Early this morning, we left Los Angeles headed for Chicago. The first leg of the trip was a flight was into Salt Lake City and I just noticed that it is colder here than it is back home in Fairbanks. Right now, it's 19°F here and 25°F back home. Chicago has sleet and hail but it's supposed to be decent weather for the rest of the week. It is nice to see snow on the mountains and to be in a much less congested airport than LAX. With the weather in Chicago, I suspect that it'll be a zoo.
Update - While we were having lunch at Cat Cora's Kitchen, a nice restaurant at the SLC airport, we received notification from TripIt that the flight from Salt Lake to Chicago was just cancelled by Chicago ATC (Air Traffic Control) probably due to weather related traffic overload. Delta automatically rebooked us for a flight tomorrow morning and gave us a coupon for a discounted room (i.e. not free) at a local hotel. So we have an unexpected day near the airport (and very little else). There is a small lake behind the hotel with a very thin layer of ice. The other end of the lake is still open water. Not sure what all these little posts are for. Maybe they have a deck which extends out into the lake.
And, I received a notification from the Fairbanks PD that the roads were extremely slippery due to the warm weather following extremely cold weather. Perfect conditions for frost and black ice on the roads. Nice to not be there...
Well, welcome to my home town, Richard! The weather was much more appealing last week, when the snow was flying (over the weekend the temperatures fell, and our dear, old inversion began to set in). If the weather were better and if you were here for longer, I’d suggest we go for a ride.
ReplyDeleteHave you been to Salt Lake before?
Thank you and yes I've been here many times back in the late 70s/early '80s and a few times since then. The last couple of times I was attending meetings at the University of Utah. I saw little beyond there and the airport. Before that it was a place to swap scientists and head back into the boonies. Remote sensing typed seem to prefer areas with minimal vegetation and people. Nice area with beautiful mountains.
DeleteI sure hope you’ve seen it on better days. Salt Lake doesn’t look its best when dressed in smog (though that would be the case for any place).
DeleteIf you thought you had the time and interest to meet—maybe for a bite to eat tonight—I’d invite you to drop me a line through the contact form on the Profiles page on my blog, but I certainly would not want you to feel pressured to do so. I am easy going—if not this time, maybe in the future, when the conditions might be better for a ride as well. :)
Hello, Ry. Too bad Richard saw the invitation too late. I enjoy meeting Richard's blogging friends. We can visit next time.
DeleteNext time sounds like a great plan, Bridget. Until then, safe travels.
DeleteSpeaking of bad roads, I would like to not go to work tomorrow again. More snow, sleet, ice and wind and driving that in the dark on rural roads isn't a small matter.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your unexpected stay. Hope good weather breaks through for all of us very soon.
According to the forecast, it's supposed to be decent for the rest of the week. But you can never trust those NWS guys (I know several)... ;-)
DeleteDarn! I'm to late as well. I would have loved to have you guys over for dinner! I hope you enjoyed your short stay in SLC as much as possible....it was certainly a cloudy dreary day.
ReplyDeleteThank you. The stay went about as well as you would expect. We heard that Chicago was an ice rink. But then I've always heard that going to O'Hare at this time of the year was nuts.
DeleteAh, unplanned layovers in the middle of a trip. The joy of traveling by plane. But it's better to wait out the bad weather than having to fly through it.
ReplyDeleteThe rescheduled flight is on a larger plane. The agent referred to the regional jet as a "Barbie jet" due its size and limited capacity.
DeleteSorry to hear about the delay. Stay over lay overs are the worst! Hope the trip went well other wise.
ReplyDeleteCould be worse. SLC is a nice area...
DeleteFunny that your weather is colder than Fairbanks. It does sound like a good time to be gone with all that black ice. Way to think positive.
ReplyDeleteHope your travel plans worked out today.
The last couple of years it has been warmer during the winter.
DeleteYep, travel worked out today. Now in the Chicago area.
Welcome to the east Richard (and Bridget.) Hope your (delayed) flight was smooth as it could be as you arrived just in time for the first major weather to hit the area this year.
ReplyDeleteThe flight was smooth and uneventful. The report was for nice weather after tomorrow.
DeleteSeems that winter and winter storms, north and south has arrived. We've had our first real snow today, missing other storms and now 6" of new. Enjoy Chicago Richard and Bridget!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the fresh snow! I don't expect that we'll actually go into Chicago.
DeleteThis is a sweet post!! Very interesting, your such a good writer. Keep it up!
ReplyDelete