Thursday, January 11, 2007

Ontario Diary - Day Ten ... Heading Home ...

The day started TOO early, with TOO much to do ... but such are the joys of travelling ... We got everyone up and breakfasted fairly early, then set to work packing our five duffle bags ... Here is a good place to mention the necessity of buying a FIFTH duffle bag while we were in Ontario to hold our stuff to come home ...

We said our Good Bye's to Grandma, and finally got her to sit still for a picture with her Grand Children, then headed off ... We were able to leave Grandma's house just after noon ... There were many people I wanted to connect with and have a visit with, but there just wasn't enough time.

But, we got rolling with a stop at Rheo Thompson for the chocolate to be taken home to Manitoba ... I don't even want to say how much chocolate we bought in two visits ... but it was A LOT!!

From Rheo's we went to Uncle Scott's bush one last time to say - "bye" before heading to Hamilton for a too short visit to the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum to check out their collection ...

I LOVE this museum ... It has examples of almost all the planes flown by the Royal Canadian Air Force (and the Air Wing of the Armed Forces), and has one of only two flying World War Two era Lancaster Bombers (pictured below):

I remember lying in my aunt and uncle's pool when I was a University student and seeing the Lanc flying over Dundas with a small swarm of single engine planes flying behind and around it. The Lanc is a beautiful plane - and I enjoy going to see it any chance I can take ... And even though our visit was rushed, it was a JOY to go and wander through the exhibits ...

From Hamilton we buzzed over to Milton for one last visit with Cousin E and her mum. Then we headed to Peason International Airport for our flight ... Our trip to the airport was tight, but uneventful. We turned in our rental car, loaded a cart with our luggage and checked in, all within 30 minutes. Then it was time for some food ... it had been a long time since lunch ...

Noahkila and Ms H opted for: PIZZA, while Beetle and I opted for: Burgers ...

After our dinner, we went through security, and had about an hour of waiting inside the security zone for our flight ... I wish I could say our flight home was uneventful, but ... On the plane flying level, the flight was just fine - but there was a very obnoxious, very loud woman who set out to talk to everyone in the two rows around here (thank gawd I was four rows away), an as part of her conversation she HAD to share her entire life story, and undertake trying to convert those she was talking with to her strange conservative branch of the Christian faith. It wouldn't have been so bad, except everytime I started to doze off, she would start up - AGAIN ...

For a time I had a lovely visit with the elderly Jewish lady sitting beside me - we shared some book titles, and talked about visiting Israel and then turned to Jewish Mysticism ... She was amazed to learn I was a Christian Minister with my knowledge of Judaism, but then when I mentioned Minnedosa, said she recognized me from the fire ...

I did eventually get to sleep before we landed in Winnipeg ... in spite of the woman four rows ahead.

Following our landing, we collected our luggage (it took awhile), paid our parking fees, and headed west down the Trans Canada Highway ... We arrived in Minnedosa just before midnight ... and after dumping our luggage in the dining room, and greeting mummy, the kids headed off to bed and we called it a day ... a very long day that saw us cover alot of territory and many many kilometres ...

The next day we would start to get caught up ...

No comments: