Day 7: another province, another time zone

We're flagging, so I ought to make this short! Chris fell asleep on the hotel bed just now, while I was nearly asleep in the bath. It's only 8:25pm, but that's the same as 10:25 Ontario time, so no wonder. We're in Regina, capital of Saskatchewan.

This morning, because the little cumulus clouds in the blue sky were so benign, we filed a VFR flight plan from CYBR to CYQR direct. Once again, we followed the flooded Assiniboine river that has lost its multiple meanders and turned into a line of muddy lakes. The canola fields, flax fields and grazing land are pitted with little ponds that remind me of the Australian billabongs. The white roads are long and straight. The fields aren't as vast as we'd expected from what we read long ago in our school geography books about Canada (perhaps those lie further south or west), but I did spot some archetypal silos (grain elevators) by railway tracks.

Prairie town with grain silos

It took us two hours to fly between Brandon and Regina, climbing for a while to 6500ft to give ourselves a respite from the thermals. Again, I'm glad we didn't have to drive a car all that way. On the radio we heard a couple of pilots in conversation who were overflying pipelines to check for damage, only 400ft above ground level.

Regina, over the city

Once in radio contact with Regina, we realised that one overworked air traffic controller was acting as ground control (taxiways) and tower control (active runways) combined, with many flights coming in. There was no "terminal" control (arrivals and departures in the airspace further out) so he was doing that too. He kept his cool and did a good job!

On the final approach to Regina, looking further west

This time, the landing wasn't scary. We came down onto runway 13 and taxied to the Shell Aerocentre where a marshaller gave us the thumbs-in signal meaning the chocks are in. After lunch in the passenger terminal, a taxi took us to the Holiday Inn Express in Regina's downtown core that we have spent the afternoon and evening exploring, finding a pedestrian area, Cornwall Street, the central park, Victoria Park, various monuments and glassy modern architecture, as well as the more ubiquitous turn of the 20th century buildings erected at the height of the wheat boom. People weren't gluten free in those days. We also found Chris a new pair of shoes in Regina's branch of The Running Room, to replace the ones he's worn out. Wearing the new shoes, he accompanied me to the big lakeside park--very pleasant--near Regina's Legislative building (under scaffolding) and university. People were rowing and canoeing, or riding on a river bus. On the bank, families of many different ethnic backgrounds were walking along, stepping round the geese.

Sculpture near our hotel, Regina

A sculpture paying tribute to immigrants

Riverside park in Regina

We walked back to the downtown on Broad Street. Supper was good tonight, at a popular, "authentic Thai" restaurant called Siam.