Tales From the Yukon

And rightfully so.

I have just finished traveling over 3000km, crossing/entering not one, not two, not three, not four but five Canadian Time Zones (Atlantic, Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific) and I have no idea which way is up anymore. I’m pretty sure I got my watch on local time as I tried to keep up with it as the time changed while in the air ... and I think I have it. Fortunately, my cell phone is smart and has auto updated the time .. so at least I have one clock that is correct ... I hope.

So, the flights ... Where to begin.

The Fredericton to Toronto flight was quite uneventful .. which is surprising as every time that I take that Fredericton flight to XYZ something amusing always happens (like “Oh, you’re luggage isn’t going to follow you on this flight, it’s going on the Montreal connector instead and will be in Ottawa when you land” [does any one remember what happened here? Yeah, my luggage SO was not in Ottawa when I arrived there ... it was in Vancouver]). I do have to say, there is something about taking the Toronto early riser flight as it is just usually filled with business people heading back to Toronto for the week. And this time, the Jazz jet was comfy! Nice leather seats and leg room! What did I do to deserve leg room??!!

Get to Toronto in normal time ... except for that I only had 25 minutes by then to report to my next gate. And dude! Pearson International is one huge airport! I swear I must have walked at least two kilometers to just get to my departure gate which was at the completely opposite end from my arrivals gate. By the time I found my gate after searching for 10 minutes to find an open bathroom (aparently cleaning bathrooms happens on the hour) I didn’t have much time. Sadly, I had to forego my Java fill-up as the Timmy’s line was snaking throughout the airport as usual, and Starbucks wasn’t much better.

Boarding the plane to Calgary in Toronto went off without a hitch. My seat on my flight from Toronto to Calgary wasn’t the greatest .. seat wise it was quite nice - comfy, leg room, and I even had the power outlet so I could plug in my computer ... however, the two people I got stuck between - well... i guess it could have been worse. On my left I had ‘Mr. I am wearing to much Axe’ and to my right I had ‘Mr. I’m gonna keep trying to send and receive messages / calls on my Blackberry throughout the whole flight’.

And then things just kept getting worse. We got delayed for almost two hours in Toronto as two passengers ‘decided that they weren’t gonna be traveling with us today’ (as the pilot put it) so they baggage handlers had to take all of the luggage off of the plane and go through it all to find these two missing passengers bags. First we were told the delay was going to be 10 minutes... then 20 minutes ... so far so good .. only 30 minutes behind schedule, still tons of time to hit up Tim Horton’s and call my Grams in Calgary when I land ... then the next thing I knew I was an hour into Star Trek and we still hadn’t taken off. Now I begin to wonder if I am going to make my connection. If we take off in the next 20 minutes, I can still make it without too much difficulty. Yeah right. Another 30 minutes pass before we finally taxi out to the tarmac. By now my flight that was to leave at 8:00am EST was now leaving at 9:30 EST. Wonderful. There goes my layover in Calgary.

The flight was alright. Watched Star Trek - it was ok, wouldn’t have paid to see it in the theater though, but it was alright and watched an episode of Flashpoint before I passed-out for a couple of hours. And of course, I woke up with a great body jerk (ya know when sometimes your body just spazes our for no reason what so ever when you are sleeping? Yeah, that was me).

Of course, I was not the only one in this predicament. Although I was the only one running off to Whitehorse, there were several other connections to be made that were going to be very tight. Thankfully, they did make an announcement that for those who had to connect to XYZ to leave the plane first and for everyone else to remain seated. Well, we all know how well people listen to instructions right?

Off running I went. As we all entered into the terminal calling out ‘Where is XYZ’s gate??!!’ our names are being called across the PA “Passenger ABC just arriving from flight 117, please make your way to Gate 123 immediately’. Yeah, immediately my butt. I had to go pee (I can’t stand using airplane loos .. just.. ick!. So I dashed to the loo then dashed to my gate.

Once I got onto my Whitehorse flight, I had the oddest seat in the whole jet. I basically was in the next row down from where a single row of seats turns back into a double row of seats. So I had no seat in front of me (bummer, where will I put my laptop?), which also means I have no on board entertainment system either (oh what am I supposed to do with myself for two and a half hours?). Luckily for me, our flight was only half full so I switched seats (went across the row to the open window seat. I quite enjoy having window seats. I didn’t enjoy the kid that wouldn’t stop kicking the back of my seat ... but I was able to stand that kid more than the other kid that sounded like Caillou’s human clone. So I spent my time watching Flashpoint, Monsters vs Aliens and playing Resistance on my PSP.

After 12 hours of traveling I finally touched down in Whitehorse. What a relief it was to get off of the planes. I spent a good 11 hours on them today and it was time for a stretch of unbelievable proportions. I hurt. All over. I get into the Whitehorse terminal and then I start to wonder if my luggage actually made it here. I did only have a couple of minutes to make my sprint to my flight, so did my luggage follow? Well, the luggage gods were looking over me today. My luggage arrived with me! Whoo-hooo!

I grab my bags and hop onto the shuttle to the Gold Rush Inn, drop off my bags, grab my sneakers and head out for a little walk around town to stretch. While walking I discovered where Whitehorse Motors was (and I think I saw my truck), the Superstore (which is huge - and I mean huge), Staples, Shoppers Drug Mart and of course Tim Horton’s (my favorite place in the world ... well, second favorite).

Now I’m just hanging out here in my hotel room debating wether I should go to sleep now (it’s only 6:00pm here, 10:00pm in NB) or if I should try to stay awake a little longer. I have a feeling sleep is going to win this battle.