Another goat thing

We got up at 4:45 AM to go to the airport and discovered that our flight had been canceled - as had all flights to Toronto.

The Air Canada website indicated that we would be automatically booked on the next available flight. We tried to find out what this was online but the computer said no. We then tried for some hours to get onto the number provided but could not even get past the busy signal to get into a queue.

So we went to the airport where the check in ticket counter person also said no. She said that she could not help us and that we had to keep calling the number until we got through. Cate offered her gold card for the airline affiliation to which Air Canada belongs and was told it was worthless.

Miss unhelpful told us that no flights at all had been rebooked and that we had to fend for ourselves if we could ever contact Air Canada.

We came back to the hotel and checked in - to the same rooms which we had asked them to keep for us in the inevitable event that we would return. We expected to find that the hotel had been fully booked for a wombat strangler's conference - but fortune smiled upon us.

We finally got through to Air Canada after another three hours and a very unhappy man told us that the first available flights were on Friday - three days hence. This man shouted at Cate and she had to tell him to breathe into a paper bag for a few minutes.

We then tried everything we could to get off Newfoundland and looked at all options including driving across to the other side of the island to catch a ferry, going home via Atlanta or Boston or New York and catching a train or bus from Canada to Indianapolis. We could find nothing practicable - so we are here until Friday.

Cate has spent some time sending emails to Air Canada to let them know she is not pleased. She does this in the certain knowledge that they do not give a rat's ass.

I have rung the Cat Nanny and made sure that the cats are OK and will be looked after until we get home. Apparently we still have power so they will be warm enough and with luck our pipes will not burst.

Indianapolis is a catastrophe and it is a good place not to be at the moment.
Conservative commentators are saying that the polar vortex is a name made up by the government solely for the purpose of promoting the climate change hoax.

I am writing to Mr Ugg

We spent a day in Gander and the temperature got down to -28 which with wind chill became -40 - which is very cold indeed - too cold to walk to the shopping center across the road from the hotel. We bought some wine and left three bottles in the car overnite. These froze solid and popped their corks.

We did not get to Fogo island. There was another storm and we drove from Gander to the ferry terminal to discover that the ferries had been cancelled for the day. There was no point in us going to Fogo just for one night so we decided to go back to St. John's.

This was the trip from hell as the road was covered with snow drifts and patches of ice. High winds created snow storms and at times we ground almost to a halt on the highway because visibility was zero. Cate was driving and managed to get back all the way to St Johns before she braked late and slid into another car at a set of traffic lights. We were of course fully insured - but damn near froze to death exchanging details with the other driver.

We discovered when we got back that there was a warning in place advising against driving on the Trans Canada Highway - where we had been.

We also discovered - when we returned to the Sheraton - that they had no power - but the bar was open and provided the necessities to sustain life - although we had to sit there wearing our full winter gear including scarves and ugg boots. Since then the city has had regular power outages but we were all given torches so we can find our way around our hotel rooms. We leave at 5:30 AM tomorrow and expect to have to get up in a freezing room and dress in the dark.

We have a wonderful room with a view of the harbor and the city so we can see the hordes of trucks being filled up with snow and then dumping it in the sea. They have made the roads passable but the footpaths are a complete shambles and we spend a lot of our walking time on the roads competing with the traffic. It will be weeks before the city is cleared of snow.

We are much better off than they are in Indianapolis which has been monstered by the polar vortex. Indy has had wind chill temperatures of - 40 and conditions are so bad that driving on any roads is illegal.

There are massive blackouts across Indiana but I rang our neighbors and so far our street is OK - so the cats will be warm. I rang the cat minder and she says that her person has not been able to get to the cats since Saturday - but left them lots of food and water.

We are due to fly to Toronto tomorrow and then to Indy - but today there are no flights into Indy from anywhere so we may be stuck in Toronto. We are looking at options to get back via bus and rail as we are worried about the cats.

The only bad thing that has happened on the trip is that my ugg boots leak - so I always have wet feet. I am going to write to Mr ugg to complain. This should not happen!

It's cold

We thought it was cold in Montreal and St Johns but today we arrived in Gander and is 22 degrees below zero centigrade. Apparently the wind chill factor means it feels like minus 36 . That's the coldest weather we have ever experienced in our winter travels anywhere. It is so cold it is hard to breathe and we have had to rug up in our warmest woollies and gloves.

We just loved Montreal. It is a delightfully sophisticated city with many coffee shops - with espresso coffee - and excellent restaurants. Montreal had just had a gigantic snow storm so it was heavy going in parts - but that's the way we like it.

St Johns was quite an experience. It too had just had a snow storm that dumped more than a meter of snow on the town - so it was quite a sight. Most of the footpaths had not been cleared so we had to walk through great piles of snow or walk on the road - which we did most of the time. Apparently this is a regular occurrence and the motorists always give way to pedestrians. I fell over only once - and not on my camera - so did not sustain any injuries.

The town itself is just gorgeous and is full of multi-coloured houses crowded together on very hilly streets. We were absolutely astonished by the quality of the restaurants and had dinner at two of the best we have found since we arrived in the USA.

The landscape is reminiscent of the fiords of Norway.

Gwenyth tried cod tongues with pork scrunchions for the first - and last - time. I tried half of one and that was enough for me. This is a local delicacy but is an acquired taste and requires a strong stomach.

Tomorrow we exploring the area around Gander and on Saturday head off to Fogo island.