Goodbye Terrace

February 2nd, 2018 – A few months ago Kirk said he was going to a massive trade show in Amsterdam, Integrated Systems Europe, the largest AV and systems integration show in the world. I love Europe and if it was a chance to go and save some costs, then I was clearly going along too. I knew it would really be a solo trip since he would be tied up working from early morning until late at night, but I’m happy wandering by myself, and Amsterdam is not short on things to see and do.

The downsides to the trip were that:

1. We had to find someone to look after the animals for the eight days we would be gone and our regular sitter was to be out of town at the same time, and that’s no simple task since Loki is so special needs with his still more or less unknown medical condition, and his somewhat complicated medicine regime.

2. Kirk was to be away in Edmonton two weeks before, for business

3. I was to be in Terrace running a workshop for the week before

So lots of pre-travel and neither of us home on the same days in the two weeks prior to the trip to Amsterdam.

I arrived in Terrace on Sunday the 28th of January, and am scheduled to fly home today. To add to the stress, it hasn’t stopped snowing the entire six days I have been in Terrace, and the airport has been cancelling flights left right and centre.

There was a very real possibility that I might not get back to Vancouver in time to make my flight to Europe since I only had a 24 hour turnaround time between flights. It was touch and go there, and my host in Terrace was preparing to drive me to another city on the coast where I might have a better chance of getting out, but if I went that route, I might not be able to make it home to pack for the second trip. It was a touch stressful, particularly when I woke up at 4am, the day I was to leave Terrace, and opened my hotel blinds to see that it hadn’t stopped snowing all night.

Opening the doors of the truck I was using this week was a feat of strength as they had frozen shut. The truck had several inches of snow on top of it, and below that was a layer of ice I had to get through to find the windshield. That told me what lay under the blanket of snow on the roads and was a warning to drive cautiously this morning.

At least I had 16 people that had come from across the northern region just for the course I was putting on for them, so I had something to focus on other than my angst.

Below was my drive to the hatchery this Friday morning.

At noon we finished up the course, packed my boxes up for later shipping back to Vancouver, and Rob and I grabbed lunch and headed for the airport. The snow had stopped finally, but there was icy fog up at the airport. I checked online as we drove up the hill, and the place I was to leave on was inbound from Vancouver, so that was promising. At the airport Rob asked me to let him know whether or not I got out, and that I I didn’t he’d be back to collect me to drive to Prince Rupert where hopefully I could catch a flight home. The woman at the check-in counter shrugged her shoulders non-commitally when I asked her if she thought the plane would get out.

In the end it did, albeit about an hour late, but I didn’t care, I got home and was going to make the flight to Amsterdam after all 🙂 And I would have time to dump my suitcase, do some laundry, and repack for the next trip.

Oh, and as much as I love snow and winter, in this case I was happy to leave this behind.