7/5/17, “The Return Journey”
Toronto Pearson International Airport,
Ontario (YYZ)
And so another great trip comes
to an end. I have seen the final four
World Heritage Sites in North America, and I am ready to go home. The trip was excellent on every level, but it
was not easy. In fact, the difficulty of
the trip, and the success with which I overcame the adversity the trip provided
was part of what made it so great. I
have travelled so frequently to Canada over the past five years, and it saddens
me to know that I will not return for quite some time after this trip. It seems, however, that I have saved the best
province for last.
While I have enjoyed
the ultimate Pacific Northwest in British Columbia, the ruggedness of the
Prairies, the cultural wonders of Ontario and Quebec, and the waterscapes of
the Maritimes, my love is given to the morning, to this easternmost province,
to Newfoundland and Labrador. Why? Well, in no small part because it is
indistinguishable from Greenland, as I have been saying, and I recently called
Greenland the most beautiful place I have ever visited.
I wrote about how this trip was in many ways
the companion trip to my trip of ice and fire, and I ranked Greenland as a top
five trip of all time, which, in retrospect, seems to high of rank, as the end
of the trip drained a lot of the positive energy I had felt from the first two
parts. This trip ranks very highly among
the extended weekend trips, but it cannot contend with the longer trips for a
spot in even the top ten.
What if,
however, I considered these two trips as the same trip? Well, then, surely the combined trip would
have earned its spot in the top five. I
would like to think of it that way, rather than doing a final reckoning. This trip is too closely related to the trip
of ice and fire, and only separated by one weekend, not to consider it that
way. The map shows how close these
places are, and my pictures show that they are even closer than a map
could.
This trip, however, was also the
follow-up trip to my trip to the Maritimes last year. It got off to a similar rough start, and it
ended much the same way, on the Fourth of July, in the capital, smoking a cigar
on the waterfront as I wrote my entry, after seeing a WHS (or 3), and then
walking back to my hotel to smoke my trusty Ardor and publish, hoping to get
two full REM cycles before I drove to the airport. That is exactly what I did my last night in
Nova Scotia, and it is exactly what I did last night in Newfoundland.
After I closed, I headed to the hotel, lit up
my trusty Ardor, and published my entry.
I then went upstairs to pack and organize before I passed out. I had my eyes closed for three hours, but I
do not think I got two full REM cycles.
I woke up refreshed, though I knew I would pay the price if I did not
get more sleep. I headed to the airport,
which was a short drive and dropped off my car.
I checked in and proceeded to security, my Global Entry card allowing me
to skip the line. I almost lost my
longship in this process, but I was able to recover it. I then went to the gate, and we soon
boarded. I slept through the flight,
and, as I was drifting off, I thought I heard the captain say that all flights
in and out of Pearson were being held due to weather, but I chalked it up to a
sleep-deprived hallucination.
Three
hours later, ahead of schedule, we landed at Pearson with clear skies and
beautiful weather. It was a bit of a
process to circle around, going through security and border control and getting
to my gate, but we were still early. I bought
up a bottle of maple syrup with the rest of my Canadian money and then used one
of my food vouchers to get a bagel sandwich, a coffee, and two cookies for
later. I still have one left, so I might
have to get a bunch of chips for the week or something. The sandwich was decent and filling, but the
coffee was much better. I then headed to
my gate, where I proceeded to write this entry, which I will now close so that
I can publish, along with closing out this trip. Next stop: San Francisco to see Port Chicago
Naval Magazine National Memorial.
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