Day 31 Quebec to LA

Lachie had another unsettled night, but this time I fell asleep telling him a story. In the morning he got quite a surprise when he put out his hand and felt grandma’s cheek. But at least Sarah got a full night’s sleep. I packed up the last of my things, stripped the bed and began the washing machine while I ate breakfast. Made my lunch- just as well. Tim was watching the last of the AFL footy game, between Geelong and Hawthorn which was very close.

Sarah drove me via the Patisserie, so I could take some walnut bread with me. We arrived at the airport at 10:10 after a quick stop at the ATM. Because I wanted a change of seat allocation for the second leg, I went into the inquiries queue (of none) compared to the busy other lines of Canada Air. The lovely man at the desk was able to change the seat and ticketed my bag for the whole journey. Upstairs to the security check. Hmmm….Only one security system working to process the customers? They only let a few people into the room at a time. Sarah and Lachie went to watch the planes for a while. Finally processed and through to the other side. I walked to the café for a cuppa- couldn’t see the hot water/ tea section and the lady was kind enough to come over and show me. Then walked down to the furtherest gate to wait for the plane. (A promise of things to come)

It was a twin propeller “Dash 8 100” Fitting slightly more than 8 on board, but only just. It had the back row seat like a bus and because I was sitting in the back row you could hear the luggage being thrown in, as if it were a car. One family with small children had been split, so a bit of swapping seats went on until they were together. The flight was 38 minutes in duration so we were served one fast drink. We had minor turbulence as we went through the clouds to come into Montreal.

We landed at the very end of the “domestic” terminal and walked across the tarmac. And then I walked, and walked and kept on walking, thankful that I was only lugging my backpack and camera bag and not my suitcase. My next gate was 85 and I was at 1.

As soon as I found a Canadian Air desk, I broke my walking to ask directions and was given fairly confusing instructions. I had to follow the signs that said “ American connections”. So I followed all the signs that said “connections”. I walked through the under tarmac tunnel that connects the two buildings. Then I kept walking through the international terminal. Stopping to ask a saleslady when I got to a duty free section. She had no idea where gate 85 was, so I kept walking. When I got to the end of the terminal at gate 65 I was totally confused? I had to ask another man. He said that the American sign could be confusing. Sign? THE sign. WHAT?????? Wait till you see the photo. I should not have stood right in front and got a close up. I should have taken it from the point where you were walking past. Who thought that was a self-explanatory sign?

From this sign you should just know to turn here? 

What sign?  So I tagged along beside him and had to retrace my steps back to gate 50 to

You have to swap out of the Canadian international terminal to the American international terminal and this sign is the point of the swap. Anyway off I trudged up even more corridors till I came to the security stop. And yes everything we had seen the night before on tv was true. They will only process a few people at a time in the security room. So you have to wait until it is your turn. The man behind me was livid and complained nonstop about the delays at each point. I could feel his anger and frustration  coming through me.

Next you get to put your bags on the screening conveyor belt- shoes off. Again they only had one station working to process everyone! Finally you go up to immigration and get processed. The inland security man I had was lovely. We had a chat while he was processing me about the purpose of my holiday and how one guy tried to get in by changing his fingerprints!

Then the last of the long walks to the gate. Yes I was in the last gate in the place. It had taken one hour to enter the first building to get to the final gate! And I walked VERY fast for every section. Even accounting for being lost, it is one of those airport connections where a turnaround time of two hours was cutting it very close. I was very lucky that there were comparatively speaking fewer passengers to process. A large plane would have been an anxious nightmare. Finally I went to the nearby toilet, got a cup of tea, filled up my water bottle and sat down to eat my lunch. I had exactly 40 minutes before they called the flight so I sent off a very fast email to Sarah and the crew.  (You only got 15 minutes free WiFi?)But I didn’t have to collect baggage, or buy my lunch and I could walk fast or I might have been just like the man in the processing hall.

Boarded on time and found that I was sitting with a spare seat between me and a non English/French speaking grandmother with a small child. Thankfully she was travelling with many other family members, so they ended up moving an older son to that spot and the grandmother and child went further back (Lucky, because the child screamed nonstop for hours and would not sit down.)

I watched two movies, but the selection was limited. Luckily I had my own head phones because the steward bought them around (to buy) an hour after take off. Drinks were free, but the food had to be bought with a credit card. Nothing GF. No surprises there. When I was getting to the “how much longer stage”, I was very perturbed to find that according to the flight map we were travelling over Calgary? To get to LA?  Apparently we just flew around Calgary for the whole trip. I’m glad the captain wasn’t following that map.

Luckily the captain had a different map.

It was fairly rough at times as we flew around a few storms.The flight lasts 6 hours, but you gain 3 hours in timezone changes, so it was 5:30 pm LA time when we landed,but my body was still on Quebec time (8:30pm)

What a wonderful surprise at the end. Because we had cleared immigration in Montreal,  you came off the plane and down the steps to the baggage hall. YIPPEE. I arrived at the baggage section at the same time as Susan and Teagan and even better my case was not last off! Grabbed a cuppa before heading off. Disastrous traffic out there, with a combination of peak hour, plus the visit of the Vice President in LA. Road closures everywhere. It took more than two hours to get home via some back roads, at one point we went past Arlington Cemetery filled with row after row of white head stones. Poor Susan had to deal with terrible traffic in both directions to pick me up.

When we got home both Troy and Oscar were already there. Susan made a quick stir fry for dinner – now 11pm Quebec time, then went for a run. I did the dishes, shower and a welcome bed. Sleeping in till 5:30 new time, 8:30 Q time. Overhead fan all night and only one sheet. Back to hot.