April 24, 2014
And They're Off
Even though we have a 6 day stopover in Montreal, this could be considered the first real day of the tour, since the bikes got put on their first air flight towards the East. The process began with the special pleasure of driving to the airport with our old friend Arthur. This is not the first time Arthur has seen us off. Back in 2011, as we began our first ever long ride, he was there to wave us off as well, handing us some emergency supplies at the ferry dock, to keep us going, across Canada.
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Flash: Tim Hortons was repatriated as a Canadian company in 2009!
(Thanks for the info, George White)
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This time, Arthur helped us "enjoy" the process of dragging the bikes in bags through the check-in process. We had left the bags open, because our past experience was that they would soon want to sniff the bikes for explosives. However, the check-in lady insisted we seal the bags. OK. Next they moved over to the oversize baggage drop-off, where they attempted to cut the bags open. Fortunately, Dodie had foreseen this, and had used re-close able ties. Only thing, they insisted on taking the bikes into a restricted bike torture area to do their cutting. So Dodie had to get their attention in there, and get them to put away the knives.
Relations with the oversize baggage people may have been a little strained at first, as Dodie sang out "Here comes the oversized lady" when the worker made her first appearance. On the other hand, look at the photo and make your own assessment!
Like a parent dropping off a child at a daycare, Dodie continued to keep an eye on the bikes until they were finally carried off. Then it was time to put our selves through the ringer. Normally security at the low key Victoria airport, for a short domestic flight, would not be a "ringer". However, their first move was to try to brand Dodie's nail file as a knife. After a whole lot of palaver and second guessing, they decided the nail file was a nail file.
Our second carry on bag contained our tent. Dodie had cleverly removed the four inch titanium pegs, since clearly these could be daggers. Security responded by branding the plastic peg hammer as a dangerous weapon. I tried to get the agent who was confiscating the hammer to explain what exactly was its offensive characteristic - the shape?, the weight? the material? She refused to speak to me at all, save to say "I'm taking it".
Risking a burn from the steam coming out of my ears, Dodie dragged me off and sat me on a bench. Then she retrieved the hammer from the lady and took it back to check in. There she sweet talked them into retrieving our checked bags, and put the hammer in there. Meanwhile, a friendly agent had wandered over to my bench and asked "Howzit going?". Needless to say, he got an earful.
When Dodie returned she admonished me not to make waves, lest they kick me off the flight. I said, "What kind of darn fascist state is this?" Her reply: "Harper's post 911 Canada". Well, my Canada features due process and basic civility. I used the airport's free wifi to send in a complaint to CATSA (transportation security).
By the way, my bench was just beside that "nude scanner" gizmo. As I sat there for a long time, I noticed that 99% of the people put through the thing were female. Just sayin'.
Our plane, as mentioned, was just a little short hopper to Vancouver. It gave us a good chance to look at the ocean and islands that surround our home. It's a lovely sight, and one that many tourists come to see. Still, after three whole weeks at home, we are eager to head off and see the many other wonderful spots that we know are out there.
Another advantage of our little plane is that we left it on some portable stairs and walked a short distance to the terminal at Vancouver. So we paused to see just how well they did in unloading the bikes. In fact, they were very careful, with one baggage handler at each side of the horizontal bike, lifting it carefully. However, because the oversized baggage lady had not reclosed one bag well, a handlebar poked out forlornly. Two more plane transfers and the bag could easily be in tatters.
So here we sit in Vancouver, waiting for the redeye to Montreal. We dropped $10 on Starbucks coffee because we refused to pay $3.65 for a small bottle of plain water. But otherwise, we're still (mostly) cool!
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