THE TRIALS AND TRAVELS OF

A NATIONAL DIRECTOR

(by JACK WHITE)

Even though my trip to, and from, Grindelwald was long and eventful, I had no intention of writing about it until what happened de-planing at Calgary March 14th after the flight from Kelowna and our Nationals. Back to the beginning - At 2PM Tuesday Feb 23rd with tickets (purchased in Oct from my trusted travel agent) in hand, I boarded an Inter-Canadian turbo-prop aircraft for the flight to North Sidney and Halifax, enroute to Toronto and Zurich. Whoops, hold it right there!! You are probably pondering, if he is going to Switzerland, why is he flying in the opposite direction half way across Canada to get there? More explanation necessary.. Sometimes going to certain places from Newfoundland is never quite simple.Air Canada does not fly out of Stephenville, so my itinerary was as follows: Stephenville - North Sidney - Halifax via Canadian Airlines. Halifax - Toronto - Zurich returning Zurich - Toronto - Halifax (point of origin) via Air Canada. Then Halifax - Toronto - Vancouver - Kelowna, returning Kelowna - Calgary - Toronto - Halifax - North Sidney - Stephenville via Canadian, two very long but seperate return flights, making for much cheaper air fare. Our constitution states that all directors must obtain cheapest rates possible. Back to Feb 23rd. I arrive Halifax at 4PM, pick up my ski's, luggage from Canadian and hustle to Air Canada. Handing over my ticket the agent looks bewildered, and I'm about to find out why. She tells me that my flight from Halifax to Toronto is dated Feb 22nd, (you recall the old Beatles tune, Yesterday) and todays flight is full. It gets worse, my 8PM flight from Toronto to Zurich was discontinued in Nov, nobody told me (merci, travel agent). Now the wheels are turning (I swear I saw those cartoon lightbulbs flashing over her head), this Air Canada person scampers over to the Canadian counter, they have a flight to Toronto leaving in 15 minutes, Air Canada will send me on this one, when I arrive in Toronto she says I can get on another Air Canada flight to London, then from London to Zurich on their partner, Swiss Air. All on the same ticket and only two hours longer than my origional schedule, remarkable! And what's more, my ski's, luggaga will be shipped directly to Zurich via another route, arriving two hours before me, can you believe it? These guys are good.

Wednesday Feb 24th. Arrive Zurich 11Am, await ski's, luggage, they did not arrive, strange! I do however have my knapsack containing two pair of ski boots and shaving kit (that should hold me for a few days). It will take more than these few inconveniences to rattle this national director. At the missing luggage department a full description is given. The Young lady checks and is certain it eill arrive the next morning and she would like an address so it can be delivered. I am aware that the road and rail travel to Grindelwald has stopped due to avalanche danger, but I'm taking a 3 hr train ride to Interlaken, a town 20Km from Grindelwald. I tell her I will telephone with an address as soon as I know one. Did I mention that I don't sleep on airplanes? I did get fifteen minutes on the train. Arrive Interlaken at 4PM, meet four fellow Canadians fron BC and two more from USA. Word on the street is Grindelwald is only accessible by helicopter, Why not? We jump into a small bus and it's off to the Heliport. The mass confusion at this site has been previously noted in teh WMC report. Making this as brief as possible, an only slightly aggravated National Director placed a 100 swiss franc bill on the table and said "we're going to Grindelwald"! The others paid the same amount, ouor names were checked off the Masters list, and we were asked to proceed to the ramp. Four of our group left in one helicopter, three of us climbed in another. We lifted about fifty feet, and the pilot started tapping one of the control panel dials, "low fuel", back down to earth,we exit helicopter, he is off to tank up, and return in twenty minutes. As we wait in the heavy snowfall, darkness approaching, I feel that the way my luck has been going, no way will we get to Grindelwald today, and maybe never. But lo and behold, another helicopter arrives, we climb aboard and are wisked up the valley to Grindelwald in 8 minutes, oh happy day.The receptionist at my hotel telepones the lost luggage at Zurick airport giving my address, ski's and luggage arrive at my room at 4PM Feb25th. "typical swiss efficiency".

Sat March 26th 5AM train to Zurich, Air Canada noon departure to Toronto, arriving in a snow storm, depart Toronto and arrive Halifax at 10 PM. Get 4 hours sleep at my son's house then back to the airport at 6AM Sunday March 7th in the same snow storm that hit Toronto. Luckily we depart at 7:30, Toronto, Vancouver, Kelowna, arriving Silver Star at 5PM. It's more fun travelling west, you gain all thet time. The Nationals were great. Sunday March 14th 4AM?? Bus pick up at hotel, arrive Kelowna airport about 5AM in pouring rain, the international airport is locked. A half hour wait under overhang brings the security guard with keys, to the relief of five sleepy Masters. We're still trying to figure out why we had to depart Silver Star at 4AM for a 7:20 flight?

Not an empty seat on the Dash 8 from Kelowna to Calgary, I'm hoping everything is on schedule as I have a quick connection in Calgary. We are some of the last to de-plane, about twenty feet from the aircraft I turn to see if they are unloading the skycheck luggage (my knapsack containing ski boots, shaving kit and camera, no photo), and right before our eyes the Dash 8 does a weird impression of a horse rearing up on it's hind legs. Apparently the aft cargo compartment was pretty heavy, and when all teh passengers got off, down went the tail end. I looked at the cockpit whic was high in the air, the pilot had the same bewildered look as the Air Canada agent on the first day of my travels. To cut this short, one of the baggage handlers did get my knapsack and I made my connection to Toronto. At Toronto the flight is late departing for Halifax, but all goes well and I arrive Stephenville just before midnight. What about luggage you say? Of course it didn't arrive!! It never made the quick connection in Calgary. However it was delivered to my home on Monday afternoon March 15th. Who cares, I didn't need the ski's. I returned to grass. Now wasn't that a fun trip, Maybe i'll send this story to all concerned airlines and apply for quadruple travel points..    Jack

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