My last post

Well everyone, this is it...my last post on my Alert Co-op '09 Blog.

I thought that I'd give you all the story of my 'interesting' trip home last weekend. I already told you the story of Todd playing his cruel joke on me that turned out to be a true cancellation. Well, I'll continue from there:

So, instead of flying out Wednesday morning on the C-130, the flight coming North made it to Iqaluit, then had engine trouble. A flight came up from Trenton with parts that day, so they were fixing it. Wednesday night, a smaller plane took the passengers (stranded in Iqaluit) and our food and ferried them to Thule. They hopped on a Boxtop flight and arrived around 9pm. Thing is, there was a rumour floating around station (from credible sources) that the same flight 'might' ferry US back to Thule that same night. So, while playing in the pool tournament (3rd place!) I didn't drink (much) and awaited news. Every person that came up to the bar had a different story, but finally the CO came up and announced the plan. When the plane was fixed in Iqaluit, they'd call up to us. We would then hop the next Boxtop flight to Thule, where our plane would meet us and then fly us down to Trenton. Simple, right?

Next morning (Thursday) we get the call and hop on an empty Herc down to Thule (Pictures below). I was able to get some good pictures there...as we were stuck there without news until FOUR PM! So, we went to the Top of the World club (Thule's bar) and had lunch. Around 4 we got news that our flight was still broken...which we could only laugh at at that point. Plan B? Hop on a C-17 flying to Trenton via Yellowknife. For those of you that don't know planes...all the cargo that can fit in a Herc can fit ON THE LOADING RAMP of a C-17. The fuselage of a C-130 can fit inside the C-17. If you're not getting my drift...this plane is ginormous! LOADS of leg room :P It's also a jet, so it flies almost twice as fast as the Herc. We took off from Greenland at 11pm, and landed 3 hours later in Yellowknife at 11pm :)There was a bit of a scare mid-air. Halfway to Yellowknife, our C-17 was re-tasked to instead fly to Winnipeg the next morning, then back up north. Needless to say, that didn't exactly go over well with us. Fortunately, 30 minutes later it was reversed...although we went to bed that night not having a very firm idea of where we'd be heading the next afternoon. The hotel was nice enough (see below) but for $150 a night, it had better be. We went to the Black Knight pub for a drink before bed, and were summarily bludgeoned by the cost of beer. After 4 months of $2.50 tall cans, $7.25 for a pint hurt the wallet a bit.Finally we got on the plane again, and I even managed to catch some rest snugged in between some luggage on the floor (more comfortable then it sounds). We rolled into Trenton at 9pm and Dad was there shortly to help me with the final leg of my 2 day, ~6,500km journey. (Then, of course, I hopped on a plane a day later for a 900km jaunt down to NC...that's a lot of miles!)

I know that above I said this would be the last post, but.....for those of you that haven't heard, I'm 99% committed to heading back up to Alert for my last co-op term this September to December. I'll likely put up a quick post confirming this if I decide to go for it, then I'll resurrect the blog in September to keep you all entertained again :)

I guess this is where the blogger says goodbye. I must admit, this blogging thing is pretty fun. I had a great time putting some of my adventures down in print, and I hope that you took some enjoyment from reading them. Until I'm next at 82° 29'N 62° 30'W.......stay warm :)

Graham