{"id":7747,"date":"2004-02-11T22:56:56","date_gmt":"2004-02-12T05:56:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wend.ca\/?p=7747"},"modified":"2015-12-24T07:52:27","modified_gmt":"2015-12-24T14:52:27","slug":"almost-regina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wend.ca\/?p=7747","title":{"rendered":"Almost Regina"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I almost made it to Regina. I was close enough that I could almost touch it. But the karma gods decided to have a bit of a giggle on my expense. You see – Saskatchewan and Manitoba are the last two Canadian provinces that I have yet to visit. And, no matter how hard I try – I always seem to miss opportunities to go to both of them.<\/p>\n

Anyway…here is how today’s story went:<\/p>\n

5:00am<\/strong> – Alarm goes off and surprisingly I am already awake and anxious to go.<\/p>\n

5:50am<\/strong> – Airport shuttle shows up. Already there are two people in the van and we drive to the NW to find the fourth person. I love the airport shuttle – where would I be without it? You book online and are outside at a preplanned time. No worries. No problems finding a ride to the airport. No expensive cab ride.<\/p>\n

6:30am<\/strong> – Check in. This is painlessly easy now that there are e-tickets. You can now check in at machines that look like bank machines. Simple. Fast. Painless.<\/p>\n

7:00am<\/strong> – Find the gate after aimless wandering and staring longingly at Starbucks (I’m off coffee now). Bypass the magazines because I am broke after putting a down payment on a house.<\/p>\n

7:15am<\/strong> – Plane is supposed to board but for some reason Air Canada is holding us back. An announcement is made; the weather is crappy in Regina, but flights are still going that way.<\/p>\n

7:30am<\/strong> – Boarding begins. It is a small plane (a prop) so this doesn’t take long. We need to walk out on to the tarmac to get on the plane. As I am walking over I watch the sun rise over the horizon. It is a beautiful and eerie combination with the colours, the plane and a sudden gust of wind that blows my jacket open as I am watching. I feel like I am in slow motion.<\/p>\n

7:32am<\/strong> – Find my seat – which is a window seat. See that my view is of the engine and tires of the plane.<\/p>\n

7:35am<\/strong> – Man who bathed himself in cheap cologne sits next to me (one of the perks of business travel). I turn the air blower thingy on high and aim it right at my face. Think of the perfume man in the James Bond movie Diamonds are Forever.<\/p>\n

7:50am<\/strong> – Plane takes off – everything is fine. Travel out of Alberta and into Saskatchewan. Get some nice snaps of the landscape. Saskatchewan and Eastern Alberta are really flat. As William would say – you can watch your dog run away for 5 days in Saskatchewan.<\/p>\n

10:30am Saskatchewan Time<\/strong> – Coming in over Regina. The pilot announces we are making our descent. I snap a beautiful picture of the city – the one that is all white. I think to myself – in a few minutes I will be away from perfume man and will be able to knock off one of the last two provinces I have to see.<\/p>\n

10:31am Saskatchewan Time<\/strong> – Pilot says” “Folks, you may have noticed the plane has turned around and we are going back to Calgary…” We can’t land because visibility is 0 and the runway is sheer ice. I groan inwardly because I have roughly another hour and a half next to perfume man.<\/p>\n

11:00am<\/strong> – Arrive back in Calgary. Air Canada is handing out phone numbers we can call to rebook or refund our ticket. I later – after many phone calls – rebook for tomorrow so I can try the whole thing again.<\/p>\n