So the time came for us to board the plane. As they were announcing the pre-boarding for our plane the lady announced our flight going from Winnipeg to Churchill to Whale Cove and Repulse. Well this wasn’t where we were going and Etienne couldn’t get a straight answer from the employee. She just kept saying, yes it is a connecting flight….well our flight number was the same almost the entire flight….Oh well, we just figured we’d get on and end up where we end up! lol. So we landed in Churchill and there we were told that our flight was next heading to Arviat and then off to Rankin Inlet…..So the employee in Winnipeg was mistaken! HA!  Our flights up until Baker Lake were pretty uneventful. We had to de-plane at each stop and wait for them to refuel and re-stock the plane. In Rankin Inlet, Etienne asked the staff if we would be able to let our dog out of her kennel to allow her to do her business. She hadn’t pooped yet that morning and I was worried that she was going to end up with diarrhea all over her kennel. They surprisingly let him get her and we walked her around until it was time to board again. That was really nice. Cisco was very happy to be able to stretch her legs. After Rankin Inlet we landed in Baker Lake. We were tired of getting on and off the same plane so we were allowed to stay on the plane for this last stop. We were the only two that stayed on the plane. We were just hanging out when the Pilot came up to us and asked us if our dog was going all the way to Chesterfield with us. We told him that he was correct and he stated that they had taken her off the plane and she was sitting on the truck! He said he’d go and take care of it. Thank goodness he noticed, I don’t know what I would have done if she stayed in Baker Lake while we went to Chesterfield. We were on the last plane into Chesterfield until Monday! I would have panicked if she was left behind.  We finally landed in Chesterfield just after 3:30pm. The corporal was there waiting for us. This was where we discovered what made it and what didn’t. So our dog, 2 suitcases and 1 tub made the flight with us.. We are now waiting for next week to see when/if the other 3 tubs show up. Out of the 4 tubs, the one with the most value and most important showed up, so that was a good thing. The rest we can live without for a while.

Our house was basically what we expected. The relief member that was here cleaned the house spotless for us! That was awesome, the house smelt and looked so clean. We unpacked a little and relaxed for a few minutes before we went over to the corporals place for supper. We really enjoyed their company. It was an early night as we were both exhausted.

I have included a few pictures we took along the way….

This is our plane we took from Winnipeg to Chesterfield Inlet...

Waiting for them to finish loading/unloading the plane.....

This is the terminal in Arviat...

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I was very happy to see that Cisco survived the flight without incident! No drool, no vomit, no diarrhea! Now to see how she fares tomorrow. Our flight today was 2 hours, tomorrow we’re facing an 8 hour flight…

After we landed Etienne went to the Calm Air counter to ask a few questions. It was here that our luck changed……He found out that any over-weight luggage probably wouldn’t make our flight. It was booked full up and they couldn’t guarantee that our luggage would make it. This sucks because there is only 1 flight to Chesterfield per day and they don’t fly on weekends. So our baggage would become “priority” luggage and they would fly it as the room was available. Etienne was told that we should have our luggage within a week! I’ll be honest, our stress levels have been pretty high lately and our fuses have been running short. Etienne was SCARED to death to have to come and tell me this little piece of information. He was afraid that I’d run back to the counter and punch out the employee! He was happy to find out that I reacted the opposite….Really, what can you do? It’s out of our control….I just said that we’d figure it out…..

What we decided was to buy a couple of back-packs and pack more in our carry-on luggage. We figure that 2 of our suitcases are now within the 50 pound allowance. This should be enough for us to survive for a week or so until the rest of our luggage arrives……

We still don’t know what’s going to happen with all of our house-hold effects. There were talks that it would be trucked to Thompson and they would try to catch the last barge of the year. If this happens, we will receive all of our household items, our annual food order and our quad all on the same day!! OMG, where am I going to put all the boxes to unpack?!?! I guess we’ll have to figure something out. They are estimating the arrival of the barge sometime at the end of september. So we will have about a month with what we packed in our suitcases….whenever those arrive…..

Well it’s late and i’m exhausted….Time to go to bed and see what tomorrow brings…..Stay tuned

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On Sunday our internet went down at home. We phoned Telus to see what the problem was. They said they weren’t sure and it would be Wednesday at the earliest to have it fixed…..Needless to say we’ve been without internet since. I’m going to do my best trying to catch up with our recent events.

Monday was the big day. Movers were supposed to be at our place at 0900. They didn’t show up until 0930. Can you believe that only 2 guys showed up to pack up an entire house??!?! They stated that this was their busy time and no one else was available. We were showing them around the house so they knew what they were up against. The look on their faces was priceless when they saw our “North” room.

What we decided to do what take (almost) everything that we wanted to have shipped to the north and put it all in one room. Well it didn’t look so pretty after everything was in it.

This is our "North" room

The "North" room all packed up and ready for loading....

So after the end of Monday 1830, all the packers had completed was the basement!! They still had all of the upstairs to pack. Needless to say, we were a little stressed by the end of the day. We were chatting with the movers and asked if they would be completed by the end of Tuesday. They stated that they weren’t sure if they would or not. We basically told them that they didn’t have a choice but to be done as we had to drive to Edmonton and a plane to catch on Thursday. They showed up Tuesday morning at 0830 with three of them and a short while later two more men showed up. They had 5 guys in total. They had everything packed and loaded by 1630! They were definitely men on a mission all day!! It was quite impressive.

The basement before.....

The basement after....

Our Polaris RZR being loaded onto the truck...

Saying bye to our stuff....

We are anxious to see how it all ends up. What did/didn’t make it up North. What we forgot to pack and what we packed and didn’t really need. It will also be interesting to see what we will find in two years after we move out of the north. Etienne and I were talking on tuesday evening and discovered that the packers packed up all of our BBQ sauce to put into storage!! So I guess we’ll have two year old BBQ sauce (nicely aged) when we’re unpacking all of our storage stuff. Oh what wonderful surprises await us?

We finished cleaning Wednesday morning and started our drive to Edmonton. We weren’t even 25 km’s out of Valleyview when the dog puked in my car! She really doesn’t travel well. I was a little stressed about her first plane ride on Thursday! We made it to Edmonton without any further issues. We had planned to put both of our vehicles into long term storage. After dropping all of our luggage at my mom’s we headed out the the storage lot. When Etienne called to reserve our lockers they told him that the doors were 9 feet tall. Well, that wasn’t the case! His truck wouldn’t fit into the storage locker! He had to drive from Nisku to Leduc to buy a compressor. We deflated his tires enough to fit the vehicle in, and then he re-inflated his tires. Yes, we are going to have to do that every time we want to use his vehicle in Edmonton.

We spent the rest of the evening visiting with my family. I can’t believe that the day has finally come…….Now on to the next step…the flights……

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