we're home! walkerton. i've never had such a ridiculous trip home in my life. i don't even know where to begin. i suppose at the start is a good place.
after a crappy sleep, we got up and were in the car at 7:30. so far, so good. josh had forgotten sunglasses, so after a quick stop at his place we were back on the road. we hit the highway at 8:00 on the dot, which was our plan. things were still on track.
fast forward to roadblock #1. literally. shortly before the manitoba border there was a huge traffic back-up. we could not see the end of the traffic (mostly semis) as it went on for kilometres. josh got out of the car to chat with the dude in front of us and nearly fell on his ass because the road was a giant sheet of ice. no one knew what was going on other than there being some sort of accident. i think the not knowing was the most frustrating part. after a while (20 minutes??) traffic started to come thru towards us. it kept coming, yet our west-bound lane stood still. eventually we made it thru (a full hour behind schedule) and things were generally smooth sailing thru to winnipeg.
i texted my mom, slightly panicked about time, and she thankfully let us know that our flight was delayed by 40 minutes. i have never been so thankful for a flight delay in my life! as it was, we made it to the airport right on time for our original flight time (literally we'd have walked thru security and onto the plane, had it been on time) but i didn't mind the delay that much, as it gave me time to relax a little after our stressful drive.
eventually our plane arrived and we boarded. as we were sitting, waiting for the pilots and the airport people to get their shit together, i was looking out my window at the baggage handler. i watched as they took josh's and my luggage OFF the plane. wtf?! i freaked out. we called the flight attendant over as the baggage cart drove away, back to the airport. she told us the captain would be making announcement. a moment later, he came on the p.a. to tell us that the plane would be overweight with all the luggage, so they were going to take off some of the baggage belonging to toronto passengers and it would meet us there, via another flight. frig. we sat there longer, waiting for a runway, and the captain came back on the p.a. saying they'd changed their mind and the luggage was coming back on board. yay for that, but boo for longer delays.
fast forward past our uneventful flight to toronto via thunder bay.
we land and wait for our luggage. and wait and wait. our carousel was being used to offload not only our flight, but a couple of other flights that were cancelled due to weather on the east coast. what a gong show that was. i've never seen a carousel so backed up. of course, true to my luck, our luggage was among the last batch to come down the chute. i was just thankful to see it there, as i hadn't actually witnessed it get back on the plane.
my mom met us at the baggage claim and robert was waiting for us outside. as we made our way to the car they told us it had been a semi-crappy drive down, and hoped it had cleared up somewhat for our drive back. oh how wrong they were. muahahaha.
we called a couple of people at home and the consensus was that the weather was shit, the plows may or may not have been out, and there were roads closed. we decided to see for ourselves...
the roads were snowy and drifty in places, but i trust my step-dad as one of the best winter drivers i know, so it was generally okay. until we got close to home, turned on the radio, and had it confirmed that highway 9 (the road we were on) was closed clifford-kincardine. i.e. the last 20 km or so we needed to drive to walkerton was closed. we decided to take a backroads approach to things, and it wasn't pretty. we made it to the macintosh road and it was pretty drifty. we plowed thru a few of the drifts, when all of a sudden *bam, baf, boom* white everywhere! we were deep in a drift. possibly the biggest drift i've ever seen on a road. we couldn't open our doors because the snow was so high. we eventually pushed them open and stepped out (in our jeans and shoes) into hip-high snow. i kid you not. my ass was covered. after burning rubber going back and forth (trying to back out thru the tracks we made into this mess) we decided to try pushing. that didn't get us anywhere but wet. my brother was summoned. my brother, the saviour! he got out of bed, into his work clothes, and came out to rescue us in his 3/4 tonne truck, full of tools, with a chain. he pushed a trail thru the snow, and with some serious horsepower, pulled us out of the rhubarb. thank god he did, because it was honestly to the point where we'd have been sleeping in the car, in the snow, in the middle of nowhere, till the plows were back on the road in the morning.
we followed my brother's trail into mildmay, picked up dora (oh god she's cute!!!), then decided to brave the rest of the trip (10 km) on the closed hwy 9. fuck, it was the clearest part of the entire trip. the road was plowed and the visibility was good. we didn't want to run into a cop as we came into town, so we deked down a sideroad just before town. we nearly ended up in the rhubarb again on that road, but we made it thru. we headed to the shop so robert could get the tractor/snowblower while we headed home. my parents live up tow hills. we made it up the first hill alright, but when we turned onto the second one (their actual street) we were in trouble. it hadn't been plowed at all. we made it about halfway up and couldn't go further. by happy coincidence, our neighbour was out snowblowing the road. yes, the road. he'd done his driveway (and ours - how nice!) and he was clearing off part of the road. the snow was at least 2 feet deep across the road. he walked down to the car with the blower and cleared a path so josh, dora and i could get to the house. my mom had to back down the street and my stepdad cleared the road with the tractor. we FINALLY all made it home at midnight. fuck, what a day.
here are a few photos, in case you're doubting me:
steve, blowing a trail to our car (josh ran ahead and took this photo)
my parents' house/driveway
and just for funsies, here's a picture of my adorable puppy sleeping after our big adventure last night:
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man, those are wicked pictures! Doesn't snow here so I am going to live vicariously through you-- without the coldness