Boybrick Newfoundland

What would travelling with Dawn be without a fabulously unbelievable airline story? It just wouldn't be the same, would it?

Ready?

Where the f*** is Stephenville and what the f*** am I doing here?

Well..after all of our planning and anticipation, we have finally made it to The Rock, but we are on the west side of the island as opposed to the Eastern Peninsula where we were supposed to land in St. John's.

Fog.

I suppose that we should have expected the unexpected. I mean flying onto an island. At night. In summer. With fluctuating temperatures. Surrounded by icebergs. Fog sounds incredibly logical under those circumstances. A meteorological certainty.

So here we are in Boybrick Newfoundland in the middle of the night watching a guy in a Shell Oil vest and cap (I am not shitting you) come on board to discuss refueling so that we can...

Wait for it...

Return to Toronto from whence we came. 

You see, there is nobody awake in Stephenville. I think that the airport here is run by Sam Drucker. They had to wake up the Shell service guy so that we could get some drive through gas and a squeegee for the windshield. I could swear I saw the pilot hand over his credit card.

A few hearty Newfoundlanders exited the plane hoping to locate a car to drive the 10 hours back to St. John's. The rest of us cattle are at the mercy of Westjet and their schedules. Supposedly we are to be shuttled back to The Rock on a 7:30am flight. Hopefully we'll see St. John's around noon. No sleep for you!

Here is my take on the difference between a plane full of Americans versus a plane full of Canadians. Had Americans been trapped in Stephenville with absolutely no hope of reaching their destination, they would have stormed the flight deck with pitchforks, demanded their constitutional rights, and demand that the pilot take them to the nearest breath of civilization, preferably housing an Appleby's. Canadians? All this group wanted was access to the bar service and then they groaned politely when told that Transport Canada regulations prohibit the serving of alcohol between 2:00am an 10:00am. If you have to strand us in Stephenville couldn't you at least allow us to get bombed?

A final thought coming from my sleep-deprived and truly addled grey matter. The lovely couple seated next to me is celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary today. Today!! As in right now. They are on their way to St. John's for a party this evening with 100 of their closest family and friends. They haven't slept one single minute of the entire round trip and are worried that they will be falling over from exhaustion by the time the celebration rolls around tonight.

Hey Westjet! Isn't a golden anniversary deserving of a drink?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone