Change In Plans

This short post is about leaving Nashville, and starting the long journey to Churchill, Manitoba.

We are headed up to Northern Canada for four days to watch the polar-bear migration. Every October, a huge group of polar bears congregate near Churchill to wait for the Arctic ice to get thick enough to walk on. When the ice is ready, they disperse northward onto their winter hunting grounds.

This trip was Zola’s suggestion, having watched a “Planet Earth” DVD over and over again which showed the migration. My recollection was that Churchill looked pretty cold and desolate in the video, even in mid-October. Many people have said that the migration pattern will likely change with global warming, so this may be a limited-time opportunity.

We are racing to get on an 11:20am flight from Nashville to Minneapolis-St. Paul (another airport where I spent a colossal amount of time in the last two years). We have a short layover, potentially involving an OJ-Simpson run through the big airport, then we fly to Winnipeg. We stay overnight, then board a charter for Churchill tomorrow morning.

To give a sense of the geography, Churchill is as far from the Canadian border to the North as Nashville is from the border to the South.

We have left Tallulah in Nashville with India’s mother. It was sad this morning when she realized that Zola, India and I were all leaving, and she was staying behind. India’s father, LC, and our 9-year-old niece, Charlsi, are coming with us. Zola is thrilled to have another older kid along. He has been talking non-stop (about Pokemon) since we got in the car.

This is a strange side trip in our travels, but should be fun. We are supposed to do a series of game drives, go dog sledding, see an Eskimo museum, experience Canadian culture. We brought along a travel Scrabble game just in case.