Journey Day 1 - Montreal to Hawkesbury

Today was to begin with a walk around Montreal city before heading off on our journey mid afternoon; however, we were still stuck in NewYork following flight cancellation yesterday.

Very little sleep last night and both wide awake before 6, we got up and showered ready for breakfast at 6:30. We had decided to go back to the airport and try for an earlier flight.
We put ourselves on the 7:45 shuttle list and considered the rather poor breakfast offerings. We made a sudden decision to go for the 06:45 shuttle and through down orange and coffee, grabbed our bags from the room and just made it.

Chasing Solutions

On arrival at American Airlines we tentatively explained our position and we hit gold on the agent who went out of her way to not only succeed in finding a 4pm departure from La Guadia today but even managed to shuffle seats around to put us together. She organised a private taxi transfer for us and we were on our way to La Guardia delighted that at least we would get to Canada today though still aware of the massive worry of the loss of the car rental. Holiday Autos had finally replied to the DM on twitter saying that we had been declared No Show and would have to re-book.
We were checked in for the new flight so went direct to Bag Drop where a look of concern on the agent's face as she looked at her screen panicked me but the problem was only related to our hold bags not showing up as pre-paid; the next screen accepted it! Breath again, bags accepted and check in completed.

Car Rental

Flushed with success and very glad we made the decision to come to the airport very early, we considered the car rental. We had hoped to find a Thrifty office on the airport site but all rental offices are offsite. I wasn't keen by Lynne sensibly pushed that we had hours until our flight and we took the SkyTrain out to a stop where all the Rental shuttles picked up. We were surprised to find the rental depots a long way out from the airport passing views of Manhatton from high sections of road.
Here, we fell on our feet again. I explained to the agent (Antoinette) who was next free and happened to be the manager and she promptly announced that she knew the manager at Montreal communicating several times a day and she called him directly. Apparently, he wasn't in work but he took the call and they agreed that she would email all the details from our paperwork and that we still wanted the hire and he would pass on to his colleagues. Unbelievable! this seems to be our day.

To Canada

We retraced our steps to La Guardia and set about passing the remaining hours. till our new flight
....Then the boards changed from on time to Delayed 30 min. After yesterday, this set me on edge and I was constantly awaiting the horror of another cancellation. As the hour approached, gate 42 no longer showed our flight but another. As the other plane departed, our flight briefly reappeared only to be replaced again not long before we were due to board. Luckily, Lynne heard something about a gate change and checking on the main boards ours was now 9D and we had to get a bus from the far end of the terminal. Followed by a lot of dashing about we joined the rest of the group and careered around the edges of buildings, drove side by side with taxiing aircraft and passed old 1950-60s AA buildings which look from another era.
Just before boarding, an email arrived saying our car rental had been held open for 48 hours. Things are looking brighter.
We boarded our plan, a 45 seater cigar tube with rear engines having been advised the washroom was out of service so to go before boarding. Taxiing around the airport in this little plane felt like being in a car looking up at other aircraft. Then, we were in the air; climbing as if the pilot thought we were rocket powered and banking at angles which felt like we should slip sideways to the ground which seemed alarmingly close still.
Even in the air, I still felt as if it would go wrong and we would turn back to JFK but after halfway into the flight I finally managed to believe that we were finally going to arrive in Canada.

Manhattan skyline

Canadian border was busy but efficient. The e-passport machines much better than JFK with quick response and good instructions. The agents were less officious than the US and an effort was made to move people around queues to move it along. It took a while but allowed time for our luggage to process. On arriving at the carousel, it had been stopped and our luggage was being lifted off and parked by the wall.Only 45 passengers, most of whom were cabin bags only didn't produce a lot of cases to circle around.

We were struck by how French everything was; we both thought there would be a high presence but it is clearly first language.

On the Road 

The Rental depots were all across the road from arrivals and we were quickly in the queue. I don't understand why car hire always takes so long; I'm sure it's a ploy to get people so on edge that they are vulnerable to being sold extras. 

We were taking an SUV and because we are touring, I wanted the parcel area cover to be in place which rental companies usually remove. I got keys to a couple of cars and found a VW Tiguan with a roll out shelf that had not been removed. Back to office to sign papers and we were on the road.

This day should have been a tour of Montreal in the morning then a 90km drive out to Hawkesbury so by driving direct from the car rental we were able to spend the night at our originally planned location. We arrived late and crossed the road for a McDonalds before hitting our beds for the first time in hours not worried about anything.

The weird thing is that,now we are back were we should be tonight, it almost feels like it never happened.


Statistics: Miles today: 90km ; Miles so far: 56 ; Fuel added so far: 0 litres, 0 gals; Provinces: Quebec, Ontario; Time Zone: UTC-4 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)