The shuttle arrived promptly at 09:30am and we quickly packed the bus and we were on our way. As we left I took a few parting shots of the houses on the back side of Raven + a shot of the little dropoff which we negotiated each afternoon to ski back to our unit...
We had an interesting trip back down the mountain. It had snowed during the night and the road was pretty slushy. Brian, the shuttle driver, said it was quite slippery on the way up the mountain to pick us up. As we picked our way down the mountain we followed a logging truck for quite a way until we turned off Big White Road onto the highway proper...
As we made our way around a corner on the highway, we needed to brake heavily as we were confronted with a guy in the middle of the road with a stop/slow lollipop and police, fire rescue and ambulances everywhere. It soon became apparent that a car had gone over the edge. From our vantage point we couldn't see where the vehicle had come to a stop, but the flotilla of emergency services vehicles which roared past us as we made our way down toward Kelowna would suggest that things were a tad grim. A check of local news here shows that there was a single occupant in the car and he survived.
As we approached the outskirts of Kelowna I got some nice shots of snow covered fields...
We arrived at the airport just before 11am in plenty of time for our flights. After a light lunch in the terminal, 'The Gang' bid their farewells to Diane, Casey and I as they boarded a plane to Edmonton, en route to the lights, sights and sounds of Las Vegas.
Our plane was running a bit late but we were assured everybody would make all connections. We made up a bit of time and landed in Vancouver just before 3pm. We had a MONSTER walk to make our connection to the LA flight, but the fun had only just begun. When we finally got to the 'US Connection' area, the queue to pass the security check was at least 100m long. After finally getting thru the security check tempers were a bit frayed. They make everybody take off their shoes, but there is NOT ONE SINGLE chair in the area after you pass thru to sit down and put them back on. I mean wtf, is it that hard??
It was at this point that I realised why it was such a shitfight, the Yanks control this area in Vancouver airport. You actually pass thru 'US Immigration' in Vancouver Canada, because when you land at LAX, you arrive in Terminal 2 which doesn't have immigration facilities, so you get processed before you depart. Well this whole episode took us past the scheduled departure time, but I wasn't unduly concerned because we were assured 'everybody will make your connection'. Diane was struggling with her still sore left leg so we headed for the gate when over the loud speaker came 'This is a final call for passengers Inman departing Westjet flight 1628 to LAX, this plane is about to depart' Casey and I upped the tempo and rushed to the gate to ensure we made our flight. Diane made it and we boarded, much to the disappointment of some wanker who had made our seats his own thinking he could get the whole row to himself. The plane pulled back a few feet and stopped. Shortly after the captain announced that there were some passengers on standby (who probably had designs on our seats) and had even got so far as to their luggage being placed on the plane. As they were not on the flight, they had to remove their luggage. This took way longer than anticipated as they couldn't find the bags. We finally took off about 40 mins late.
After arriving in LAX, having passed thru immigration in Vancouver, it was just a matter of getting your bags off the carousel and walking out the door. We waited at least 30 mins for the 'every 10-15 min hotel shuttle service' to arrive. A very short trip to our hotel, 'Sheraton Gateway LAX' where we checked in while Casey waited in the lobby. After we got to the room and taken the bags from the porter, I went back downstairs and Casey and I headed back to LAX to hopefully put her on a flight back to Australia.
The shuttle delivered us to 'Tom Bradley International Terminal'...
Casey and I went to the check-in and hoped. She was delighted when the ticketing agent told her that she was upgraded to Business Class and she received her boarding pass straight away, no need for panic, she is on her way. We had a quick 'farewell meal' at Macca's and soon she was off into the departure lounge for the long trip home, via Melbourne...
So now the second leg of our journey begins. Tomorrow we checkout and head to downtown LA to link up with our train at Union Street Station.
Let more fun begin...
Later...
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