Today was to be an incredibly long and tiring day. We got up at 4am and quickly got dressed before saying our final goodbyes to Gilles, Pistash and Flam and then loading our luggage and ourselves into Marcelle's truck. Marcelle skillfully negotiated the drive from Annie Lake Road to the Whitehorse Airport all the while being mindful of possible caribou and moose encounters.
Marcelle dropped us off at the airport and we said our final goodbye to her. Although we had only spent a few days with Marcelle and Gilles it was not easy to say goodbye. They had opened their home and their lives to us and had been so generous. We thanked Marcelle for everything and wished her luck in the Ididarod.
The check in process was relatively straight forward and we were pleased to find that our luggage would be checked all the way through to Washington D.C.. Because we were going into the US we had to pay a fee per bag but it was just good to know that we would not have to collect our bags along the way with the many flights.
After yet another explosives bag swab in no time we boarded our first flight of the day, Air Canada, from Whitehorse to Vancouver. It was again on the small plane with only two seats per side of the plane. The flight was uneventful with David and the boys sleeping for most of it. I was lucky enough to see a beautiful sunrise on the way into Vancouver.
We touched down and had enough time to get some breakfast. Unfortunately our options were largely limited and so it came down to a bacon, cheese and egg burger with a chocolate milkshake - you would think this would be a bit like a McDonalds breakfast but no.... it was a bacon and cheese omelette on a bread roll. It was very hard to stomach but we took the view that food is fuel.
Before our next flight to Toronto Ryan stocked up on Mini Oreos, David bought a hot rod magazine and Connor and I bought a bought to read about the life lessons that can be learnt from hockey. The flight to Toronto took around 4 hours. The boys were pleased to see a plane big enough that it had seat back TVs and I read my new book from cover to cover as well as took the chance to catch up on a little sleep. One of the male flight attendants was fascinated that we played ice hockey in Australia and insisted on taking a photo of the SA Kangaroos hoodie Ryan was wearing.
Despite a bit of turbulence we landed safely in Toronto and prepared to transfer to our final flight for the day - into Washington D.C.. We had to go through the process of transfer connections. This meant a long walk through the airport. Once going through the transfer doors we needed to fill in a US Customs form and then to move on and scan our boarding passes. Once this was done we needed to sit and wait by some television screens and wait for our surname to appear on the screen. This would mean that our luggage had been received and had passed all security checks. Unfortunately our flight from Vancouver kept being shown as waiting not processing and it took a long time before we were finally relieved to see our names appear on the screen. Next was to go through US Immigration. It was relatively quick compared to our time in LAX but our time to get to our next fight was being rapidly eaten away and we were panicking that we would not make the flight. Next we were required to go through the security scanners complete with shoe removal. The queue was long and our plane had started boarding. It was not looking promising. When we finally reached the crossroad in the queue after a little discussion about our situation the staff member kindly agreed to shift us to the "family line" in the hope that it may be a little faster and we may make our connection. The family line was slow - scanning strollers etc we got through and David was chosen for a swab test....more time gone....we had water in two of our bags....more time gone. When we finally got through and put our shoes back on we ran towards the gates. We made it just as they were about to close the flight. The staff at check in were lovely and quite relaxed and told us to just wait and see how small the United Express plane was. We got on board - the last passengers with everyone else seated and strapped in. There was one seat on the right hand side of the plane and two on the left and only 15 rows. We stuffed our bags and jackets under our seats and got ready to go. We were just so thankful that we had made the flight even if it meant we had not been able to eat anything for lunch or dinner.
Sitting opposite Connor and I was a guy who thought the rules about flying don't apply to him. Even as we were accelerating down the runway he was still sending copious text messages to friends. Later when it came time to land he again refused to stop using his phone despite repeated requests from the flight attendant. We were glad that this was an express flight that only took about an hour. We were also lucky enough to see the most beautiful sunset while on this flight.
We had a relatively rough landing at Washington Dulles Airport, which must be one of the most confusing airports in the world to find your way to baggage reclaim. The promised Customer Services Representative did not materialise. After some time we found that we needed to catch a train to another terminal building to find baggage claim. We were so pleased to see that all of our bags had made it safely to Washington D.C.. It was a short walk to the taxi stand. We were quickly ushered into a minivan and began our $70 cab ride into downtown DC. We checked into our hotel and collected our Treasure Hunt package which had been delivered for us. After a total of about 14 hours of travel we could finally settle into our room and order room service. A long long day!!!!
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