew and I sat next to one another one of us ahead and the other back because the seats are to narrow for us to sit comfortably.
The next challenge was getting through one of the world's busiest airports, Chicago's O'Hare. It has multiple terminals and the little Bombardier aircraft is to short for the normal boarding ramp so we deplaned on the tarmac and walked through a corridor of security people into a terminal. Then we made our way to a loading station and took a bus across the taxiways to another terminal. Then a fair walk to the departure location for our next flight. We had about perhaps only twenty minutes wait before boarding. We had not had breakfast and there was no sign of a lunch so we grabbed a couple of wraps at $8.69 a piece. I was able to spill only part of mine.
We boarded a Boeing 757, an old 757 without the winglets on the tips of the wings and set off for San Francisco. It really seemed like a long flight. we each had iPads but somewhere over the great central plains it was undercast and we did not see the ground until we were over the Rocky Mountains. The aging 757 struggled along a bit nose high and its pressurisation leaking a bit so that there was some serious ear popping for the whole ride.
Descent over the coastal mounts was very smooth and scenic as we swept in over the Bay and even spotted the bridge we would cross over on the first part of our land journey.
Now here is a travel tip for those of you using a GPS for the first time. "Bitchin' Betty" will take you to the middle downtown of any place if you just tell it you are going to a town or city with out a specific address. In our case we told the GPS we were going to Sacramento and that's were she took us. It was around 9:00 and the downtown was crammed with people at a major league ball game. The streets are narrow, there was construction and detours and she talked us right into the middle of the city right to the state capital building. Andrew was trying to sort out the GPS and I followed instructions, well, most of the time. I think it would be far to say that driving a big unfamiliar vehicle through a downtown capital city is more than a challenge and both of us and the vehicle survived. We did some basic shopping and slept in a parking lot.
The next day was a real chore. It was uphill, then uphill, then uphill to Reno. I once more at the helm when we got to Reno and there are no pictures of that event. The city has a maze of huge concrete freeways that intertwine often eight lanes wide. The GPS did its job, Andrew was calm and I just kept changing lanes and we made it to the east side of the city to an Olive Garden then a little shopping before we headed off in the direction of Salt Lake City.
Between Reno and Salt Lake City we had some rain and picked up some sleep in a campground. Left without knowing there was a free breakfast.
Salt Lake City was easy to slip by but on the east side of it once more we were headed way up a mountain range. That route took us above 9,000 feet and late that night was another short night's sleep at a highway rest stop.
Wyoming was pretty straightforward and seemed like the longest portion of the trip. We made it to Spearfish and then our route was just west of the Black hills across South Dakota. The route map shows us going to Dickinson but we actually angled across on rural highways from Spearfish to intercept the interstate east of Bismark.
From there it was to Fargo, Grand Forks and then to Pembina. The border crossing just after midnight early Tuesday morning was an island with the highway crossing over the water north and south but otherwise surrounded in the Red River.
We were about an hour working our way through both US and Canadian customs then we headed for Winnipeg. Highway #75 was closed at Latellie and we had to go west to Winkler north to Carmen and then into the city.
Far to rushed a trip but an accomplishment for us both. I spent Tuesday in Winnipeg on headed home to Tisdale on Wednesday.
The pictures are in sequence and are just a sampling of the images along the way. The images were taken with my Canon PowerShot 1400 and Andrew's iPhone 4. We start off with Winnipeg's floodway, then Chicago, the flight across the US to San Francisco. One of the images captured a remarkably rare lenticular cloud.