Waiting Out The Storm - In An Airport

The trip to Manitoba had been booked for weeks. But why would I go to Manitoba? Over the past 15 years I have been in Manitoba only once - for 2 days. And nothing would have tempted me to go back except that I discovered a 30-year old car, a well-kept Mercedes. We had previously sold our red convertible and I guess the garage needs to be filled again. 

So I booked a flight to Winnipeg for today. It's also my dad's birthday. At 93 he his doing alright in a nursing home. We always teased him with March 8th also being the International Women's Day.

Knowing about snow moving into the area, Bea drove me to Frederiction yesterday. I had booked a stay in a motel which turned out to be in the middle of nowhere. The fact that it was "in nowhere's land" had been camouflaged by the name "Airport Inn". I guess it's just that anybody would assume that the thing is not somewhere along a lonely highway, far from modern amenities. But this is not New York or Toronto. It is a rural area that at some time acquired town or city status. 

Anyway, there I was waking up this morning to a light snowfall. Checking my emails, I saw one from WestJet, my airline. It showed my itinerary and then another one. The first one had been canceled, the second one running 7 hours later, needed my acceptance. But first I called WestJet. The agent told me the reason for the cancellation was WEATHER. A snow storm in Toronto she said and it'll be coming here to New Brunswick as well. Really too bad that I had to wait until 7pm for departure. 

What to do?  

I accepted the new departure and called Bea who was safely home with Dixie. She informed me about a blizzard going on at the coast and was fearing a power outage. Before she got home yesterday, she had picked up a new bigger crate for our fast-growing Dixie. (see difference in pictures below)

Since the motel is far from any eating place, I ordered a taxi for 11am to get me to the airport 2 miles away. Supposedly, they had a restaurant on-site. It's called Freddy's Bistro. Let me hurry and say it's not worth the ride, but they do have coffee and some sandwiches. 

The airport seemed entirely deserted. Only 2 more people hanging out there this morning. The windows were white of drifting snow. Shadows of snowplows passing along the airport building.

I started by checking in - no wait lines there haha...

Next stop was at Freddy's to get some breakfast. They brought it to my table and I wolfed it down. Breakfast at 11:30am is way behind my usual time. 

I found a receptacle to plug in my aging laptop, whose battery capacity is zero.
The hours went by...one after one after one.
Another coffee and a cookie, and then another coffee and a muffin, those came free as the keeper of Freddy's had abandoned the place and couldn't be found despite me hollering around. They make enough money there to compensate. Trust me on that one.

The TV on the wall was alternating the news of the day in English and French. I sent out messages about my predicament but the reactions were sparse. Winnipeg got on the horizon for a midnight arrival. 

And then WestJet sent me another email. This time the delay was only 30 minutes. If they keep this promise it will not affect the connecting flight to Winnipeg. I have a neighbour here at the lounge. He has been keeping me company and has to wait even longer than me. We talked a bit before each of us dived back into the depths of our laptops.

Halfway through the afternoon a guy from Toronto sent me a message saying that weather in Toronto had never been better than today. That makes me wonder what WestJet is up to? You gotta know that flights have been arriving and leaving here all morning -  in drifting snow conditions though a security guy told me that the control guy on the runway had not seen the planes coming in before they actually hit the tarmac. So visibility wasn't at a prime, I assume.

Once in a while prospective passengers are joining here in the lounge. It's 5:30 now. 2 more hours to go.  Time to pack up.

See ya later.