Take Two

Charity and I returned from New York this morning.  I’ll post on that a little later.  Allow me to share with you the events of Sunday (the Lord’s day no less).

First, a little background.  My travel schedule is somewhere between tourist and road warrior.  As a rule, I fly once to twice a month and spend about five nights per month in hotels.  Really, it’s not a bad schedule and I rarely have a bad mishap.  I was probably due.

We left the hotel on Sunday morning at 9 AM, and took the 30 minute ride out to Newark Liberty Airport.  The driver was the best I’ve ever had in New York (as there have been some really scary ones).  We checked in a the C Terminal but our plane was leaving from the A Terminal.  No problem, take the Airtrain from C to A and go to the gate.  I even loaned a couple of bucks to a nice lady who said I would have good luck because of my kindness.  I have a rock and am looking for her as we speak.

Our 11 AM take off was a little early (major surpise leaving New York City) however; about 30 minutes into the flight we begin to make a big sweeping turn.  I looked out the window and saw cloud formations over 30,000 feet and figured we were avoiding some nasty weather.  We then began to descend; in a hurry.  Apparently, our fuel indicator went out and we had to turn around and go to back to Newark.  We landed in Newark around 12:30 PM so, by my estimate, we essentially got half way there and turned around.  Why we didn’t go to Cleveland (where Continental also has a hub) is beyond me.  The flight attendant advised that it would be a quick fix, stay on the plane and we’d be on our way.  After about 20 minutes the quick fix wasn’t happening.  We got off the plane and had to wait for a new one to arrive (which it did about 45 minutes later).  We got on to the plane, pushed back from the gate, and parked.  And parked and parked.  There were apparently a raft of thunderstorms coming into the metro New York area and no planes were taking off or landing.  So, we sat for about 90 minutes and then the engines fired up.  We headed back to the gate as the flight was canceled due to the crew exceeding their alloted hours if we continued.  Not good times.

It appeared, as we headed back into the terminal, that a good number of the flights had been canceled or delayed.  Good number might be an understatement.  There was nothing going out before 5:30 and the customer service counter was about 80 deep when Charity and I got in line.  The reports we heard from those around us were 8 or 11 or 2 the next day.  I had an appointment in Cleveland this morning so that was a problem.

I asked Charity if she wanted to drive home.  She looked at me like I had two heads.  I repeated the request and got out my laptop, logged on to the internet and started checking for cars.  Hertz was a bust but Avis, who I have preferred status with, did have cars.  I rented a Mercury Grand Marquis and headed out of the gate area.  We then went to the baggage office to request our bage.  We waited, and waited some more.  I left to get the keys to the car and came back where Charity was still waiting.  After 90 minutes of waiting (it was about 5 PM at this time) we checked with a different person in the baggage office.  None of the bags from our Columbus flight had come off the plane and they would have to ship it to us.  Thanks for nothing; I’m out of here.

The Garmin GPS advised me that it was 538 miles between Newark Liberty Airport and my home in Mount Vernon, Ohio.  We left at 5:30 PM and got in around 1 AM.  If you do the math, you’ll see that we didn’t let any grass grow.  7 1/2 hours is a long time to spent in a car.  But allow me to share a secret- I had a blast on the ride home.  We talked and laughed and sang (I even did a disco dance).  It was like the road trips we took when we first got married (which was somewhat appropriate since our anniversary is tomorrow).  While it was a long drive, it will be remembered fondly.  We were those broke, crazy kids who got married 19 years ago.  It was a fun place to visit for an evening.

This morning, I took the rental to the Columbus airport, retrieved my van, and then made my appointment in Cleveland.  Charity and the blossoms came along and we went to the Akron Zoo.  A good time was had by all.

Long story short- air travel can be a major pain but sometimes lemonade can be salvaged.  A New York post (with pictures) is coming up later.