Leaving in a Blizzard

This morning in Reykjavik Glenda got a text message saying that her rain pants had been turned into the lost and found at the Blue Lagoon. Although a snowstorm made travel difficult, we left Reykjavik early and planned a detour to the Blue Lagoon on the way to the Keflavik Airport to reclaim Glenda’s waterproof pants. Snow started and stopped all day today, but when our airplane boarded at 4:30 pm the snow and wind struck with intense ferocity. We waited in the plane about one hour while the wind buffeted us on the tarmac. Then we waited another hour at the end of the runway until the pilot felt a brief, very slight, respite in the wind. She shoved the throttle forward and we were airborne. We are still trying to check on the internet to see if the Raleigh Airport is open. It may be that the winter storm in North Carolina has caused flight cancellations even if the airport is open. We will just have to take one thing at a time. Glenda and I were separated on the flight by one Sue Ellen from Ohio, an interesting travel companion—very intelligent teacher at a private school. Landing in Toronto we rushed to get our luggage transferred so that it would not get lost as it did on the trip to Iceland. We were shuttled back and forth from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1; then from aisle 3 to aisle 7 then back. I called Gray Southern to tell him that we would not make our connecting flight. He said that he had seen on the web that our flight had been cancelled. The reason no agents were at aisle 7 was that our flight to Raleigh-Durham has been cancelled. We went back to aisle 3 at the Lester B. Pearson Airport in Toronto. Glenda arranged for a hotel voucher, while I went to aisle 15 to rebook a flight out. A limousine took us to the Hilton Garden Inn. We are going to bed. We’ll wake up tomorrow and take another bite out of the apple.Read more