Our 8 hour flight turned into a 12 hour flight thanks to typhoon like conditions we experienced trying to land in St. John's. We were not able to land the first time so the plane was redirected to the airport at Deer Lake, Newfoundland. We topped up with gas and tried again facing a return to Ottawa if we were not successful. It was a hell of a ride but we managed to land in a torrential downpour and pretty foggy conditions. Instead of 10:30 PM, it was now 2:00 AM.
Our plan was to drive a few hours to the next major centre and check into a hotel. We hit the highway in the rain only to find fog as thick as pea soup. Reassessing our options, we backtracked into St. Johns and found a hotel to spend the night. Waking the next day, we faced a longer drive than we planned. We are to spend the next few days in Moreton Harbour, the birth place of my grandmother on my Dad's side.
An 8 hour drive found us in Moreton Harbour. Not sure what I expected to find there as my grandmother left there sometime after the First World War. I had checked the on line phone listings for Brett's living in Moreton Harbor but found none. While scouting out one of the local cemeteries we were lucky to meet Iann Small, born, raised and still living in the Harbour.
Iann invited us to his home for tea. When he found out what we were up to, he dug out the local phone book and found two local listings for Brett. He called the first one and before we knew it we had set up a meeting with Reginald Brett for the next day. To shorten this story, it turns out that Reg's father was my grandmother's brother. We were cousins. Too cool! We spent three hours finding out more about Moreton Harbour but not much about my grandmother as she did not stay in contact with her family.
On to St. John's and our flight to Halifax.
No comments:
Post a Comment