Planes, trains and automobiles....

[skfarmer]

Some of you know I have been on a family trip to Florida. We left home Christmas night and ended up on Aana Maria island the next afternnoon after an uneventful drive and flight. My wife and I along with my 2 sons, a daughter in law and a girlfriend.  We had a great week meeting my wife's family there

[skfarmer]

5 minutes after turning our rental car in our return flight from sarasota gets cancelled. After some scrambling we booked a flight from ft Myers early this morning. We got a ride the 90 miles south. Had a nice supper got a room to get some sleep. Up at 430 for 7 am flight. 5 am it gets postponed to 6 pm, then 1210 am Tuesday before being cancelled alltogether. Now there are no flights available  until Tuesday  afternoon if then.

Long story short, at a11  today we are in arental car headed to mpls. Rolling around Atlanta right now.

[slip knot]

Sounds like a fun trip. are the flights getting called for weather or are they over booked?

[Heiny57]

Well that sucks, things are only getting worse!

[DeadNutz]

I feel bad for you Harlan as you had no idea the airline schedules were going to crap. I just hope John Candy hasn't hitched a ride with you in the car.

[goodfellow]

Hope it works out for you Harlan. The system is breaking down, and there is no easy fix for this problem unless the government intervenes -- which they won't.

[skfarmer]

I would not have chose to do this. Well at least this rushed of a trip. It may have been kind of fun over 3 days.

It's really all part of the adventure. We will be getting our tickets refunded anday e some of our added expense.  I am with family and will look back at this and laugh, I hope. I forgot to wave at looking as we went past his place.

As far as what went wrong. I really don't know. One was flying sun country. We have used it before and like most airlines now it is not much more than a cattle truck with wings. Not enough planes, people, locations  to cover any hickups so things snowball when things happen. Throwing in the busy holiday week  doesn't help either. We may have been able to pick up a few more options for  2 people  but 6, no way.  Sending six people all over the eastern half of the us and  and then getting  them to the same ending location within  12 hrs want really possible either.

[fatfillup]

Well that us certainly a change of plans.

Hope the trip goes smoothly and sounds like your attitude is good which should help.

On a sidenote, Harlan sent me a pic of him reclining on the beach.  Showed it to Mama and got lucky that night

I am going to make it the background on her computer

[walrus]

Sounds like a fun trip. are the flights getting called for weather or are they over booked?

No flight crews

[Lookin4_67GalaxieConv]

Well that us certainly a change of plans.

Hope the trip goes smoothly and sounds like your attitude is good which should help.

On a sidenote, Harlan sent me a pic of him reclining on the beach.  Showed it to Mama and got lucky that night

I am going to make it the background on her computer

There's so much joke material here...

[goodfellow]

........On a sidenote, Harlan sent me a pic of him reclining on the beach.  Showed it to Mama and got lucky that night

I am going to make it the background on her computer

That's great! -- puts a whole new perspective on the concept of "subliminal suggestion"  -- LOL

[fatfillup]

Well that us certainly a change of plans.

Hope the trip goes smoothly and sounds like your attitude is good which should help.

On a sidenote, Harlan sent me a pic of him reclining on the beach.  Showed it to Mama and got lucky that night

I am going to make it the background on her computer

There's so much joke material here...

Yep, I tossed you guys a softball, have at it

[skfarmer]

Ditched our rental and back in my truck.  3 hrs  til home. Be fine with me if never to ride Ina packed minivan again.

Over 1700 miles with only fuel and potty breaks in 27 hrs. 217 to go.

[goodfellow]

Ditched our rental and back in my truck.  3 hrs  til home. Be fine with me if never to ride Ina packed minivan again.

Over 1700 miles with only fuel and potty breaks in 27 hrs. 217 to go.

Good luck!

[fatfillup]

Averaging 63 mph overall, that is covering some ground.

[john k]

What a way to get back home.   Finding the flights cancelled to me would be a nightmare that far from home.  At least you had drivers to switch off.   So many people would be crowded even in a big van.  Walking into home  and your own bed probably never felt so good.

[skfarmer]

Averaging 63 mph overall, that is covering some ground.

we generally had good info on roads but there was several accidents and a "lot" of heavy traffic. we stayed south and west of the snowstorms but did encounter a fair bit of places where it had snowed. we hit atlanta before dark and travelled through atlanta, nashvile, chatanoga and st louis  under cover of darkness. i was driving and watched the sun come up someplace north of st louis in missouri.

sat and watched all roker give his weather reports on the national map. it really sinks in how far we drove in such a short time trouble free.  we put a little air in one tire, it apparently didn't like the change from 80 to 25 degrees. the windshield washer quit, i assume it had high temp washer fluid or plain water in it and froze as it sprayed twice and quit immediately freezing to the windshield. we found that out as we passed a dually truck that was spewing diesel fuel out from under it like a rainstorm. covered our whole vehicle.

[fatfillup]

Ah a diesel shower, must be a fancy new spa treatment

[skfarmer]

What a way to get back home.   Finding the flights cancelled to me would be a nightmare that far from home.  At least you had drivers to switch off.   So many people would be crowded even in a big van.  Walking into home  and your own bed probably never felt so good.

my wife is actually good at finding tickets on her phone but is a whole other animal to book tickets and then watch them delayed or cancelled in real time. she had tickets booked on a flight late yesterday from ft myers to mpls and cancelled them. that flight was delayed once but did actually take off and land. we still beat that flight back to mpls and home by 3 or 4 hours.  good thing we did as we got home just after dark and drove the last 30 miles in poor snowy roads. even an hour later would have put us in a full blown snowstorm. it howled all night and is pretty crappy this morning.

my wife was in bed sleeping by 9. i was on the couch with dog and we both fell asleep there some time before ten. we both decided our blanket nest was good enough for the night. our dogs missed us!

[skfarmer]

Ah a diesel shower, must be a fancy new spa treatment

nothing real new there phil. been sprayed with fuel, gasoline, oil, chemical, blood, shit and a broad range of other things.

never had one of them golden showers but i figure i am too old to start that any way. they wife has told me to piss off many times. maybe that counts? 

[goodfellow]

Glad you made it back home Harlan. Sounds like an adventure for sure. As Nick said in a previous post, be glad you weren't passing through Virginia. I95 was completely shut down for almost 24hrs and people had to spend the night in their cars -- totally unprepared for temps in the low teens.

[DeadNutz]

What an epic journey Harlan. On the bright side you and the family got to see parts of the country you have never seen up close. I'm glad you're home safe and not stuck in Florida still.

Ray, would you have been caught up in that I-95 mess if you weren't retired?

[goodfellow]

.........Ray, would you have been caught up in that I-95 mess if you weren't retired?

Fortunately not Phil. In bad weather situations I could have done all my work from home.

[muddy]

Well that us certainly a change of plans.

Hope the trip goes smoothly and sounds like your attitude is good which should help.

On a sidenote, Harlan sent me a pic of him reclining on the beach.  Showed it to Mama and got lucky that night

I am going to make it the background on her computer

Hahaha same here, but Mandy just giggled a bit and went to bed by herself?!!!!

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