It's been almost two weeks since I returned from Newfoundland and I realized that I have told you all my final flight story: the dread tale of the Toronto to Winnipeg leg of our trip. So, sit back, kiddies. Get a nice big mug of hot chocolate, wrap yourself in your favourite blanket and enjoy...

Right, so the flight starts off smoothly enough. No screaming kids, the planes not too full. Rachel and I had another person in our row, but right before take off a stewartess told the woman that there were empty rows at the front of the plane and that she could move once the seat belt sign went off. Great, I thought. Only, once the seat belt sign went off, she didn't move. She put her headphones on and started watching television! Huh? What's up with that? Row to yourself with lots of room to stretch out or crammed in with a couple of strangers?

Eventually, after being told again she could move by the stewartess, she moved. But now the fun was beginning. The flight was a little choppy. The captain had warned us that there would be turbulence along the way, but for the first hour and a bit there was nothing too bad. Once we were kind of close to Winnipeg though, things were much worse. You see, boys and girls, Winnipeg was in the middle of a huge thunderstorm. We circled the city a few times, with our cloud-eye view of the lightening. Then the captain informs us that the plane's being diverted to Kenora Ontario to wait out the storm and to re-fuel. What's in Kenroa, you ask? Big, fat nothing! I'm surprised there was a run-way big enough to accomodate our plane. So we land, they turn the televisions back on and everything's quiet for 25-30 minutes. I look out and see the fuel truck filling up the plane. Oh good, I thought, we'll soon be on our way.

"This is your captain agin, folks. We have our new flight plan from Westjet, but it seems that the fuel truck has, well, run out of fuel. It'll be just a few more minutes here in Kenora." I'm sorry, what? The fuel truck ran out of fuel? The FUEL TRUCK?! Where does a fuel truck have to go to refuel? Where ever it went, it toook about 20 more minutes. By this time it's 10:30 or so at night. I'm tired and getting grumpy and a little hungry.

We finally take off and it's about 20 minutes to Winnipeg. And those twenty minutes felt like an hour. I have NEVER felt turbulance like that. The plane didn't shake up and down, like planes do in the movies; this plane was kind of sliding, one wing moving in front of the other. Stomach in my throat, I gripped the armrest of my seat and closed my eyes.

When we finally landed, the captain camer back on the PA to inform us that we'd be taxi-ing to the gate but, because of the storm, our bags might not be unloaded. Great. People are groaning audibly now.

When we finally deplane, a long line forms in front of the sliding glass door leading into the airport. Seems the airports closed. After a Westjet employee runs back from the plane with the keys, we can finally enter the Winnipeg airport... to the sound of the baggage carousel starting up, and our bags arriving.

After waiting 20 minutes in the pouring rain for a cab we get home by 1:00am... to a flooded bedroom. Seems someone turned our airconditioner on and it leaked all over the floor.