the return

[minouette]

So after a grueling week fighting equipment and trying to avoid gales at sea, we returned to port the day before yesterday. We had hoped to go back out, but that was not to be. We packed up equipment for over a day. KS and KC left yesterday, CS left early this morning. My noon we had packed all our equipment in trunks and loaded it on palettes and banded it together. Then the crane showed up for our winches, at which point we learn that there are no real shipping facilities there and hence, RM, AS and I were left with the task of crating the winches by ourselves (which involved much disassembly and re-assembly of giant crates, in the burning sun). After a whole trip with nothing but rain and storms, we get sun. It took three hours- by which time we really wanted to get out of there. So, we said our goodbyes and hit the road. RM took the first leg, driving as far as Springfield, Massachusetts (in rushhour traffic). By the time we got to Springfield the coming storm was obvious and the skies ominous. The Michael Jackson tributes on the radio were interrupted for tornado warnings - of course.

Of course there were tornado warning. This trip could not be complete without a tornado.

We stopped at a rest stop after appearing to have passed the storm. We replaced the weather warnings with my iPod and I took over driving. As soon as I got on the highway it seemed like the heavens exploded and there would be a flash flood- so I drove slowly with hazards on my first several miles. It cleared up finally, and I drove to Syracuse where we took the first hotel we could find. We should be back in Toronto midday tomorrow.

There will be pictures soon, but I have to rest now.