Plane, truck and snowmobile: Northern Peninsula couple pulls out all the stops to make Cuban vacation

A massive snowfall blocked the only road toDeer Lake Airport but one Northern Peninsula couple found a way to get through the snow and towards their long-awaited Cuba vacation on Monday.

• Labrador, Northern Peninsula digging out from 3-day storm

Angel Hedderson and Dwayne Snow beat a multi-day storm, and huge snow drifts, by devising a plan that wouldsee them snowmobile overan impassable part of the highway and borrow a vehicle on the other side.

"It's just nothing that I'll ever experience again, I don't think," Hedderson told theCorner Brook Morning Show.

"It makes you appreciate what some people are willing to do for you."

Massive storm

The storm, which walloped the Northern Peninsula for five days, put the couple's vacation plans at risk.

According to Dixie Harpell, Hedderson'ssister, the couple already changed their tickets once in an effort to get better travel conditions.

But when they woke up Monday, the weather was just as bad as it had been all weekend.

"I had a little bawl, I cried," Hedderson said. "We just assumed it was over."

"All of a sudden, we start getting some crazy ideas."

With the help of Harpell in Halifax, Hedderson and Snow made a plan to make it toDeer Lake Airport, more than 400 kilometresaway.

The group found a family friend who was willing to drive them from St. Lunaire-Griquetas far as St. Anthony Airport.

There theyfound another family, including a co-worker of Hedderson's, thatwas strandedon the other side of a snow-chokedstretch of Route 430.

Hedderson and Snow borrowed a friend's snowmobile, tied their luggage to a komatik, and met up with the coworkeron the other side.

They then borrowed their coworker's truck to drive down the Northern Peninsula toDeer Lake airport.

It's a long drive, and Heddersonsaid the road conditions were dreadful at times butthey arrived with just minutes to spare.

Harpell said the planning took hours.

"It was a big, big production. We used Facebook. I'm in Halifax and I've been on Facebook all day, trying to get in contact and find rides. It was a major, major event," she said.

A lot of the planning was based on the posts they were seeing on Facebook.

Harpell said the family just had to try to save their trip which they had been anticipating since September.

"They just decided to take their chances. They left in a mad rush this morning and decided, you know, between a few borrowed vehicles and a snowmobile, they would try it."

"If it didn't work, it didn't work. But they couldn't not try. They had to try to get out."

A little help from my friends

Hedderson and Snow arrived in Halifax at about 9 p.m. NT, due to leavefor Cuba early Tuesday morning.

Harpell is in awe of the kindness of her hometown.

"It's just unbelievablehow quickly such a small town came together for two people trying to go on vacation," she said.

"Everyone was willing to help out if they could."