If you’ve read the previous post you were left to believe that my travel trials were over - I was living large in the lounge getting ready for the hour flight back to NYC to finally go home.

The best laid plans of mice and men…..

I left the lounge to board the plane with impeccable timing, almost everyone was on, but they weren’t calling names of missing passengers yet. I grab 2 news papers and head to my seat.

I got comfortable in my seat, got the newspapers ready and sat back for the short flight.

The friendly flight attendant let us know there was bad weather in NYC so we were going to stay grounded until a bit later when they could open a window up for us and the weather cleared. No big deal, once everyone is on the plane and with a short flight this made a lot of sense as keeping the big bird in the sky is probably quite expensive. I read my paper and made friends with the two cougars beside me who were going to NYC for the first time and clearly were going to head out to have a party weekend; approximate age: 40-50. Normally I am a grumpy old man on the plane but they happened to be from Calgary so they had to be nice people .

Well Ms. flight attendant got on the microphone and let us know that for sitting still for the hour or so that we were going to be reward with a cancelled flight and once we got off the plane we should look for someone to help us. Holy Shit; mayhem is going to break loose - this plane is FULL! No only that this is the second time in a week my flight to NYC has been cancelled.

What occurred next was very much like a 5-6 year old hockey or soccer game.. Kids screaming and swarming together with little grace or purpose, but all running around together. I joined the swarming, expect I just needed to get on the phone to a Air Canada reservation desk and beat the rest of the mob who were new to this process as there would be a shortage for the remaining seats on the other planes leaving. I got on the 3:15 plane, although it was 3:10 when I got my ticket so it was going to be late.. I had the choice of that plane or the 4:15.. I figured they would land the next plane they could and not cancel 2 in a row so I grabbed the earlier one..

Okay, now finally I am going home… Nope, hold on to your horses.. delayed on the ground again for a while.. but then we take off. The plane has quite a few people that were on the cancelled flight so they think they are home free, I suspect we might have more in store.

As we get close to NYC the pilot tells us we are in a holding pattern. We circle for over an hour.. and then he gets on the intercom to let us know - We’re going to Boston! What the fsck is going on here.. I just want to go home. So we fly to Boston - and yup you guessed it, sit on the Tarmac. You see if anybody gets off the plane we all have to de-plane and go through security - there is some drama at the front of the plane as a pretty boy is making a fuss that he wants off and they can’t keep him on and he doesn’t care what happens he is leaving.. He deserved a punch in the nose.

We’re getting cozy now so they put a movie on for us while we wait in Boston - everyone is quite hungry by now and the flight attendants are from the old guard, so they are working as little as possible - although the lead flight attendant is starting to think she is a comedian and with a locked in crew she tries to be witty.. it doesn’t work for her. The movie is Robots - a cartoon.

Well we finally take off from Boston and take the 30 minutes flight to NYC. The sky was filled with planes, as you looked out the window you could see 4-6 planes at all times.

Even better we landed! So after 8 and half hours from boarding my first plane, I landed in NYC and get in a cab to go home, with 3 tarmac delays, 1 stop to Boston, 1 cartoon, and a hungry belly.

Not sure if this will work……

Just posted my blog, left the lounge to get on the plane home, but alas life us not so simple.

NYC has weather so I get to be stuck on a plane for an hour parked on the runway.

FSCK!!!!

I just want to go home mom!

Posted from seat 14F on grounded air Canada flight 714 to NYC from my crackberry

Okay its been a while since I posted so I’ll try and give a quick update.

I’ve spent lots of time traveling over the past 2 weeks, most important back home to Calgary (had 2 days of meeting in Toronto before I actually made it to Calgary). I was app really way too excited to head home as I left a backpack with a climbing harness, climbing shoes, chalk bag and pillow (don’t ask!) at security in the New York airport. (about $300 worth of stuff - fsck!)

Then after a couple days after on the actual flight home I left my precious Arcteyx soft shell on the plane - FSCK! cost me $250 but new they are $475 and the new model doesn’t have a hood..

Good news is the back pack is at the airport in laguardia.. or at least that is what they told me.. Westjet liked my jacket so they kept it.

Home was AWESOME! I LOVE Calgary - holy moly! I was an excited bumbling idiot my first night there - congrats to Julie who put up with me. The whole week was awesome - got to spend time with the amazing NAN!, head out for dinner with some people I really wanted to see, work with friends and spend time in the office, and topped it off with a great weekend at Nipika with the company.

After the trip home it was back to NYC - exciting but NYC is no Calgary to me but it’ll do for now. Even though it doesn’t yet feel like home and based on the following it likely won’t as I don’t spend a lot of time there..

My Story:
I traveled to Toronto Monday afternoon, with the expectation of getting my US working papers. The process is pretty simple once the lawyers get the paper work filled out, I show up at customs as per normal and let them know I have an L1-A application (Work visa for an executive - so all I have to prove is that I meet what they consider an executive to be - the L1-B is for specialists.. good thing I didn’t have to try for that one)

The process took a couple hours, which means I missed my flight and the later ones got cancelled.. Oh well no big deal - I call Air Canada and get a flight for the next day. I get a flight to Newark instead of LaGuardia but it still works and my lack of clothes shouldn’t be a problem i have enough for another day. I find a hotel near the airport that is cheap and I head off to get some sleep - still hungover from the weekend.. yup two day hangover.

After getting up I catch my flight which was delayed a bit, check my CrackBerry upon landing and see that I am to be out at Fairytale land at 5 to head to our meeting in Conneticut. Problem is that it’s 12 already and by the time I get home from the airport I would need to get back on a train to get to Penn station to get to Fairytale land - after a brief chat with Russ we decide that I would work from his place for the afternoon. Being still a bit hungover (3 days now - I ain’t what I used be) I missed connection on one of the trains and ended up at Penn station - shit.. still didn’t make sense to head to the apartment and then back out so I got back on the train paid the $2 to get to the Seacaucus connection and off to Fairytale land. I arrived at about 2 and worked till 5, then off to dinner. I broke the news to russ that I needed a collared shirt at the least - I looked good in Russ’s shirt.

The next day we were off to Princeton, NJ for a golf game with some industry folks, so instead of heading back to the apartment I stayed in Fairytale land as it would say a long commute in the morning - guess what - I don’t have golf clothes or any clothes that might work for the next day..

“Hey Russ, I liked your shirt so much yesterday I want a whole outfit today!”

After getting dressed up like a golfer, we headed out for the day. Had a great meeting before the golf game and then went out for 18 on a golf course that was on Princeton University land. What an awesome place, the university was as grand as I expected as was the course and the scenery around it. I suck at golfing, this day was no different. It was okay that I sucked as there was only 3 of us so I was able to drive my own cart around chasing my ball around the course.

The same day, I had a flight to Toronto for a meeting on the following day. As a re-cap; I left Calgary Monday; got stuck in Toronto Monday night, stayed at Fairytale land on Tuesday night and now its Wednesday and I haven’t been home yet and out of clothes and clean essentials. On the way to the airport from the golf game we did a quick stop at Wal-mart for a new and clean t-shirt, socks and underwear. It’s always fun to buy socks and underwear on the road in strange places. I’m in good shape to head to Toronto.

I land in Toronto on Wednesday night, stay at the hotel and have the meeting in the morning with fresh essentials - although a bit underdressed.

As I type this I am in the Air Canada lounge - heading back to NYC to go home; 3 days later than I expected and 2 countries, 1 province, 3 states and 4 cities later than I expected.

When I land the SWEDISH INVASION will start! Lets hope the weekend is too good to post about.