Monday, April 10, 2017

now for the bad news...

... which happened when we woke up on Saturday morning, thinking of how we could squeeze in a little more fun. I thought it would be entertaining to go down to the end of the island, and take that free ferry that we heard about on the bus tour. It might go over to NJ and back, as part of the mass transit system, moving commuters to and fro. I'm always up for a free boat ride, as long as it will get me back to where I started from.

I suggested we could check out, leaving our luggage with the bellman, and pick it up before heading out in the subway to the airport. Knowing we should plan to start around noon for a flight that would board close to 3 pm, allowing plenty of time to get to LaGuardia and get through the TSA process. We took a bus, and a subway train to get into town, so I assumed we would reverse the process to get back to the terminal, then a long trek dragging suitcases. You will always as far away as possible from where you need to be, right?

As it turned out: we did not do any of that. A message that our flight had been cancelled changed our plans. The way I heard it was that ALL Delta flights had been cancelled. Which apparently caused thousands of thwarted travelers to attempt to book on other carriers, which caused every other airline to fill up. And us to be stranded in NYC.

I proceeded to devise a plan where we would get to Baltimore or Richmond on a bus or train, and have my brother meet us. He would be persuaded to agree to take us down into NC, where someone would come up from Atlanta to get us home. Nothing available on buses or trains. No leaving the city on mass transit.

We must have gotten the Very Last Rental Car Left in All Of New York City. My highly capable, thoroughly dependable, very resourceful logistics coordinator lead us to the subway, with luggage and high hopes. I'd suggested a rental car facility as faraway as we could get on public transportation to make it easier to get underway without dealing with the chaos of traffic. I think we were in the Bronx when we got our Vastly Overpriced car and headed south.

Through New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Virginia and on to Tennessee. As we drove south, we got reports that the new flight we had been booked on, that would leave NYC at 730 pm had been delayed, then cancelled. We were then booked on a flight to Milwaukee, which also was cancelled, while we continued to motor along the interstate heading towards TN.

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