New Years Day highlights in Winnipeg:

• Woke up at 08:45, showered, and made sure I had packed everything up.
• Thanks my friend for letting me stay with him. Hugged. Got my two suitcases and my backpack into the elevator and down to my rental car.
• Drove to my favourite Petro-Canada station. It was closed. Had to go to Husky on Portage, just west of Berry to top off the rental car's gas tank. Husky accepts my CAA card. Cool.
• Dropped off my rental car, checked in at the kiosk, and went to drop off my baggage. Air Canada has the longest lines for dropping off baggage. Saw four women hovered around a guy's suitcase, trying to remove goods from it to meet the maximum luggage weight.
• Eventually got to the drop-off counter. Check-in guy was friendly and accommodating, trying to find a direct flight from Winnipeg to Toronto for me. He couldn't. He advised the last plane taking this route was cancelled, so there were lots of people on standby. Told him I was okay with heading over to Ottawa and then flying into Toronto.
• Had a burger and salad at Harvey's for breakfast. Went through security fine. Plane was a bit late. Not thrilled with sitting in front of two young girls. The girl behind me kept kicking the back of my seat. Both girls were whiny and chatty. The guy next to me was friendly and smart. He had brought his Bose noise-cancelling headphones. Too bad I didn't have mine with me. I could have used them.
• I fell asleep. I tend to do that these days when I experience delays. Oddly, I woke up just in time for the free refreshment. Both the guy next to me and I handed our napkins over to the guy in the same row as us, but on the other side of the plane. He had spilled his coffee all over his tray and on him.
• Got into Ottawa twenty minutes late. I was okay with that. No ramp for the plane. We had to descend the narrow steps down to the ground and then walk into the terminal while it was snowing and getting a bit blustery. Nice. I didn't even bother pulling out my jacket. I needed to visit the washroom and then had to figure out how to get to the new terminal. Signs there were helpful.
• I was getting a bit hungry. I opted for some Timbits (don't normally eat donuts, but wanted something to munch on). The sour cream ones are yummy. So are the honey dip ones. I also got a bottled water.
• It was a free-for-all situation getting on this plane. Once again, I fell asleep on the plane and was smart enough to have my iPod with me this time. I had water on the plane and then read the entire En route magazine.
• Plane go into Toronto late. The ramp wasn't working. No other gates were available. Electrician was called to help us. More delays. Eventually got off the plane and headed over to the baggage area. Fetched my two bags and headed to the parking lot to pay for parking there. I eventually left the airport just before 21:00. My plane was supposed to arrive at 19:15. Yes, there was a bigger delay than I had anticipated.
• I got home safely. It's nice to be back.