Planes Trains and Automobiles

I am finally in Smithers, well rested, well fed, and in a very pleasant frame of mind.
The journey began right after work on Friday. I left early (thanks to the urging of my co-workers) and Brad and I set out on the roads. We arrived in Regina early and went for a quick drive before going to the airport.
They now suggest you arrive 90 minutes early for your flights. That seems a little extreme to me, but I suppose security is getting much more stringent these days. The flights were fine and I arrived into Vancouver 20 minutes earlier than expected so I went for a Starbucks run. The Starbucks is literally a trek to get to. I arrived into gate A1 and the Starbucks was at gate C39. I had to pass two security stations (thankfully since I was already cleared I didn't have to go through them, just pass by) and go down one of those obscenely long corridors that have the flat escalators (which wasn't turned on, so I got my exercise for the day), and down several other hallways until I finally found the giant mecca in the middle of the Vancouver airport. I was actually hoping to find the Tim Hortons that's just down the way from it (I was hungry and wanted some actual substance) but they were closed. Supper was a skim Chai latte and piece of banana loaf. Back at my proper gate and I called Brad to let him know I was in Van, then I called Mum and Da to let them know and they told me there was a heavy snowfall warning for PG and wondered if my flight was still a go. I said it looked like it and there was no word otherwise, but that I would wait until a little closer to the actual bording time before checking, since things can change quickly. After that I called Mare and was having a brief chat with her when I saw a familiar face heading my way. It was Chris, the engineer from 94X and the Wolf in PG. I hailed him over and he told me about his flights...or lack thereof. Apparently he had been flying back from Castlegar with AirCanada. They had lost his bags on the way there yesterday and had JUST gotten them back to him in Vancouver about 20 minutes ago. He was trying to get back to PG and they had cancelled his flight...at 4:10! They wouldn't do anything for him except tell him he'd be on STANDBY for the next flight and that there was no way of knowing if it would take off, and that he'd be on standby for the flight tomorrow as well. He said that wasn't good enough so he left after they gave him a 12 dollar food voucher for the airport (NOT valid on booze, and only valid that day...thanks guys) and went to Westjet where they immediately put him on a flight and told him it was still scheduled. What a mess! But then, AirCanada is notorious for their lost luggage and cancelled flights. Westjet will land in just about anything.
We boarded the not-cancelled flight and landed in PG on time (where it was not, in fact, snowing).
Wil came and picked me up at the airport and we went to Jessica's and proceeded to have several drinks with EC and Trevor and Jess's friend Christie. It was a really nice night and I crashed out at 11 (hey, it was more like 1 for me and I'd been up since 3:30...cut me some slack!)
The next morning Jess took me to the train station. The roads were really dicey since about 20 cm of snow had fallen overnight and the roads weren't ploughed yet. But we got there and I got onto the train on time and once again, I was off.
The train trip was quite uneventful and arrived 30 minutes late. Mum and Da were there to get me and we went home to a very excited and confused Gus (poor little doggie doesn't really know if I'm supposed to be here or not).
Hoping to go snowboarding this afternoon with Frank and Christi, which looks like it could be really nice since the weather looks lovely so far.