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Sunday, November 04, 2007
Home Sweet Home
We ended up leaving Alert on Friday at 10:45am, it was nice to be
getting on the aircraft. We had to stop in Thule for refueling and to
pick up a guy there. Here we are getting off the airplane and heading
into the OPS building.
We got some good news while we waited, we were not going to Iqaluit for
the night, instead we were going directly back to Trenton. We would be
home a day early. It was avery long flight, just over 7 hours from Thule
to Trenton, not to mention the 1.5 hours from Alert to Thule. In the end
it was worth it, there was no sun in Thule, but there was daylight. We
flew through sun and then back into darkness. I still had another 2 hour
drive home after we landed. And finally on Saturday morning I saw the
sun again, you don't realize how much you miss it until you haven't seen
it for 3 weeks. Here is one of the air crew checking the aircraft before
we took off from Thule.
Today Claudia, Angela and I were playing road hockey and there was an
older gentleman walking down the street. I was wearing my Alert fleece
and as he passed he was looking at us. Then I heard him holler "When
were you in Alert?", after telling him I was there for the last three
weeks, he told me he was there 25 years ago, he was in construction and
he built alot of the buildings. He was curious if things have changed,
he remembers making alot of money because there was nothing to spend it
on, I told things were still the same.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Out to the North Shore
It was back to the North Shore of the St. Lawrence this week. Two of us
headed out to Longue Pointe De Mingan to install a new air filter pack
sampling tower. We drove to the site in a rental van. Our first day took
us as far as Rivière-du-Loup. In the hotel there was a beer vending
machine. It was $3.75 a bottle. You didn't actually put your money in,
you had to pay at the front desk and then they would open the machine
and give you the beer.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Who would've thought...
When I planned to come here, I figured getting a hotel room would be the
least of my worries, wrong. It turns out there is major work in the area
on the Keystone Pipeline Project. This is an undertaking by Trans Canada
Pipeline. As a result I spent the first two nights at the Antelope Inn
in Oyen and the third night at the Super 8 which is 4 km north of Oyen.
The only room I could get was this one with three queen beds.
I found this project overview information on the Trans Canada Pipeline
website. The 3,456-kilometre (2,148-mile) Keystone Pipeline will
transport crude oil from Hardisty, Alberta to U.S. Midwest markets at
Wood River and Patoka, Illinois and to Cushing, Oklahoma. The Canadian
portion of the project involves the conversion of approximately 864
kilometres (537 miles) of existing Canadian Mainline pipeline facilities
from natural gas to crude oil transmission service and construction of
approximately 373 kilometres (232 miles) of pipeline, pump stations and
terminal facilities at Hardisty, Alberta. The U.S. portion of the
project includes construction of approximately 2,219 kilometres (1,379
miles) of pipeline and pump stations. A picture off of the internet.
The pipeline construction is approached like an assembly line, with
workers and equipment travelling down the pipeline, completing various
operations in sequence. A welding hut photo from the internet.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Back to YYZ
My flight back to Toronto was suppose to leave at 6:30 am but due to
some mechanical problem, they couldn't load enough water on the plane.
They had to wait for some bottled water and in the end we sat for almost
45 minutes in the plane. Once we were up in the air, they offered a
complimentary beer, liquor or wine for the inconvienience. Keep in mind
it was still not even 7:30 am, so I'm sure it was an easy thing to offer
up, as there were not going to be that many takers.
Waiting for my luggage in Toronto.
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