You think you have it tough......

Well, its been a very long weekend for Kelly's (visiting doggie) mom and dad... and teenaged sister Meleigha. These are the folks I mentioned who were driving from Newfoundland... to try and get home...

Does everyone know where Newfoundland is..... Its the farthest tip of Canada... somewhat north and east of Nova Scotia.

They left Fogo Island, Newfoundland on Saturday morning. In order to leave the island, they must wait in line, to catch a ferry to the mainland. Where is Fogo... well... its on the northern side of NFLD... see below.

First off, driving to Fogo, a week before Xmas... they needed to drive 7 hours from the Valley, to North Sydney... jump on the Caribou Ferry which is 6+ hours to Port Aux Basque and then drive another 8 hours to wait for the Fogo Ferry... which is about an hour long... I think. And with all our weird weather we had before Xmas... they had smooth sailing, clear driving and arrived safe and sound.. right on Schedule...

Saturday morning, after New Years, however... the first of many Meleigha Facebook status's was "Ferry ride is done.. but we can't get off the ferry, because the first car to get off, has locked their keys in the car... everyone is waiting... ". This was written at 10:00am.. This prompted my two day long facebook conversation.

Well, at first this is kind of funny...... but in retrospect...it's a sign of worse things to come..

Through the wonders of iPhone and Facebook, I was able to keep in constant communication with Meleigha as they passed from town to town, on their long 8 hour journey. Meanwhile, we are being pounded with snow, wind and more snow. Roads were horrid and some were closed. The thoughts of the "MacPayne" family traveling through this was stressful to say the least. But according to my many chats with Mee Mee (easier to spell than Meleigha), the weather was fine there... below is their route through NFLD, (marked in RED).

MeeMee kept me updated all day when they would go through little towns like Corner Brook...

She informed me of a little know fact about Cornerbrook... to quote "Little fun fact for you, Corner Brook was built completely on the side of a hill. When traveling in this town in the wintertime, be sure to have snow tires. Otherwise, it gets embarrassing not being able to drive up the hills..."

That made me chuckle..... wonder who she heard that "fact" from.....

They started their trip at 7:30 am, and by 6:15pm they were going through Wreck House... and she said it was creepy...scary..... When I asked where it was... she said "google it"... BRAT... but when I did.. I understood why.

It is a region at the end of Channel Port aux Basque and it is like a freakish "Wind Tunnel" with winds 80 to 90 kms... and this happens all the time... let along during a storm. It was quite the windy drive in their car... and when they arrived at the ferry an hour later, people were talking about how some cars arrived that day with smashed windshields from the wind and debris going through Wreckhouse.....scary.

(this pic is a Google pic, not from that day.. but lets you know how powerful the winds are there).

At 7:00pm.... MeeMee reported that Mel and Jill had a problem trying to find Subway in Port aux Basque.. even after they asked for directions. Of course, directions from a Newfoundlander were.... "its right across from the Hospital".... therefore... you need to know where the hospital is...

At 7:30pm it began... the wait... I need to quote again....

News!!
Okay, so the boat isn't coming in yet. It's "bouncing around" out in the harbour. So, the lady told us that the winds right now are 108km, with 20 foot waves!!!! Holy crap!!
The vision hasn't even left Sydney yet, and isn't until 7am. But were going on the caribou. Which is a sign of relief right there.
The lady Said she thinks the wind is actually picking up, and chances are we won't be leaving until morning. That's not confirmed though.

This news began the long night... the long day...

waiting in "Hotel Tucson" as Meleigha called it.

At 9:00pm... the news was no Ferry until 11:00 tomorrow morning... and the reality hit that they would be sleeping in the car all night.. At one point on the drive MeeMee told me that she had explored every position possible for sleeping in the back seat... so now.. at least in my mind, she knew the most comfy position to sleep in on a cold and very windy night in line at the Ferry Terminal.

7:00am the next morning.. reports in... no Ferry... it was still bouncing in the harbour. Too windy for it to dock... no ferry at 11:00. Every hour after that... delay.. upon delay...

While they switched positions in the car to get comfy.. we, in the Valley were staring out the window, watching a TON of snow come down... and I was glad they weren't driving in this.. because if all had gone well at the Ferry... they would have landed and being driving home....

The rest of the afternoon was blurry reports of boredom, sadness in missing all our snow, descriptions of Dad snoring... ipod charging... chicken burgers....

Then the news changed.... 10:00pm (hour 28, sitting in line, and hour 37 of traveling), they were boarding the ferry... and planning to sail at 11:30pm... (24 hours late).... excitement and fear of the trip over reverberated throughout the facebook status's of both Meleigha and Jill. Gravol was popped and wifi was found.... and the trip was on!

In the night, during one of my sleepless moments, I was able to chat with Jill who said it was rocky, noisy and crowded on the Ferry and 4 gravol did not knock her out... ugh... but at least they were on their way home.

My second last message from Meleigha was at 6:55am on Monday morning... and they were getting off the Ferry and starting their long drive across Nova Scotia. You can see the 6 to 7 hour drive they had to end their trip...

At 4:30.... my final message was.... after 55 hours of sitting in a car.... that they were home... showered and unloaded.... and would be by these evening to pic up little Miss Kelly!

Jill and Mel arrived last evening... and scooped up Kelly who was OVER THE MOON happy to see them... and everyone was soooo looking forward to their very own bed.

Thanks Meleigha for all your great reports. It really helped me to not worry.. knowing you were safe and sound in the car, not moving, not sailing and not driving in horrid storms. And it was fun to get all your funny updates....

Welcome home....