On the Loose

There seems to be a reoccuring theme to my travels. My first big solo trip was to Grand Cayman and we left at 6am in the middle of a freak blizzard. Last March, our class trip to Las Vegas was derailed thanks to yet another trusty, Canadian snow storm. As I got ready for my trip to Europe, everything "seemed" to be smooth sailin. Little did I know Hurricane Noel was gunnin our way! I first heard news of Noel from my panicked Mother who urgently told me to go home, pack my bag and get ready to leave tomorrow morning. Although we were set to leave on Sunday, not Saturday, it seemed like the best idea... i guess. I was forced to forget about all planned goodbyes, preparations and plans. The new plan was in place and there was nothing I could do about it. I went home and did some mad packing. After a fun night out with friends, it was time to hit the road in the AM. Driving across the confederation bridge, you could definitely sense the calm before the storm. The ocean was still and the sky was bright blue. Once we hit Truro, the rain hit us. We checked out the weather forecast every other minute. We were driving directly into the eye of the "hurricane". Needless to say, we were anxious to arrive to Windsor, Nova Scotia where we'd be staying the night. We got to Windsor just as the winds picked up. After some family time with my 96 year old Uncle Fred, it was time to pack it in for the night and see what this storm had in store for us. Halifax Aiport's flight were all cancelled. I slept pretty sound. I mean, the odd wake up here and there but nothing out of the ordinary.. could this really have been hurricane "Juan-a-be'??? i had to find out. My first look out the window revealed a dark, wet day. No tree branches sprawled around. The power was on. What the deuce?? During breakfast I looked out the window and what do I see?? Mr. Sun! Shinin right on through the window. And then..My Dad came in and informed us the bridge had been closed all morning!! High Fives! We had made the right choice to leave a day early. So we had a leisurely day in the Valley; stopped in at the Winery, ate some apples and had another visit with Uncle Fred. Around 6pm we decided to head to the Airport. The storm turned out to be nothing. We had nothing to worry about. All Flights were on schedule. I remember sitting on the floor by our gate.. stretchin out my shitty knee before boarding the plane. It was around 10pm and our plane was leaving at 10:25.. just like every screen said. Then pipes up a Zoom employee. "This is a notice for all passengers on ZOOM flight 710 service to London Gatwick. There has been a mechanical problem with the plane and therefore boarding will be delayed until further notice." Hmmm.. alright. Doesn't sound to serious. Im sure it will be worked out within the hour. So my Dad and I thought we would take advantage of the extra time and have a beer and a slice of pizza. We're sitting in Legends Bar with our fellow Flight 710 passengers, enjoyin a cold brewski. We both express some concern for this "mechanical issue". Now i'm not a huge fan of flying in the first place, so mention any mechanical problem and im not a happy girl. I started to question whether i really needed to fly to london. Maybe i could just hop on the trusty Air Canada flight that was about to leave for London?? Just as i'm starting to second guess myself, someone assures me that it is a different plane that is having issues.. not the one they plan to fly us to london in. Very good. Now we just wait for the next announcement which was scheduled to come in 15 minutes. Mom comes in and sits down next to me. She just sat there for a minute. Not saying a word, not looking overly worried. So i continue to eat my pizza. She looks at me and says "Good idea, it's going to be a while". I look back, "what do you mean?? they haven't said anything yet...". "Oh, you didnt hear?? We're now leaving at 3 AM! (insert sarcastic smile here)" All i could do is laugh. You've got to be kidding me. Here we were worrying that this wimpy juanabe was going to throw us off course, just to get sucked into another airline mishap. That's travel for ya. Let the journey begin.