Travel Day - Part One

Well that was a “fun” travel day.

Everything was pretty much packed the night before which is not usual at my house. My flight was at 7:40 AM and we don’t live far from the airport. I had heard that there had been a bad accident the night before and the 401 was still closed. The exit mentioned didn’t bother my route to the airport so we left at our usual time.

We take the HOV (high occupancy vehicles) lane so we never worry about traffic. However, there was an accident on that first highway that did slow us down and as we approached the 401, the main on-ramp was closed. So we were going to take the on-ramp to the collectors - that was closed. Oh boy - that is NOT good.

We ended up going to the airport through a back way which wound around the perimeter of the airport only to arrive and find the place a total zoo. Of course, my bag tags wouldn’t print at the kiosk and by the time I made it to the cashier, the flight was closed. It takes 45 minutes for the bags to get to the plane. ACK!!!!!  In all my years of flying that has never happened. Mind you, I don’t normally fly with checked luggage, but I have from time to time and never had an issue.

The only option was to get on the next flight which was at noon. What can you do? Nothing!!!  Thankfully there was a spot available. I had to cough up $170 for the flight change which burned me, but again - what can you do? And I paid $50 for my second suitcase, but ended up not paying for the first one which was supposed to be $25. Even though I have a pass for the trusted traveler security line, that was also total chaos. I would have been running to board that original flight.

The silver lining in all this??? I happened to have a pass to the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge in my travel bag. I happily went to the lounge with my pass and spent four hours with my portable office. I pulled out the laptop and did some e-mail. I barely scratched the surface. Why do we get so many e-mails?? Some stuff very interesting and some not so much. I was able to FaceTime a colleague so she could show me something that I didn’t know how to do and I also downloaded (compliments of AirCAnada) some quilting magazines for future reading.
Oh yes, I was a busy little beaver the entire four hours.

Finally got on the flight in row 39 so I could have an aisle seat. I slept and read and things were good. When I arrived in Saskatoon and went to pick up my car, the car said - I don’t think we still have your car. I don’t care - I just want a car! So I got a car and I was fine. That delay threw my entire planning for the day out the window so I headed over to The Sewing Machine store which just recently moved and their new store is AMAZING!!!!!!!  It’s huge and I can’t wait to get there on Thursday for the first class.

Yes, I’m currently on my iPad so this is a two parter blog post.