The Rezac Family: Planes, Boats and Automobiles

Last week I was in Canada on business. We knew some storms were coming into the area, but nobody was really concerned. This part of Canada doesn't receive a lot of snow and when they do get snow, it isn't much.   The first two days in Canada it didn't snow at all. In fact, Sunday was a very nice day. But Tuesday, it snowed all day as we met with our client.  By the time we left for the hotel at 6pm, it had stopped snowing and we were under the impression that the multiple inches on the ground was all the area was going to receive. The plan was to leave for our 9am Wednesday flight at 7 am. The drive is normally 20 mins, but in case the roads were not perfectly clear, we wanted some extra time.

Waking up Wednesday morning, we had a little surprise. It started snowing at 4 am and it was coming down harder than the day before. The roads were covered with packed snow, ice and fresh new powder. So we drove in our front wheel drive Chevy up and down hills to the airport.   It took us almost 50 mins.   But we made it without any scares. Once through security we sat down for some coffee only to hear them announce some flight cancellations.   As the read off the list, our flight was named.   They were going to shut down the airport.

So we hurried up, grabbed our luggage from baggage claim and grabbed one of the 4 cabs sitting outside the airport. We had the driver, who was from NY, take us to the ferry. The plan was to take the 9am ferry to another city and try to catch a flight out of Canada so we could get home that night. We had 30 mins to catch the next ferry... to take a normally 10 min ride... in the snow.   Twenty five minutes later, I jumped out of the cab to order ferry tickets as my companions grabbed luggage and paid for the taxi.   To tell you how close we cut it, only one person got a ticket behind me. Then the closed the doors and told everyone they'd need to wait for the 11am ferry.

The hour and a half ferry ride was better than I had anticipated. The food was decent and it was a relatively smooth ride. I had cell phone reception so I was able to make new reservations and plans. After docking, we took another quick cab ride to the airport and proceeded to our gates. We all had separate plans to get back to KC. For me it meant flying to Denver, switching airlines and then flying back to KC.   Instead of getting home at 6pm, I landed after 10. Despite not knowing how I was going to get home for most of the morning, it all worked out in the end. But those are the joys of traveling on business...