SAND TO SNOW, AND LOST IN THE MIDDLE

It's great to be home! Yesterday morning we left the blistering white sands and today we're in blinding white snow. But there's always the devil in the details. We were ready for the marathon of connections and changes to get from cAncun  to kemBle, like slow-motion stones skipping on flat water. But a first awaited between Atlanta and Toronto...

The faux-Mayan docks faded from the windy-sunrise  fast ferry when we left Thursday at dawn. A crowded collectivo ride to the city, then a crowded bus station, then the airport bus, then a shuttle among terminals. Go To Three, and Do Not Collect 200 Pesos because the exchange rates are so bad. From the air the turquoise waters looked like deep velvet framing tropical jewels.

But! During the long layover at Atlanta, we were given an offer we couldn't refuse. Our Delta flight to Toronto was overbooked, so how about a deal ---- take $400 in future flight credits and we'll put you on a later Air Canada flight? (Easy choice --- we could either wait 3 hours in Atlanta or 3 hours in Toronto!) So we took the deal, got the chit and were assured our 2 pieces of luggage would be transferred along with us. Not. 

We arrived in Toronto with less than an hour to do customs, get luggage, and find the 11pm bus to Owen Sound. But Pat's backpack was missing. Questions, paperwork, suspicious customs ("did you REALLY have fabric and vanilla in that pack, or 10 kilos of Mexican snow??"). First-ever flight bump, first-ever lost luggage. Welcome home! Worried, hungry shuttle bus ride, arriving in the cold and dark and snow of Owen Sound at 1:30 in the morning.  But "the darkest hour is always before dawn" (Shakespeare or Crosby, Stills, and Nash??). After a zonked-out sleep at Hotel Dianne, Air Canada advised that the bag had been found in a bar in Atlanta, watching March Madness with the rest of the country!

I repeat, it's great to be home. Had to shovel snow, get the van going, trudge groceries up the hill, prime the pump, and wade through 3 months of mail. But the air is clean, the exercise exhilarating, and the deer laze in the yard like they own the place --- which they have for the last 84 days!

(This is the last blog post until another adventure comes along. The Blogspot website's stats advises me there are readers in Brazil, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Australia, Yemen, Russia, India, Mexico, and several countries in Europe, as well as hundreds in the US and Canada. Thanks for following, and stay tuned!)