A TRIP TO THE GREAT WHITE NORTH

Last week, we had to make a trip to Creston, BC for a family medical emergency.  We received the notice on Wednesday, Feb 3 from my brother and spent the morning making flight, hotel and car rental arrangements for a one week trip.  Stuart worked hard to check all the airline prices with the individual airlines, Expedia, Travelocity, Cheapoair, etc. and finally booked US Airways through Expedia from Yuma to Spokane, Washington via Phoenix.  We were able to leave the next evening and arrived around midnight in Spokane.  We spent the night there and then drove to Creston going through Priest Lake, WA and Sandpoint, Idaho.

YUMA AIRPORT

SPOKANE AIRPORT

At the Canadian border crossing, we were informed that Canadian citizens are not allowed to take rental cars with US license plates across the border but due to the emergency circumstances, we they allowed us to drive it to our destination and then leave it parked until the return trip.  That worked out okay as I was able to use my Dad’s car during the week.

OUR RENTAL CAR

My Dad was hospitalized with what they thought was a stroke but may, in fact, be something else.  They are treating him with antibiotics and his condition was improving each day that we were there.  My brother lives in Creston so he is able to visit my Dad on a regular basis and take care of his house.  We spent a week there and visited with other family in town and kept ourselves busy at Dad’s house.

It was strange to be in winter conditions again. The temperature was -10C to +2C and it snowed about 20 cm on Sunday afternoon.  Fortunately, some of it melted the next day and the roads were clear.  Stuart fired up Dad’s tractor with the snowblower attachment and cleared the driveway.  Good thing he had his winter jacket and toque for the job.

On Thursday, Feb 10 we headed back across the US border, drove our rental to Spokane, and flew from there to Yuma all in the one day.  The flight from Spokane was just over 2 hours to Phoenix and it was sunny so we could see all the countryside that we were flying over.  We turned on the GPS and it tracked the airplane speed at an average of 540 miles per hour and the flying altitude of 37,000 ft.  It was interesting to monitor the route and pick out various landmarks like the Grand Canyon and the landing speed of 166 miles per hour at touch down seemed very fast.

We had to wait for 2.5 hours in Phoenix and had supper at one of the airport restaurants.  We were supposed to fly to Yuma in a Dash 8 turbo-prop plane but they had a small jet available which was much nicer.  It only took 30 minutes instead of an hour to get to Yuma and we had friends meet us at the airport to drive us home.  We were back at our RV at about 10:30 and it was good to be back and finished with travelling.

We’re settled in here again and slowly getting back into our regular routine.  We have a renewed appreciation for the warm, sunny weather here.