My flight left Toronto on Tuesday night at 9:50. Anyone who knows me knows that I basically never land flights which actually take off when scheduled - I carry the curse of the delay! And I fly at least 6-8x a year, so it gets old pretty fast. I ended up in the seat beside the woman who held up our plane running from her connection - and she was very nice - and Jeff and I recently held up a plane in England running to make our connection (http://www.sincerelygoofy.blogspot.com/2012/01/ireland-first-12-hours.html) so what am I going to say! Thankfully my good friend Pam had recommended a good read, so equipped with my Kobo and some teenage angst (you have to guess what book ;)) we flew through the evening sky to Thunder Bay and I was there before I knew it. And tucked into bed by 12:30 - knowing I had to get up at 7. So of course I didn't fall asleep until almost 2 (is there any other way?) and woke up freezing at 6 as my rad had turned off in the middle of the night.. and I never truly fell back asleep.. so with 4 hours of sleep under my belt I was ready to face the 350 km drive from Thunder Bay to Fort Frances. The conference began at 12 so there was definitely no time to spare! Of course I didn't tell that to the room service guy who showed up late with my breakfast (I ate a Belgian waffle with my hands.. very classy.. plastic knife and fork were taking too long).. and I didn't think it as I scraped the thick layer of "hey it's actually winter here" ice off my rental car. Question: why do rental companies provide basically a wooden toothbrush and call it your "snow brush"? After scraping some fine lines over and over again in some key areas on my windshield - off I went!
And it was a lovely drive. A cinnamon coloured American Mink scampered across my path on Hwy 11 (which runs straight west from Thunder Bay passing through Quetico Prov Park - see map). Go buddy go! I saw the unmistakable flash of white above me and craned my neck to observe a gorgeous Bald Eagle soaring overhead. Frantic groupings of what I think were Common Redpolls consistently swept their tiny bodies just in front of my windshield, darting up at the last minute. I was in wildlife-lover's paradise as I drove. Good tunes.. sun shining.. making great time.. cruise control in my brand new VW Passat rental.. alright!!!
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| My Journey by Car |
Then Northwestern Ontario remembered it was.. Northwestern Ontario. There was the snow. At first just a few flakes, making me think it might be a fluke. Nope. Full on blizzard for the last 1.5 hours of my drive which caused whiteouts, had me squinting to see, and as I drove over Rainy Lake for the first time ever, I turned my head to see an unmistakable blank white canvas - couldn't make out the lake from the sky from the land. SIGH! Bummer for sure.
In no time I reached the Canada/ U.S. border. Which is going down in my books as the weirdest border crossing ever. There were multitudes of train tracks criss-crossing the area just beyond the bridge to the customs booth, and more train tracks on the other side of the booth. And a smell... an unmistakable majorly stinky smell that made me actually recoil when I rolled down my window to talk to the border guard. Rental car NOT taken apart as seems to be protocol when crossing at Rainy River/Baudette, MN so that was a nice surprise. Later I googled "international falls stinks" and this was the first thing that popped up on the screen: "International Falls smells like poo though. Seriously. There is some plant in town that makes the entire town smell like an aging armpit with BO sauce all over." Well put. I almost felt sorry for the border guards. Well, when I wasn't dodging 3-4 car tiny remote controlled trains randomly running across the tracks that could easily crash into a car lined up to go through the border.. who designed this place?!
I won't linger on the conference details (I'm sure no one else finds Spiny Waterflea (aquatic invasive species) and Lake of the Woods water control causing nest failure for loons interesting.. I did! was fun being a science geek again instead of a property manager, for a few days anyways :)). My ass hurt incredibly from 2 straight days of doing nothing but sitting. Met tons of really nice ppl. And I ate. Omg did I eat. First day lunch was make your own sandwiches on pieces of bread literally (yes literally) the size of my head - about 3x the size of a normal sandwich. Delish!! Cookies at the break. And dinner, when I wasn't even hungry for it, was fried chicken, chicken satay, and fresh rolls with whipped butter. Oddest meal ever. So delicious! Next morning's breakfast was FRESH BAKED HOME MADE cinnamon buns, once again nearing the size of my face. It was hard not to eat 2! And donuts, coffee, and fruit and yogurt to make you feel bad about not making the healthy choice. ;) Lunch was battered Walleye (as long as my forearm! maybe not literally..), homefries, more of the crazy yum rolls and whipped butter, and then a selection of desserts that made me want to cry with joy. Moist brownies dripping with chocolate frosting.. peanut butter rice krispie squares, heavy on the pb and iced with chocolate.. I may have had 3. Obviously I'm my own worst enemy at conferences. Dinner plate sized cookies on break, and a hit of coffee to keep me awake through the late afternoon modeling session (models are dull.. there I said it!). I was STUFFED when I returned to my super weird hotel room, but still managed to decide it was a better idea to order pizza to my hotel room than brave the blizzard outside that had been raging now on and off for 2 straight days to find healthy fare. Dominoes in the U.S. is broken. Has anyone HAD the thin crust pizza? It sounded like the lighter option ("thin" crust :P) so I went for it. First of all, the "small" pizza was the size of one of my hotel pillows. Second of all the crust tasted like it had been made entirely of lard, baked in oil, with a side of shortening. I ended up throwing out half the giant pizza and feeling massively sick the rest of the night. Lesson learned for being a lazy bum! But really, the weather and the design of where I was staying made any outdoor exercise next to impossible. The conference was held at the college right across the "highway" (big street) from my hotel. But, being the U.S., as I've found, it was not conducive to walking. No sidewalks.. no crosswalk.. basically if you wanted to cross the street you had to scrape your car (with your Avis-appointed jumbo toothbrush) of a 1" thick layer of frosty ice in -16C temps, and then climb into the car, drive the 27 seconds to the college, and repeat at the end of the day after eventually locating your snow-buried vehicle. Very environmentally friendly, good for the heart.. all of that. ;) Though scraping the ice was like a cardio workout. And just getting over an insanely bad cough, my lungs expressed their gratitude with sharp burning and painful coughing: "thanks Kristyn, you biotch! p.s. it's 12C at home today!" they yelled at me.
By Friday morning, I was ready to GO. My icky hotel room had gotten the better of me (stench of pizza - my own fault, slimy bathtub - not my fault, world's loudest radiator that did nothing to warm the room - not my fault, tantalizing window view of the roof of the hotel and a dingy utility door - again not my fault). I huffed down a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch in the lobby (yum!) and then was on my way home!! No, who am I kidding. I was scraping my car for 5-7 minutes, then climbing in the freeze-mobile and slowly making my way back up the highway to the stinky border. Window frozen shut. Toll lady and border man appreciated that I'm sure (toll lady almost fell out of her booth trying to get me my change). In Fort Frances I knew I had to stop for gas, having noted no gas stations for 3 hours along the highway. Full serve - ya! Chip card - go inside to pay - boo! What is the point of full serve if I have to get out of my car!?!?
Drive home was gorgeous, sunny, uneventful - perfect! Saw Rainy Lake. Ice covered, but gorgeous as I imagined it. Saw FIVE bald eagles. Did not almost get run off the road by any logging trucks. Wondered about the people walking along the side of the desolate highway in the middle of nowhere.. but they seemed content enough. No moose :( - NWO owes me moose. Made it to my fave restaurant in T-Bay for my fave chicken wrap before returning my filthy but best-rental-car-ever. And now onto the real journey home, which was to culminate with dinner with my hubby in the airport, as he was flying out of Pearson on a business trip about 3 hours after I landed. Or was supposed to land...
Because my flight was delayed. I actually laughed when I heard it I'm getting so used to it. And because the WestJet lady said "..sorry to have to keep you that much longer in Thunder Bay". Poor T-Bay gets no love! We took off almost 45 mins late, but made good time otherwise and then I burst off the plane and ran through the airport to the bag carousel, on the phone with Jeff while we tried to track each other down. Of course the carousel was not moving. And didn't start moving for 15 mins. I felt like running around it in circles I was so eager to get out of there and see Jeff. One day I may do this for real.. stay tuned. Just looks like it would be a fun adventure. FINALLY get the bag. Ok where is Jeff? Jeff is still learning about airports, obviously, and was eagerly standing outside of the "international arrivals" baggage claim waiting for me. :P After 5 minutes of frantic walking and talking, we found each other.. embraced.. had a romantic (truncated) dinner at Terminal 1 Subway and said a somewhat teary goodbye. I was ready for an easy journey home where I could stretch out my legs, wallow over my missing hubs, and catch up on my tv watching.
On the link train, travelling from Terminal 1 to long term parking, I am juggling my three exploding bags in the stuffed train car and trying to keep my wheely bag from falling over when I hear my phone ringing. Expecting it to be my mushy man calling for one last goodbye, I pick it up - it's my dad, trying to plan a get together this weekend. I tell him "I really can't talk right now!". After finally explaining where I am (through a series of call waiting beeps - it was mushy Jeff on the other line, and text message "dings!" - it was Dawn, wanting to talk about the Bachelor), I get rid of everyone. One more "ding" to indicate a voicemail from mushy Jeff. I call him back and say "LET ME CALL YOU IN 10 MINS" as the train lurches to a stop. Dawn's last text says ominously "welcome home to arctic conditions". I think "please - I was just in northern Minnesota, I'm unfazed by Toronto 'winter'". I exit the train station to be basically be blown over by the freezing cold essentially arctic winds. At least I was better off than the guy I walked with who had just flown in from Atlanta and I think was actually crying as he described the 75F temps that afternoon. Get the ticket. Pay the paystation. Get in the car. Get the heck out of there and onto the 407 where I can fly home, traffic and hassle free.
OF COURSE IT STARTS TO SNOW. Exiting the 401 at Guelph Line all of a sudden I'm in a frigging white out where I can't see anything and am driving well under the speed limit along with other tentative drivers.. for half an hour... ok.. Hwy 7.. almost there.. wow that's a lot of blowing snow.. GET ME HOME! Jones Baseline, a small back country road I have to drive on for literally (literally) 3 mins is completely white with no other tire tracks on the road and intermittent whiteouts from the surrounding fields. When I finally pulled into my garage the sense of "AHHHH I'm home" was the most tangible I've experienced to date. A fine trip, a great trip, but man oh man there is nothing like a night in your pjs watching pvr'd TV and dozing off in a quiet, warm, cozy place to make you never want to leave again.
Too bad I have a business trip out of town basically every week for the rest of spring. Ah well. What would I write about otherwise? :)
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