The Timmins Airport, Moonbeam and Kapuskasing

I slept the whole way to Timmins, closing my eyes before the plane took off and not opening them until the plane bumped down at about 10am. The perfect flight. Looking out the window I saw nothing but snow and pine trees covered with snow. With a yawn and a sigh, I zipped up my coat and headed into the wind and snow and across the tarmac and into the terminal. At the Bearskin Airlines counter (no.. I didn't make that up) the attendant informed me the flight was delayed, probably about an hour, and she would come and let me know when she had more details. I sat down in the coffee shop and ordered some breakfast at Boogy's Diner, regrettably the only food option available.

90 minutes later the agent strolled over to find me in the restaurant and explained the situation. Although the weather was clear in Timmins, all the regional airline's planes had been grounded or rerouted away from Sudbury, where my plane was needed to land before it could pick me up. The agent suggested I rent a car and make the 250 km drive to Kapuskasing, my final destination. With winter storm warnings all around the area I was almost relived when there were no cars available so I settled into the small, 50 year lounge, tried to get comfortable and waited and see what would happen..

What happened was I slowly went crazy over the next nine hours as I gracefully and with a smile was re-scheduled four time and had each flight cancelled, ate three coffee meals at Boogy's, wore out the batteries on all my electrical devices, listened to the life stories of three Bearskin attendants and learned the history of the local Placer Dome mine as depicted by muralist Ed Spehar on the wall of the airport lounge.

All this while weather deteriorated outside.

When the last possible flight out of Sudbury was cancelled at about 7:00pm the Bearskin attendant and I looked at each other and we both realized I was screwed. 'How about you call me a cab?' I suggested and was suprised when she said that was a possibility. Several phone calls later I was belingerantly demanding 'alternative or emergency ground transportation' under Section 12 of the airline charter, which the attendant had kindly supplied and highlited for me.

A half hour later, I'm throwing my bags in the trunk of a taxi, the driver not offering to help, perhaps in retribution for being forced to drive 250 kms north to Kapuskasing and back again at 8 in the evening. As we pulled out onto the deserted and snow covered highway the driver turned on the radio to a french talk program, this was my first hint that I was on my way to an almost entirely French speaking town. Over the next two and a half hours I heard the word 'Dieu' combined with waht I can only imagine was every conceivable swear word in the French language.

Hours of unlit highway cutting through the dark pine forests of northern Ontario followed. The cab's headlights illuminated massive snowflakes rushing towards us out the dark, creating a tunnel vision effect that I hoped wasn't affecting the driver's vision as much as mine. The road was getting more and more treacherous and I could feel the car sliding from side to side. The only other traffic we saw was massive trucks carrying heavy equipment and the occasional 18 wheeler. When they passed us the windows were instantly covered with thick heavy slush that shook the car on impact as the wipers struggled to keep even a small portion of the windows clean. The driver turned to me at one point and in broken english and hand gestures admitted he wasn't sure which side of the road he was on.

After many kilometers I could see a dim light way off in the vast darkness, blinkingly reminiscent of a lighthouse spotted from the sea. We were headed directly for it and for the next 20 minutes I watched the light grow stronger and as we got nearer I realized there were many lights and multi coloured. We got closer and closer and finally as we sped by I swear (in french by this point!) there was a spaceship sitting next to a sign that read MOONBEAM. Odd. Now I had had a long day and was tired and a bit loony from the day in the 'airport' but as I craned my head around and watched the lights recede behind us I was, indeed, sure I was looking at a spaceship. We pulled into Kapuskasing a half hour later and I contemplated asking the hotel receptionist about MOONBEAM but I didn't know the french translation forpaceship or stupid english city boy so I decided against it and went directly to my room and to bed.

I had doubted my sanity for a moment but was glad to find this proof the next day.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonbeam,_Ontario

Three days later, with work responsibilities taken care of and a few hours to kill before we flew out of town, my colleague T. and I went for breakfast at a quirky little bistro called 'Back to the Grind' and then got in the car for a 'blind' tour. After being in the small town for a couple of days we didn't expect to see much of interest but what we found was quite memorable. The town seemed to have something to look at on every corner (there aren't very many corners). Sculptures and public art and an insane Cristmas display keep us wandering around for almost an hour. There is a large park in town with walking paths and public areas, I'm sure its a beautiful park in the summer bounded by a lake and river on two sides but currently it was quite covered with Christmas displays of every imaginable type. Nativity scenes next to plastic snowmen, kitschy angels and multi coloured strands of lights. We wandered about for a bit giggling at the the displays and then headed for the airport.

The Bearskin plane was sitting outside the airport when we pulled in and as T. and I were two of only three passengers we took off as soon as the pilots got back from lunch. A short, bumpy 30 minute flight back to Timmins gave a great view of Kap and the surrounding area and made me realize exactly how isolated it is. I shuddered a bit walking back into Timmins Airport but was soon on a real airplane heading home.

I get to sleep in my own bed for a few weeks as I work close to home in downtown Toronto and will enjoy that immensely but as I write this thinking how glad I am to be home I from Kapuskasing I see the name Fort McMurray looming ominously on the calendar in a few short weeks.

Flashback to Betty's Bog

So I haven't had any interesting travels lately but feel the need to post something to keep in the habit of writing... The week I spent in Ottawa wasn't terribly interesting in terms of exploring. I did spend a couple of hours wandering around Parliament Hill one cold afternoon looking at sculptures, statues and monuments but having already spent so much time in that city I kept the exploring to just the one day. The week (aside from a bit of time spent working) was more about visiting with friends and colleagues in town.

I had travelled with J. several times in my previous position and when I let her know I was coming to town she agreed to keep me company. J took me for dinner to a local pub one night and a wine bar that was excellent another night. I miss the craziness of my old job sometimes and J gave me scoop on what had been going with that group. It was fun catching up and J is great company.

 After making it home for a few days I was back on the road to Cornwall.

 Where, you ask? Exactly.

 An hour west of Montreal and across the St Lawrence River from Vermont. I tried to write about the few days I spent in Cornwall but there isn't really much to say. They renovated the Pizza hut since the last time I was there but that hardly seems worthy of a blog post.

 So... I'm posting a story from last summer. It makes me chuckle when think about it now and suprisingly, I laughed at the time it happened as well.. beacause sometimes all you can is laugh.

 I had been cruising along country roads between Parry Sound and Bracebridge on a gorgeous fall afternoon with the tunes dialed was up and my arm hanging out the window. These were exactly the kind of days I had envisioned when I took the job. It didn't seem fair that I was getting a pretty good paycheck (plus mileage and expenses) to spend my days touring around the province and I took a moment to appreciate that as well as the great views, warm sun and punk rock blaring out of my car. Farmland had given way to wet forest and paved road to hard packed dirt and when my blackberry buzzed with a conference call reminder I pulled over and turned off the engine and dialed in.

It was a few minutes into the call when I noticed across the road a sign, hand painted and nailed to a tree, reading..

 "BEWARE BETTYS BOG".

 Strange, I thought.

 Almost spooky. I realized how dead and dreary the woods looked. Had it been dark it may almost have had a Blaire Witch Project feel to it. The conference call ended about 45 minutes later and I started the car and pressed the gas, the engive revved, the tires spun and rocks and mud flew past my open window- the car rocked gently. Hmm. I got out of the car and walked around to the passenger side to see both tires sunk 4 inches into- wait for it....

BETTY'S BOG! I looked at both sides of the troad and see now plainly see the dark, miasmic, swampy, mucky bog. I was truly in some deep shit. Goddamn I thought, but started to grin a bit. I had been distracted by the somewhat ghostly overtones of the sign and the forest and hadn't realized the actual warning the sign was intended to provide. With my phone battery almost dead after the conferance call, and my gps having trouble maintaining a signal I managed to contact a local tow truck and convince him to come and help me out. Two hours and 75 bucks later I was back on the road, feeling 100% like the city boy that I am. Just another wicked day on the raod. Tomorrow I fly to Kapaskasing. Where, you ask? Exactly.