There is certainly no cycling content here, because though my bike was moving, it was being transported home. Along with me. Just in case people are wondering - how does the getting-home part work, I will be brief and describe how my day went.

Knowing I had to fly, I hardly slept, so when 5:45 am approached, I turned off my alarm before it even came on. I finished putting my last few things away into my bags, and shortly after 6 am was out the door for the final time on this trip.

The sky to the east had just the faintest tinges of light of an eventual sunrise, so it was a pretty nice morning to be waiting up on the street before the Metro actually opened just shy of 6:30 am. I had to load this  Metro trip onto my Green Card - which is when I realized that this particular machine took up to 10 Euro notes, though yesterday I had seen some that took a twenty. Of course, I only had twenties. Luckily there was a young guy right beside me who was also loading his card so I asked if he had two tens, and he did. Saved.

The train came along in short order and by 6:44 am I was to the airport. I had allotted quite a bit more time for the train's arrival, the trip, and collecting my bike. Everything was done really quickly, so I had my bike all packed for the flight before 8 am. The ticket counter wouldn't open until 9:50 am so I just sat and dozed in line. There was no doubt that I would be, and actually was, definitely the first one to the counter to check in to the flight when they opened. I dropped the bike at oversized luggage, breezed through security and the customs check and was then on to the ANA Lounge to read, surf and snack til flight time.

The Air Canada Rouge Boeing 767-300 was scheduled to depart at 12:50 pm but we were a few minutes late due to people not settling into their seats. A fault of the airlines, people had bigger carry-on suitcases than I have ever seen. One nitwit was struggling to get her bag into the overhead bin and actually dropped it onto someone. The joys of some things.

Rouge is known for its cramped quarters, so I had chosen a cabin category with more room between the aisles. Having the extra leg room was great so the flight was pleasant and went along quickly. I watched some movies, dozed, and before I knew it, we were coming into Toronto Pearson Airport.

There was almost a snafu in my flights. I had been cleared by one Air Canada agent to get onto the 645 pm flight rather than the 1030 pm flight, and had it okayed at the gate. Half an hour later, the same gate agent came over and told me a number of reasons why I wouldn't be able to get onto the earlier flight. Ugh. Anyway, long story short, I persisted, and got onto the earlier flight. In fact, the baggage handler even came over to tell me that he had loaded the bike on himself so not to worry - it was there.

The flight to Timmins was on the Dash 8 and Mom and Dad were there to collect me and my bike for the ride to Cochrane. Through mounds and loads of SNOW!!!!! Lemons and oranges this morning; snowbanks and winter this evening.

So there it is. Not an interesting travel day, but certainly a busy one. What can a person glean for their own tour? Go in with an idea of what has to happen. If things are not working out for you, see what you can do to make things happen. Sometimes they do; sometimes they don't. Today everything worked.