High Desert in Nevada

On the home stretch of our 2010 road trip, it was a long day of driving from San Francisco to Salt Lake City.  Having spent a week in Southern California, we made the trip up to San Fran for a couple of days, and then were in a rush to get back home to Canada.  To be honest, this leg of the trip was actually the perfect opportunity to reflect on everything we had done.

We made it to Reno in the afternoon, but from there it was nothing but open desert in front of us.  Unlike the interstate we took heading south, the highway from Reno to Salt Lake was eerily quiet.  Aside from a few trucks here and there, there was hardly anyone around.  When we stopped in the middle of nowhere so Dave could use the bathroom, the only place around was this dive of a little bar called Water Hole #1.  I waited in the car, but I've never seen Dave move so fast to leave.  I'll never really know what happened in there.

The sun set before we reached Utah, but I remember the cluster of casinos right on the Nevada border.  With it completely dark out you could start to smell the Great Salt Lake and we knew we were getting close.  It was a long day, and I drove the entire way.  What were casual conversations in the moment though, are some of the things I'll never forget about Dave.        

Winter's Last Hurrah

On Monday (March 19, 2012) literally the day before the first day of spring, winter decided to do a bit of last minute showing off.  To put all of this in perspective you have to understand what an unbelievably mild winter we've been having here in Southern Alberta.  I was able to have the sunroof open on certain days in February, and throughout March it's actually been nice enough for shorts for several days at a time. Somewhere along the way I guess we were going to have to pay for all of that good luck.

On Sunday there was no snow, and although the blizzard was in the forecast, come Monday morning it was simply raining on my way to work.  Our office is located just outside of town along the Trans Canada highway, which makes for a nice enough work environment, but then things like this happen.  By noon the snow had arrived in full force and we found ourselves smack dab in the middle of a blizzard.

With temperatures hovering just below zero, the snow falling was heavy, wet, and it stuck to everything.  My office window was quickly glazed in ice, and for a few hours it hid how bad it was getting outside.  By around 3pm I glanced outside to snap a few quick pictures and realized that there was over a foot and a half of snow piling up around some of the cars.  I started to dread the thought that we might actually get snowed in. And what's that? Oh, the plows won't come out here until the evening. Sh*t.

Any panic and frustration I felt about getting my car out of our lot only worsened when I realized what was happening in town.  The highways were all being closed, power outages were reported, and dozens of accidents had already occurred.  From then on I wanted nothing more than to get home that night and I joined the rest of the guys in the web department shoveling, digging, and pushing as many people from our parking lot as we could.  In a making-the-best-of-a-bad-situation kind of way, it was actually fun being out in the snow - especially because people were actually starting to get out of the lot.  

By the time I was ready to go I was relying entirely on the chains that my Dad insisted I hold on to the last time I got my Jag stuck in the snow.  Once again, they were a life-saver.  Had it not been for everyone else's vehicles making tracks before me I'm not sure I would've cleared the lot.  I trudged all the way to the highway with those chains on before removing them, and by the time I got back into town, the roads (although still awful) seemed better by comparison.

It's still amazing to me how much snow fell so quickly that afternoon.  For it to go from clear to a real possibility of being stranded out in the country, like a bunch of school kids in Irvine were, you have to be thankful that in the end it was mostly just a temporary inconvenience.  Now, in truly predictable Alberta weather fashion, the snow is disappearing relatively quickly as temperatures are predicted to return to the teens. As far as I'm concerned, winter can take a break now.      

My office window.

This isn't overexposed, it literally was white out conditions.

The snow piling up.

Calgary Auto Show 2012: Part 2

While the trip to the Auto Show over the weekend may have been inspired by my desire to see all of the new Jaguars, the other big draw was seeing a bunch of the latest supercars up close.  They were all there too.  Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Bentley, and even the first Canadian supercar, Plethore all had their own sections.  Here are a few of my favorite snapshots I took at the event.

For even more pictures, check out my series of posts on Jeeves and the Jaguar about some of the various cars I liked at the 2012 Calgary Auto Show.