Kate

The conundrums of my travels....

So.... considering the title of this post and the last post stated I went on a vacation and you can easily come to the conclusion that there were some issues regarding travelling to see Robert. Let me tell you about my travelling….

I was stoked to get off work Sunday July 23^rd at 10am ( from starting at 6am). This meant I was able to have time to change and shower before heading to Toronto Pearson to fly to Fredericton and run into the arms of my dream…. (NOT, that is the dream version)… I left home at noon to be at the airport for 1pm to fly out at 5pm (why so early you ask, well that was the time my mom had to take me.) I found a Starbucks shortly after arriving and had a strawberry frapuccino which was oh so delicious! So far all is going well!!!! There I sit texting Robert, sipping on my delightful beverage, and waiting.

Just then I heard all this clanging clatter and lots of people headed my way… instantly the whole terminal filled up with Canadian Special Olympic competitors heading home. They were so cute…. (If I can say that)…they were super talkative and showed me their medals and told me all about it… By the time their planes left it was kind of sad because I had made buddies. Ok enough of that… My boarding time comes and then passes and to my luck (or lack thereof) the flight is 40 minutes delayed…. YAYA… so from the same area a flight to Saint John and Moncton left on time. So then comes my time… 40 minutes later. I get ready stand in line and then I find out that oh the flight is full and I don’t get on…CRAP, the joys of stand-by... I could have possibly got on those two previous flights leaving on time to Moncton or Saint John… and the ticket lady was so rude about it all too. So there I was tired, hungry, now annoyed, and tired still. So I was booked on the 9:45pm flight to Fredericton now… so being hungry off I went to explore the terminal for anything to eat… quickly I came across a Casey’s to have dinner at (EXPENSIVE DINNER AT THAT). Lucky for me I forgot to give my mom back $14 in change from Timmy-Horton’s!! I was able to use this for dinner (which came out cold, but I was so hungry and it was busy I ate it anyway).

So now full, still tired, and annoyed I sat at different gates with good windows to watch the sunset waiting my departure time. Hours passed slowly… Then YAY my time came… and SURPRISE delayed by an hour! Seriously people I have the worst luck with travelling. So after lots of delays and much unneeded grumpiness on my part I arrived in Fredericton at 12:30am! We drove all the way back to Presque Isle where as Robert has previously posted Noah’s Ark spilt out over the highway.

I spent Monday- Thursday at Dave and Marcia Sloan's (who are amazing people, who have a wonderfully decorated spare bedroom I stayed in, while Robert house-sat at the Rhynos' in PI) Oh and I must note that Monday afternoon-evening-night-ish we spent with the Erskine’s and they made the most wonderfully delicious pizza ever for dinner. You must check it out on their food site. I totally will give a raving testimony to it! We played a round of Skip-bo which Natasha and I were totally winning until Robert and Lynn withheld all 1’s and 5’s to make a comeback and win.(Grrrr… STEP OFF LYNN, ok I am over it…) But to cope the gentlemen went out and bought some ice cream to finish off our delightful evening on a happy note.

Anyways the days with Robert went by too fast but were spectacular ;)!!!!

Now for the ultimately ridiculous story about the flight home.

Dadada (drum role) As much as I did not want to leave we made it to the Fredericton Airport on time for me to catch an 11:55am flight out on Thursday…I was all set and ready to go (since I worked at 5pm that night, I had to get on this flight)… THEN I was denied boarding because my $110 shoes did not qualify as dressy enough (for employee standby privileges). So I was denied and Robert and I had to go on an adventure to Walmart so I could get some $20 dressy shoes to be able to fly home. Isn’t that re-freakin-diculous, yea I thought so too… and I missed work, and they did not believe me when I told them why, and I don’t blame them…Hmm… now I had 9 hours to wait to be able to fly out again...(what to do, what to do?) This was a perfect time to get in a Brewer and Smith visit (who we had regretfully cancelled plan that previous Tuesday with). So we spent the afternoon with Mark, Liz, Emily, and Abby! It was wonderful and at 5pm we went for a spaghetti dinner with the Smith family.

I then caught my 8:55 flight out… wait we got to the airport and again my flight was delayed an hour. By this time I was totally fed up, work was mad, previously my mom had been angry with me too and sigh I just did not want to leave… So with some tears (I will not say how many) I departed….Now I count down until the next time I get to see Robert… I apologize if I did not get to see you to visit when I was that way… Next time!

posted by Kate Patterson @ Saturday, July 29, 2006