Wanted: Chiropractor

I’d say that I was surprised our flight up was abnormal…but abnormal tends to be the norm up here, so nothing new there.

The first change was that instead of a 6am departure, it was bumped back to 9am. Sweet deal, extra 3 hours of sleep. Get on the plane, taxi out, stop…or, at least ‘try’ to stop…discover brake problem, go back to terminal. We sat (or lied across) airport terminal chairs until 1:30, when they loaded us back up for another go.

Off we went…to Iqaluit. Yeah, due to a strong headwind, we were 5 hours just to Iqaluit and had to have a one hour refuel stopover. Pics below show some of the sights…alright, almost ALL of the sights. More langauges on signs then I've seen anywhere in Canada. Another 4.5 hour jaunt up to Thule landed us there around 11:30. We then proceeded to fly directly up to Alert without staying overnight in Thule…rolling in at 2:30am. 18.5 hours of travel.
With only a few hours sleep the previous two nights, it goes without saying that sleep on the plane was a must…hence the chiropractic post title. Ever slept upright with your chin on your chest? I’m still stiff. The heater in the plane was also broken, so it was -5° or -10° the whole way up. I did manage to get some pleasant daydreams in, but other than that it was cold hell. Luckily it was also a VIP flight, with several Colonels, including the 8-wing Commander (the Trenton Air Force head honcho), so if anyone can get money to fix the heaters, it’ll be them.

Will talk about some new things going on up here in the next few days. Just getting back into the swing of things now.

Miss you all already,
Graham