Heading for Three Weeks in Italy Beginning of a trip by Tom and Gretchen McClelland. Friday, April 23, 2004—David Nishida, a fellow employee at Gretchen’s bank, joined us for a 7 p.m. departure from San Francisco. We boarded a Boeing 747 that was filled to capacity. We cruised at 35,000 feet with a ground speed of 596 miles per hour. How do we know all this? Today’s aircraft have a tracking system which shows on channel one of the little video screens in front of every seat. The ever-changing video pictures show maps at different scales, depicting where we are at all times. We knew we had a tailwind of 41 miles per hour. As I took notes on the amazing system, I noted that Calgary and Edmonton were to our portside. The outside air was
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