1. Going To See Glaciers Before They Melt. Plane Emergency.

Dear friends,

We decided to take Westjet to Vancouver and so avoid driving on the highmountain highway, the Coquihalla. Once we had a serious accident on thathighway, caused by Ben's blacking out at the wheel due to arriving too

suddenly at one of the summits. Well, that's another story -- but there isa strange sort of feeling when you drive up there. It's sort of like

floating over the treetops. Everything seems the same, and it also feelquiet. The quiet, floating feeling is a little disconcerting. Anyway, due tosmoke from two huge fires near the Canadian/U.S. border we decided to fly.

On Sunday we were up at 6 am, all packed and almost ready to go. It was a finesunny day. We took our little 1987 blue Volkswagen Rabbit because we intended to leave it in paid airport parking while we were away. The trip to the airportonly takes about a half hour.

Once there we were carefully checked in. Yes, we were safe to let aboard. All

our liquids and things like lipsticks were packed in luggage to be stowed in the

hold and there was nothing upon ourselves or in our carry-on baggage to cause concern. Then at last we were seated in the plane. The plane was full. All luggage was aboard. The engines started, we were fully ready for take-off when the

pilot spoke over the intercom to say that there was some problem at the Vancouver airport and we would be temporarily delayed. We all sat waiting

clearance, but it never came. At last we were all requested to leave the plane

and return to the departure lounge where we would await further information.

There were messages going back and forth from airport personnel as they tried to

learn what the hold-up was in Vancouver. The delay lengthened. We heard that

the last plane coming to our airport from Vancouver was coming in but would be 45 minutes later than scheduled.

Ben began to look at his watch, calculating the amount of time left before our ship would sail. We knew how long it would probably take us to drive to Vancouver. When that time came we couldn't wait any longer so we left the boarding lounge and Ben arranged to cancel our flight and have the money deposited to us. It

took about half an hour for our luggage to be retrieved from the plane. Ben went to bring the VW Rabbit. We knew we wouldn't have time to stop off at home and collect the much newer Saturn. We would simply have to do our best to reach the dock before sailing time with the Rabbit. We set out, knowing we had barely

enough time to make the ship which was to sail at 4.

In Westbank we bought a tank of gas and I purchased $5.00 worth of candy bars that contained peanuts, chocolate and sugar. We wouldn't have any time to stop for meals or washrooms, and I thought we could keep our blood sugar up with them,

without being forced to make rest stops. Then we set out on the Coquihalla.

I'll write some more later.

Warm good wishes, Mary