2 Day Prairie Tour

I'm back from an interesting trip.

Made even more interesting by the fact that I had the beginnings of a head cold and had decided to tempt fate and try and fly. BAD MOVE. My sinus' were not too happy with me. I was able to help minimize the pain by doing slower descents and trying to unplug my ears as much as possible. Anyways, so... about the trip.

The plane was to pretty much shuttle one of our clients around to many small towns in Alberta and Saskatchewan. His company produces pumps for oil rigs and he has stores all around north america and for these couple of days he was hitting up the prairies.

So... because he wanted to go to so many places on the first day we actually needed two planes to accommodate, otherwise the pilots would fly too much in one day if they were to do it all on one plane. So after a morning flight with a different client to Regina, we went directly to Lloydminster and picked up the pump guy and his group.

That first day we flew to Provost AB and then to Estevan SK. Let me tell you this, all of the places we visited were small towns and were totally unlike the big cities. In Provost we had an older fellow come up to us after we landed and offered to give us a ride into town if we needed one. We were hungry and wanted to grab some lunch so we accepted his offer and he drove us into town were we ate, and then an hour later he came to pick us up again! We chatted with him for a bit, he was an old timer at the airport that had seen his fair share of the aviation industry. That town was very friendly. Once in Estevan we were staying the night, so after getting the plane all settled for the night we cabbed into town to the Days Inn. Thank god this place was decent. It was actually just renovated at the beginning of February and the hotel was really nice. I met up with the Captain down in the hotel bar/lounge for some dinner. I saw he was drinking and so hell, that meant I could drink too! So I got a beer, but quickly realized my sense of taste wasn't the best because of my cold and it probably could have been water and I wouldn't have known the difference. At this bar we looked and up on a mini stage they had 3 little jeopardy podiums set up. It was jeopardy trivia night. My captain, who's a younger guy and a lot of fun immediately signs up for it! Later we found out though that it was for Rock and Roll Jeopardy and he wasn't comfortable with that, so after seeing a few contestants go through the questions he decided to bolt and ditch the game! But that wasn't before our clients came and sat down 2 tables from us. Kind of funny, they were staying in the same hotel (obviously cause it was the only semi-decent one in town). We kinda said hi to them and we each awkwardly ignored each other. =D

That night after dinner I went back into the hotel room and tried to figure out a way to help relieve some of my sinus pains. I tried a technique that I had googled using my blackberry while we were in Provost. The method was to take a cup and place a napkin in the bottom, get some hot water and pour some into the cup to soak the paper napkin, then quickly dump the water and all you're left with is a steaming cup of napkin. You cup it up against your ear and let the steam work it's way into your ear and relieve the pressure. In theory this sounded great. But it didn't really do the trick, I did feel it getting close, but not close enough. I then decided to have a really hot shower. So I did, a good 30mins worth. It defiantly loosened up the sinus' and made me feel a little better, but still not 100%. I popped some pills and went to bed.

The next morning we were at the airport quite early and getting the plane ready to go for the day. I couldn't believe what came running out towards me on the airport ramp. It was a cat! He was quite friendly, he was the "airport cat". There to keep the mouse population down. =D

He was a funny character, very vocal and wanting attention. As we were loading the passengers onto the plane he came trotting up beside the aircraft and before I could close the door the little bugger jumped up the stairs and into the damn airplane! I was able to stop him and take him outside, but he kept trying to get in. I ended up picking him up and then walking him back to the terminal building and throwing him inside. The clients all had a good laugh about it.

The second day consisted of us flying to Swift Current SK, Kindersly SK, Red Deer AB and then returning empty back to Calgary. Most of those stops were fairly uneventful. We never left the airport at any of them and just hung around. At least they all had someplace we could go and sit down in and just relax and wait for the clients to finish their tours. I was feeling a little less sinus pain that day but my nose was running all day and was still quite unpleasant.

After landing in Calgary I made sure I wasn't going to be scheduled to fly for a couple of days so that I could recover. I was given 3 sick days and I now don't go back in to work the night shift until Tuesday. So I've got a couple days off to recover, hopefully. As I right this I'm still quite congested and have a bit of a headache. My ears are also still a bit plugged, but I'll clear them out over time as this sickness leaves my body.

I didn't bother taking any pics this time cause it was all the same view.... FLAT!