Airport Trip

We started out on a snowy morning (Tuesday) with my mother-in-law to get to Toronto’s Pierson Airport for an early morning flight. We left at 6:15 a.m. and went off to pick up my elder daughter at a friends house because she also was on her way back home. They were both leaving within a half of an hour of each other from what looked like the same terminal.


This was a very early and uneventful trip, and in about an hour and fifteen minutes we were at the airport. This was expected to be the hard part of this journey, but it was the easy one.

I was heading for Terminal Three departures when my daughter decided I had no idea where I was going and began to demand that I follow her directions. Given it was dark and I was tired, I followed her lead and looked for the West Jet area to drop her off. It did not exist, and all I could basically find was Air Canada because she had led me to Terminal One. She was yelling that I simply had driven too fast by what must have been West Jet, but I decided to go park and we still had enough time to get there.

The first place (Terminal Three) I was heading was correct, but she wanted me to follow the road. We needed to be in Terminal Three for my daughter and I was heading that way when she intervened.

I parked in what turned out to be Terminal One parking and we proceeded to head toward the Terminal. We went in doors and down escalators and up elevators and found we were heading toward the wrong Terminal and had to go up escalators and down elevators and get on a train. The train took us to Terminal Three and we got to West Jet and watched my daughter check in, and we said good bye and went off to get to Continental Airlines and drop off my mother-in-law.

I kept saying to myself, “Terminal One Parking, Level Six, Space J-20”, over and over, so I could eventually find my car.

We looked around and there seemed to be no Continental counter so I asked and was told we needed to be in Terminal One for Continental even though her ticket clearly said Terminal Three.

My mother-in-law had just turned 83 and this was very upsetting for us both, and she was beginning to run out of time. So, we took and elevator and an escalator and we got to the train and went to Terminal One.

We arrived at the Continental desk in Terminal One and tried to check in at one of those computer kiosks and found none of her numbers matched any of the questions asked. They needed for international flights way more stuff then they need for domestic flights and I couldn’t find it. We got in the line and found out she was late, her flight number had changed and she ran the possibility of missing the whole thing. The fretful attendant told her not to worry although he clearly was out of control trying to find a solution. He called for a wheel chair and an attendant, who called for a porter for her bag, and they rushed her off to the gate which we were told was a 15-20 walk.

She made it home with no problems from that point on and my daughter made it back to Montreal in a quick bit with no waiting for luggage or cabs and only I was the wreck in the end.

I went to a Starbucks with no money because I had to give my mother-in-law my last $5 to cover a tip for the porter. They did have debit, and I had a large coffee, which was generously served too full, and it popped open and scalded my hand as I walked! I had to kick the top off to the side of the airport walk way, hobble over to a trash can and pour off a few inches of coffee, and get back to Starbucks and retrieve a new top and a pile of napkins to solve my wet and painful problem.

I kept saying to myself, “Terminal One Parking, Level Six, Space J-20”, over and over, so I could find my car, and I did! At least that part went well.