En transit

Day One – We are here, safe and sound in Paris but the journey was an adventure all in itself.

Linda’s journey from Mexico went rather smoothly thank goodness, as she was travelling alone – and across Mexico to Mexico City and then to Paris is no small feat by yourself.  But she landed her bubbly self, amazed by the lights of Mexico City and the initial sights of Paris.

The carload from Foam Lake, Val at the wheel, Nat and Cecile passengers had a bit of a different start. They left Foam Lake at minus 35 degrees with a 25 mile an hour wind. The door to Val’s van froze up and wouldn’t shut — Blair to the rescue. Off they went. An hour and a half into the journey the discovery of a missing purse and passport left behind — Bob to the rescue. Val turned around and Bob left Foam Lake with the purse and an hour later, the gals were back on the road headed to the airp

ort. We tend to leave too early; today it was a blessing.

The gals met Jacquie, who was covering a short-staffed office until the last minute, and they all headed to the airport and were overwhelmed with a great send off.

Jim Hopson, general manager and Craig Reynolds, vice-president/CFO of the Riders were there to present the gals with Rider jerseys for us all. Breast Friends are so pr

oud of their province and try hard to reflect Saskatchewan spirit and nothing is more reflective of the spirit of this province than Rider Green. We will wear them with pride. CBC, CTV, Global and Metro News were at the airport to talk to the gals and wish them good luck.     Meanwhile, Darlene was heading from Saskatoon to meet the gals in Toronto. Other than a $100 overage fee because her luggage was too heavy, she had nothing but great things to say about her flight.

Patti and Anne (right) got to the airport in Phoenix in plenty of time and had a cup of coffee waiting for their flight. Then another and then another – the announcement finally came explaining the lateness of the flight and saying they would be off soon.

But not soon enough. When they got to Toronto they had missed the Paris flight. A few hours later they were on their way to Frankfurt with a connecting flight to Paris. Flight delayed, arrived in Frankfurt, oops, missed the flight to Paris. A few hours later booked again to Paris. By this time it had been 33 hours without sleep, and when the luggage came off the carousel in Paris with not a destination tag but a tag that said En Transit, we started laughing and could not stop as that was exactly how if felt — like we were in transit and may never see our destination.

We giggled all of the way to the hotel. The poor girls waiting in Paris who had left Toronto worrying about us had not received any of our texts so continued to worry all day.    Finally at 7 p.m., all together and in awe that we were here, in true Breast Friends spirit we shared a glass of wine and feasted together, ready to begin the adventure!