Montreal Overnight

May 18th and Day 43 brought me awake at 5:00 a.m. to catch an 8:00 a.m. flight that would be my first leg on my last day of travel for this trip. I would always rather be early than late so I grabbed the 5:30 shuttle from the Quality Inn on Cote de Liesse to P.E.T. airport. I’m never sure how much to tip the shuttle driver, or even if I should. Generally I give them $2 as my reasoning is that if every person they carry that day gives them $1 or $2 then they will be making more than I am. I have occasionally given up to $5 for a really dynamic and friendly driver or absolutely $0 for one that I believe is in the wrong line of work. Maybe a tip would “friendly” them up though and I know I have far too many bad days myself so I always feel a little guilty when I don’t tip. I can just imagine what kind of mood I’d be in myself after driving all day long in Montreal traffic. City driving is something I have to gear myself up for and I know how drained I feel after a trip down Metropolitan and Decarie Boulevards, not to mention having to through downtown in rush hour!

But I digress…

I’m really starting to like those little automatic check-in machines at the airports. You just insert your Aeroplan or credit card, punch in your flight number and there you are, an electronic entity. Sort of makes you wonder where else the bits and bytes of your being is stored, doesn’t it? After that you get the chance enter the number of bags you are checking in and then review and change your seat assignment if you wish. Personally I always switch to an emergency row window if one is available as these seats give you a little more room in front and sometimes they are even just double seating instead of three across. Once you've made any changes you want to out will pop any boarding passes that you need and after that you just have to stop at one of the many luggage drop-off stations to show your ID and drop off your suitcase. Quick and painless.

In Montreal I normally then head around the corner to Burger King for my morning "Croissandwich" and coffee where I relax for a half hour or so before heading through security.

I don’t remember which airline it was but once flying off to some Lions Convention in the US I actually got a single large seat on the emergency row, which was great. On that particular flight you could also pick up the air traffic control frequency on your headset. A great deal of the time when I’m on the computer that is what I am listening to anyway and as a matter of fact I’m just hearing a Perimeter Airlines “Metro II” being cleared to final approach into Winnipeg. Just part of the fascination I have with flying and aircraft in general. By the way, if you check out this particular link at FlightAware you can see what’s flying over Manitoulin Island right now. If you’d really like to get exotic check out LiveATC where you can listen in on hundreds of airports around the world.

But I digress… again…

We were out of Montreal over a half hour late because our pilots were late getting in from Newfoundland due to weather delays. No reason to panic yet as I would have over an hour to spare between flights in Toronto. So I got to the gate in Toronto to find that my 10:10 flight had been delayed until 11:40 because the 8:00 flight had been cancelled due to mechanical problems. This messed everything for the rest of the day and as there were no spare aircraft available we had to wait for a flight to come in from Windsor so we could “borrow” it for our flight to Sudbury. Anyway, we made into YSB a couple hours late and I grabbed my rental car, a Toyota Yaris this time as my PT Cruiser wasn't available, darn it! The Yaris is a fun little vehicle to drive and has a lot more room and power than I thought it would have.

So, I’m home and content for a few days but have to leave again shortly for another stint in Northern Quebec. It will be a few weeks in Kangiqsujuaq this time and then back home for hopefully a couple weeks off at least. In the meantime I’m going to enjoy my short visit home and try to get caught up with some neglected web site and Watkins / Summit Group projects. It was also great to hit the Manitoulin Farmers Market in Mindemoya on Saturday and I’m also going to try for the one in Little Current on Tuesday. I hope to see you there!