Just Another Manic Monday

Yellowknife 9:00 a.m.

At the Yellowknife Airport

My scheduled arrival time in Inuvik was 12:40 on Monday. I can see now that this was just NOT meant to be. I left my hotel and arrived at the Yellowknife airport with plenty of time to spare. I booked my flight with Firstair for 10:00 and around 9:30 they cancelled the flight. This meant I had to unload my luggage again, go get a travel voucher and recheck my luggage with Canadian North for their 10:25 flight. Okay at this point I've loaded or unloaded five times. No big deal.

Flight Take 1

Flight Take 2

We left the airport almost on time, everything went great except they weren't sure that they were going to be able to land in Inuvik. Lynn, my nursing friend from here, had said that they said the same thing when she came up and they landed well so I didn't think anything of it. We landed at Normal Wells airport where the plane stops to refuel and the pilot said that we were going to try to land in Inuvik. We made it all the way and had started out descent and then: "As you may have noticed, we have started to reascend..." With the winds and the ice, the pilot didn't think we could land safely so we turned around and went back to Normal Wells. At Norman Wells they made us get off, pick up all of our luggage, drag it upstairs, recheck it and then reboard (Times I moved my luggage: seven). Now, the Norman Wells airport is not very big as you can imagine. By the time everyone had their luggage and went upstairs, you could barely move. It was ridiculous. All for us to just get back on the same plane. Then we reboarded and flew back to Yellowknife. This whole journey took about 6 hours. And I ended up in the same place. You can imagine how I felt. 

The Second Stuffed Bear of the Day (Norman Wells Airport)

When I got back to Yellowknife, I had no idea what I was going to do for the night. I had basically blown my hotel budget staying one night (the Super8 was almost $200 a night). I planned to just stay at the airport because I was booked for the flight the next day. I got a not very good sandwich from the "cafe" at the Yellowknife Airport (this consists of a fridge with premade sandwiches and a fridge with pop and juice). Luckily, I spoke with Lynn (my friend who nurses here) and she said "My sister lives in Yellowknife. Let me call her." She called me back in no time at all and thankfully for me, her sister was willing to take me in and I was able to stay with her and her family for the next few days while I was stuck there. I am SO grateful to have been able to do that. Four days at the Yellowknife airport might have made me turn around and come home. It also meant that I was able to see more of Yellowknife!