Friday December’s 15th, twenty seventeen
The anxiety about air travel began on Wednesday. We had a checklist of things that had to go well in order to get home. Our travel is often like a sappy Disney movie with the dog, cat and mouse working together to get to the destination.
Before leaving Fracas, I closed the 6 through hulls not required for sitting in place. Put the port covers on that allow air flow. Check the lines. Disconnect shore power. Turn off the fridge and freezer. Leave a boat card in a ziplock by a clothespin on Curt and Erika’s boat (Curt and Erika are our boat neighbours). Lock the circus bikes. Make sure the car wasn’t stolen overnight… you get the idea.
We were 8 minutes late leaving the marina, we can make that up. Normally at home I will drive 17 or 18 kms faster than the speed limit… Not so in Florida. It’s not just the timesuz and goesintas required to convert to mph. It’s an aversion to being locked up in a Florida jail for Christmas. So, I drive 72 in the 70’s and 67 in the 65’s you get the idea. Mary Lynn used her sense of adventure and frugality to find us a long term parking lot for less than the price of our flights home.
She booked us a spot at the ‘ Fleece-em Parking’. The location that the IPad delivered us to looked like a car park, sort of. No parking lot visible. There were three guys in the same colored T-shirts. They told us they would park the car, “just leave it there” they suggested. ML got into the final details of settling the bill and I got drafted into the “catch the dog” exercise under way with a couple of the T-shirts. The canine on the lamb was a nice looking pup that circled past the ‘office’ every five minutes or so. The shirts and the dog all disappeared and I was left at the door.
The dog showed up and I ushered him into the office and I was the hero. Then I wondered, is this the right dog? I remember when Daniel Goodwin brought Taxi (our big black dog) back home, only to be met at the door by the real Taxi and an altercation occurred. With the dog safely incarcerated I awaited the T-shirts return. Finally the dog’s owner and the T-shirt arrived and chapter three of the Disney was in the can.
The shuttle arrived and the T-shirt identifiable driver (prison tats notwithstanding) was a friendly enough guy who assured us our car was in good hands and he would get us to Bahamian Air terminal. We reminded him we were Air Canada. Safely delivered and car disposed of we were in the machinery of Airport system. Luckily our Nexus status got us whisked through the security system, until. There was a loud beep and the sound of shattering glass or nerves (I get them mixed up). I was the random full inspection of electronics, whew, no rectal probing today. Finally we were in the airport and proper waiting could commence.
Our plane was delayed out of Toronto so we would be 30 minutes late boarding and hence arriving in Toronto. We were all boarded and the Captain came on and said “For all of you experienced flyers, you will hear a few different things happening”. “The Auxiliary Power Unit (APU (the small engine in the tail (that provides electricity for the plane))) was pooched. So, they would have to have the equivalent of a boost at the gate. Luckily AAA arrived (the equivalent of CAA) and once boosted the old 767 roared into life. We were off.
The flight was pretty smooth. All the kids and babies on board were very well behaved. The flight crew was very nice. Things were looking up. We arrived almost back on our original time. We were approaching the gate only 5 minutes late… Then everything stopped. The entire plane was standing and a group sigh. The Captain came on and said “The gate started to move then stopped”. “I’ve been assured it will move again” he added “they say five minutes”. We were off the plan a few minutes later. Now a typical three hour wait and fly to Sudbury. That flight went well.
We caught in one of the text messages that Harrison might be with the parental units picking us up. I was excited for H as this might be his first airport trip, I know he likes planes. He had been prepared that PopPop and Nanny would be on the plane. The problem began when we were not the first off the plane. Then he saw us (me). They reported he started chanting POPPOP and got revved up. When we came into the terminal he came running and was yelling POPPOP and my heart melted. He flew into my arms and I was home. The rest is a blur.
This morning its almost like we hadn’t left. We have been accepted back into the pack by both H and Ozy.