Christmas is over, the vacation is over (did it really ever happen??), and the year is over. I have been back for two whole days and the vacation "high" has worn off like the quick jerk of a Band-Aid off a hairy arm.
This is the story of the air travel portion of the vacation.
It started with a canceled flight Wednesday night as we got to the airport that turned into a noon flight the next day that morphed into a lost drivers license (my wife's) discovered missing as we were again shuttling to the airport the next day. Our non-stop flight became a next-day-stop-in-Houston-to-get-to-Ohio ordeal that lasted all day and killed Day 1 of the trip. Fortunately the TSA agent's supervisor accepted my wife's diving instructor card with her picture on it and let us in the airport. It didn't occur to us at the time we may not get so lucky leaving Cleveland in a week. This was all shaping up to be such great fun.
I must state right up front that I do not travel well when plans go awry. Delayed flights, canceled flights, missing luggage, overbooking...they all serve to drive me postal. Fortunately my wife is worse and that forces me to "talk her down" so we both don't get locked up. Compounding the issue this time was having to fly in a very small jet (1 seat - aisle - 2 seats) to Houston then deplane for the next size up jet (3 and 3). Fortune was with us (and so was our luggage) as we got the first row behind first-class which has the extra leg room. I am 6' 3" and my wife has had a knee replacement so leg room is a premium for us.
We finally arrived in Cleveland around 7PM Thursday night. Hertz has a nice policy that they will hold your reservation for 48 hours so we still got a car...a brand new Chevy HHR. It was nice enough but I wouldn't buy one. I will say it gets great gas mileage.
Forty minutes later we arrive at my mother's house. Finally here. Let the festivities begin!
Friday I gathered my wits about me and thought ahead about the photo ID dilemma we would face leaving Cleveland on Tuesday. I called back to Dallas and had a friend of mine go to my house, get my wife's passport and overnight FedEx it to me. It arrived on Monday. I was a genius. Since my wife instinctively knew I'd figure something out, I thought I'd better. Flight back to Dallas was uneventful and we were even able to move to the exit row directly behind us after the flight took off...for the leg room of course!
Any other holiday travel tales out there???
2 comments:
I will almost do anything to avoid flying during the holidays. Several years ago I sat in LAX for an entire day and overnight because of weather. What was crazy about it, is that the weather in LA was in the low 80's. It was the back east weather that screwed everything up! Since then, I just don't do it!
I'm glad you got to where you were going and back. Really smart idea about the Passport!
Happy New Year to both of you!
Pat: The amount of people stuck in Cleveland due to flights canceled and delayed to the east coast made the airport look like a campground. We had to step over and around sleeping bodies to get to our gate...which of course was at THE very end of the terminal!
Post a Comment