My Red Eye Flight

Sunday started out bad. I left Campbell River at about 10 and missed the 1:15 ferry by three minutes! I napped in line for two hours and caught the 3:30 sailing. I still had lots of time when I left the Honda at the Holiday Inn Express and caught the shuttle to Vancouver Airport. My ticket said to be there three hours early and I was there by 7:00 for my 11:15 flight.

The problem was the flight left two hours late! They had some problem with the gate and then after we were boarded we had to wait almost an hour for the fuel truck. It was now about 1:00 AM and we had a crying baby on board! It was going to be a long flight!

I was napping and watching the movie with one eye when the stewardess came on and asked if there was a doctor on board! There did not appear to be one and I could not see what the problem was. She asked again with no result. I was thinking about telling her I had Industrial First Aid training with a long expired certificate but then realized the flight crew probably had similar training. My training was more along the lines of broken limbs and stabilizing patients than in medical emergencies so I would have been a hindrance anyway. I expected we would have been making an unscheduled landing to add a few more hours onto the flight but the crew seemed to get things under control and we carried on. No ambulance met the flight so all must have been well.

A $100 cab ride later, I was at my sister's door in Waterloo. I had a coffee with her and then retired for a three hour nap. By noon Toronto time I was up and acclimatized to the time zone.