The last couple of weeks have been crazy!!! Well, Happy Valley / Goose Bay wasn’t crazy – it was actually quite relaxing. A once booming military base (housing the U.S. , German, UK, Italian and Netherland air forces), it’s now a quieter community.
The run and celebration went off without a hitch! As the last torchbearer past me to head down the torchbearer corridor leading to the stage, my boss grabbed me to follow (usually it’s only the flame that travels that corridor). He said to me with his Norweigan accent “you have to see this”! It was fantastic to be in the middle of close to 4, 000 people cheering – what a rush! We crouched near the front of the stage, and were suddenly overtaken by 12 other torchbearers who were barreling down behind us! They all jumped up on the stage to join their community hero who lit the cauldron. It was a great sight.
I was introduced to Toutons when I was in Happy Valley – deep fried dough. My heart hurt a little after, but totally worth it! I was encouraged to try cod tongue, but graciously declined. The cod tongue, however, is not something you can avoid in Newfoundland….as I will detail later.
We left the next morning to head to St.John’s Newfoundland. It was the first (and last) time I got to ride on our charter plane. The team used the same plane and flight crew to take them from Vancouver Island all through the north until our destination in St. John’s. As a newcomer on the flight, I got to see the relationships that were built between our staff and there’s. It was all very casual, with jokes slung throughout the flight. Of course, the crew still had to give the flight safety briefing before each flight – and low and behold, some people had memorized the script and movements!! The flight crews’ final message was about how proud they were to be a part of this journey, and how privileged they felt to be chosen as part of the air team. It was one of the more touching speeches I heard in the last few weeks.
And love it I did! Pam (a regional route co-ordinator for the northern territories, and aboriginal liaison) and I took a quick jaunt up to Signal Hill as soon as we got to the hotel. In a 2 hour advance position (which was what I was doing for the whole province) you never know where you’ll be posted the next day. So, if you do have time in a city, you make the most of it. You become a very quick tourist. Signal Hill was the closest attraction we could visit. It was beautiful…and very windy! It was this miniature tower built on the top of hill called Cabot Tower (built for the 400th anniversary of Jean Cabot’s discovery of Newfoundland). This was also where the first reception point of a transatlantic wireless signal happened). Lot’s of history a top this hill and breathtaking views of the city and coast line. Little did I know that I’d be visiting this site the next day!
That night, we had our first official crew dinner. It was great to see everyone – and a little overwhelming too! We all got a chance to share stories about the last two weeks apart and our media team showed us some great footage that many of us did not get to see. Our “heart on his sleeve” leader was quick to jump to the podium to offer his congratulations on our northern journey and a pep-talk for our long haul back to BC. We laughed, we cried, it was better then CATS.
The next day my colleague, Candace, and I headed to Cape Spear for a morning photo opp with two torchbearers and the flame. Cape Spear is the most easternly point in Canada. My boss’s goal was to get an amazing shot of the sunrise with a flame exchange. Mission accomplished. It was an amazingly beautiful morning – it brought tears to my eyes to see the colours that materialized on the horizon with the sun, the vastness of the ocean below, the cliffs jutting out all around, and the flame in the foreground. I had a moment to myself (on the other side of an outbuilding, waiting for the torchbearer to walk through). It was so quiet (yet there were close to 50 people on the other side of the building); all I could hear was the wind and the ocean. It took everything I had to keep myself together – for the one reason that I wished I could have shared this moment with all of you at home. It was amazing. After the flame had left, Candace, Kim and myself decided to stick around the Cape to explore and do a few photo shoots! We all loved it.
That was definitely the highlight of St.John’s….mind you, I may add to my highlight reel the fact that I became an honorary Newfoundlander that evening as well! Yes, I was Screeched in that evening with 13 of my colleagues. Remember when I mentioned earlier that it wasn’t the last time I would encounter cod tongue? Well, they got me to eat it – and then kiss a frozen cod to boot! By the time the cod got around to me, its’ lips were kind of thawing out, and cod lips are actually quite plump. Kinda gross, but nothing a shot of Screech couldn’t help (or disinfect!).
The next day we spent the better part of our time in costal regions (which I cannot complain about – absolutely gorgeous!). I have to mention this small little town called Brigus. It feels like a completely different world to walk through their tiny little streets, and look at their adorable little homes, surrounded by huge old trees, perched next to the ocean. It was somewhat magical. I walked through the streets continuously repeating “oh-how cute! I could live here”.
So our next big day was Truro, Nova Scotia. After an overnight ferry from NF (on which I did not sleep – cursed bunk rooms!) we (Phil and I) headed to Truro to start, what felt like, our first official piloting day. We left everyone at the ferry to start marking the next day’s route. We returned later in the evening to arrival chaos! It’s pretty crazy when everyone arrives at the hotel at the same time. I mean, not all 250 of us get there at the exact same moment, but between 4pm and 7pm we all head to our main “office” to get our keys, pick up our bags (thank god I don’t have to do that everyday….perks of our position) and read the info board for the next day. We then all trickle into the dining rooms for our crew meal, where all the day’s stories are re-told. It’s usually pretty buzzing during dinner. We talk to the people we didn’t see during the day….wondering why we didn’t have our daily visit from them. We exchange hugs, high-fives, and pick food off each other’s plates. That’s dinner.
With each of our positions, we generally spend most of our time with select groups. As pilots, we spend our time with our shuttle hosts (who brief and pump up our torchbearers), shuttle drivers, security team (RCMP and police from detachments across the country), and our sponsor’s team of RBC and Coke (imagine two really big outdoor party buses with people dancing on them). That’s our convoy family. Phil and I have been amicably named as the smiley pilots. Big surprise there, right? I can’t see why no one else smiles like I do when I do my job. Smiles are contagious, they make you feel good, and as McDonald’s aptly pointed out – they’re free!!! As crazy as our days get, we stay positive and work with what we’ve got. If that means 6 of us getting out of our vehicles in the pouring rain to manage traffic at an intersection so that we can all stay as one unit, that’s what we do. It’s quite exhilarating.
And as we work with certain groups quite a bit, we become attached to certain people. For example, some of the security team who have been with us from the beginning left early this morning. Some of them we will see again once back in BC, but others we will not. It was amazing the sense of loss I felt for my team members – even knowing that they’ll be back, but not here for almost a month and a half. They’re going to miss a month and a half of stories, high-fives and hugs. I promised not to replace them…
So we had a day off in Nova Scotia after piloting in Truro…and what did we spend our time doing on our day off? Working!!! Phil and I have made it a goal of ours to spend at least a few hours in each convoy vehicle along with helping out in different departments. Sometimes there’s just not a whole heck of a lot to do in some cities – and it’s more fun to be with convoy! I spent a few hours in our command car (with one of my bosses) with a front row seat of the torchbearers. We later went to a construction area to check for possible detours, upon which I was then asked to jump into our police vehicle to help navigate through some extremely congested areas. I was less a navigator, more a traffic cop. It was so busy downtown that I would have to block all traffic so that all of our vehicles would fit through intersections. I would then have to sprint back up to the lead police vehicle to check our map, and then jump out again to handle traffic. It was crazy and fun – and a great workout!!! By the time we made it to the area where Sidney Crosby was runny, we looked like a big glowing worm moving through sand – there were so many people gathered to see Sidney…I could barely hear myself talk! Awesome.
Oh – did I mention I’m moving to PEI?? What a province! How come no one told me how beautiful it was! Phil was doing his best to keep me focused the day we had to work in PEI. I must have taken 50 photos of dirt! But it’s red dirt! I loved the colours, the landscape, the houses, and the people! And, a double bonus, I had the best Nachos ever in Charlottetown! So good, I had them 3 nights in a row! We visited this amazing pub in Charlottetown called the Gahan House (best nachos ever!!). It’s actually a brewery and a pub/restaurant. If you ever go to PEI, go HERE! Tell the manager that I sent you!!!! Seriously though, Phil and I spent our day off driving around the island and saw some very dramatic landscapes, and I also got to drag Phil to the Anne of Greene Gables house – beautiful property. I was very sad to leave PEI…but know that I will be back! Summer Holiday in PEI anyone??
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