Nearly three months had passed between attendance at the 84th anniversary Central States convention in late April and my next coin show/convention outing. Next up was attendance at the 69th annual convention of the Royal Canadian Numismatic Association in late July, of which I’ve been a member since 1956.
My travels to attend the RCNA in Halifax got underway on the third Sunday of July, with a 40-mile early evening drive to Appleton. After claiming an overnight room at the Cobblestone Inn, a couple miles from the airport, I belatedly put in my daily constitutional walking about the expansive parking lots of the Community First Credit Union headquarters across the street before retiring.
The Cobblestone is located about three miles from the airport, where I was ticketed out on a 6:15 United Express flight on Monday morning. My travels to Halifax required a three-flight itinerary by way of Chicago O’Hare and Toronto Pearson, the first two sections being on United and Air Canada express aircraft. Monday’s breakfast at the concession stand in the boarding concourse at Appleton was an egg and sausage English muffin. Lunch turned out to be two Lotus Biscoff cookies on the hour-long flight from Chicago to Toronto, flying at 35,000 feet above a thick haze. Connecting in Toronto involved a hike that was about a half-hour in duration between the arrival and departure gates. With a connecting time that was nearly two hours in duration I opted for what proved to be dinner – a pastrami melt sandwich with a garden salad and chopped fries – at Twist in Pearson’s connecting concourse.
The flight from Chicago to Toronto had arrived a bit early, at high noon. The scheduled 1 p.m. Halifax departure had been pushed back to 2:45 p.m.. Before the Airbus 321 left the apron, however,
