I finally have a minute to share our travel story.
The background to it is a little complicated but
just 2 weeks before DS was to leave for West Point,
he received an email with his flight itinerary:
same flight as ours...just the day after.
Wait, what?!?
I was really looking forward to travelling with him
this one last time--I was counting on it.
Even if there had been a vacant seat (nope), a change
would have meant obtaining an order from the USMA.
I had no idea what that would involve but I doubted it would
be a good way to start off his time with the academy.
In the end, there was nothing to do but let go and let God.
Certainly He was up to something there.
Fast-forward to the fated weekend.
Hubs and I were up bright and early at 3:45, taking off at
6am and landing in Chicago just after 7am for a short layover.
Experienced travellers all get their little radars going
at the very short announcement: "gate change".
However, knowing we had all day to get to our destination, we
shrugged it off when it came, along with the delays that followed.
Because, really, what are you gonna do?
Again. Again. And again they came. We lost track of how
many times but they were first due to an emergency landing
that took most of Newark's airport out of operation and
later they were due to heavy storms in that area.
Sharing our flight were several other families taking their
soon-to-be cadets to the academy so we passed a lot of
time joyfully getting to know them--especially a family who
lives very close to us. We even discovered the father works
for the same company as DH. Small world, huh?
I was, however, feeling sorry for these kids, getting all worn
out from these travel issues--and slowly becoming thankful
that DS was not with us.
Mid-afternoon found us actually out on the runway for well over
an hour only to come back in to the airport and wait....
another delay...and finally around 5:30pm (?): cancelled.
And here's where it gets "fun".
With so many cancellations we ended up in a line with hundreds
of other travellers. The line stretched in front of us. See the yellow
arrow? That is the compacted line that goes behind the wall,
the line we were all in line to get to, so to speak. You can't
see the many people that were around that corner.
All of us were on our phones as well, trying to get to Newark,
though there wasn't a flight to be had.
All cancelled. I sat on hold for an hour and fifteen mins when
my hubs got through, and here's the best thing we could get
arranged: a flight to Baltimore, MD. Somehow this timed with
our reaching the front of the line just in time to get an actual
boarding pass printed out. I love the convenient apps to
keep it all handy on my phone but in this situation, I was not
going to be leaving that line without a hard copy boarding pass.
Sometime after 7pm we found ourselves in the air to Baltimore.
Hubs got to sleep but the lovely grandma next to me wanted
to talk about her family so, because I don't sleep well on
planes and felt she needed to talk, I spent almost the entire
flight visiting with her. At the end of the flight she thanked me
and mentioned how much she enjoyed our talk etc.
You know what? I rather enjoyed it, too.
I want to skip forward but I have to mention that once
on the ground there, we had yet one more delay--and
mind you, I'm laughing still at this point because
my son is not with us! God is funny, is he not?
Not kidding--I laughed out loud in my seat.
(The ground crew could not come out due to lightning.)
Other travellers were using colorful language all day but
we sat back and rolled with it all, knowing DS would get
a good night's sleep. We, however would not. There we
sat in the plane just outside our gate in Baltimore.
Finally getting into our rental car, we left the airport right
at midnight and began our crazy drive. As a side note,
I got to "visit" some new states. Does a late-night
drive-through count as visiting???
Just in case you haven't found yourself driving by NYC
at 3:30 am, here's a quick shot of the view for you.
MANY (6?) coffee/"wake-up"/restroom stops later,
we arrived at our hotel outside of West Point at 5 am
with sunlight beginning to show on the horizon.
I don't think it's normal to see two sunrises without some
sort of sleep in between but hey, that's just my thought on it.
Another note: always call ahead to your hotel if your going to be
late. They were completely booked but saved our room
because we had called. I wanted to hug the clerk but I just might
have fallen asleep hanging on her...and then that just might
have freaked her out a little but, that is also just my thought.
After we had our quick showers the hubs fell right to sleep
but I noted the time and began texting with my son who,
back home, was just getting up to head to the airport.
I eventually got 1 1/2 hours of sleep but snapped awake just
shy of 8am. We still needed to run to WP get our 4-year passes
and then head to the elusive Newark airport to grab
our son...who, it turns out, landed even a little early.
No delays, no issues.
Calm and well-rested for what was to come.
Did I mention God was up to something there???
Next post:
R-Day and an update on my latest project.
Happy quilting, and let go and let God!
The background to it is a little complicated but
just 2 weeks before DS was to leave for West Point,
he received an email with his flight itinerary:
same flight as ours...just the day after.
Wait, what?!?
I was really looking forward to travelling with him
this one last time--I was counting on it.
Even if there had been a vacant seat (nope), a change
would have meant obtaining an order from the USMA.
I had no idea what that would involve but I doubted it would
be a good way to start off his time with the academy.
In the end, there was nothing to do but let go and let God.
Certainly He was up to something there.
Fast-forward to the fated weekend.
Hubs and I were up bright and early at 3:45, taking off at
6am and landing in Chicago just after 7am for a short layover.
Experienced travellers all get their little radars going
at the very short announcement: "gate change".
However, knowing we had all day to get to our destination, we
shrugged it off when it came, along with the delays that followed.
Because, really, what are you gonna do?
Again. Again. And again they came. We lost track of how
many times but they were first due to an emergency landing
that took most of Newark's airport out of operation and
later they were due to heavy storms in that area.
Sharing our flight were several other families taking their
soon-to-be cadets to the academy so we passed a lot of
time joyfully getting to know them--especially a family who
lives very close to us. We even discovered the father works
for the same company as DH. Small world, huh?
I was, however, feeling sorry for these kids, getting all worn
out from these travel issues--and slowly becoming thankful
that DS was not with us.
Mid-afternoon found us actually out on the runway for well over
an hour only to come back in to the airport and wait....
another delay...and finally around 5:30pm (?): cancelled.
And here's where it gets "fun".
of other travellers. The line stretched in front of us. See the yellow
arrow? That is the compacted line that goes behind the wall,
the line we were all in line to get to, so to speak. You can't
see the many people that were around that corner.
All of us were on our phones as well, trying to get to Newark,
though there wasn't a flight to be had.
All cancelled. I sat on hold for an hour and fifteen mins when
my hubs got through, and here's the best thing we could get
arranged: a flight to Baltimore, MD. Somehow this timed with
our reaching the front of the line just in time to get an actual
boarding pass printed out. I love the convenient apps to
keep it all handy on my phone but in this situation, I was not
going to be leaving that line without a hard copy boarding pass.
Sometime after 7pm we found ourselves in the air to Baltimore.
Hubs got to sleep but the lovely grandma next to me wanted
to talk about her family so, because I don't sleep well on
planes and felt she needed to talk, I spent almost the entire
flight visiting with her. At the end of the flight she thanked me
and mentioned how much she enjoyed our talk etc.
You know what? I rather enjoyed it, too.
I want to skip forward but I have to mention that once
on the ground there, we had yet one more delay--and
mind you, I'm laughing still at this point because
my son is not with us! God is funny, is he not?
Not kidding--I laughed out loud in my seat.
(The ground crew could not come out due to lightning.)
Other travellers were using colorful language all day but
we sat back and rolled with it all, knowing DS would get
a good night's sleep. We, however would not. There we
sat in the plane just outside our gate in Baltimore.
Finally getting into our rental car, we left the airport right
at midnight and began our crazy drive. As a side note,
I got to "visit" some new states. Does a late-night
drive-through count as visiting???
Just in case you haven't found yourself driving by NYC
at 3:30 am, here's a quick shot of the view for you.
MANY (6?) coffee/"wake-up"/restroom stops later,
we arrived at our hotel outside of West Point at 5 am
with sunlight beginning to show on the horizon.
I don't think it's normal to see two sunrises without some
sort of sleep in between but hey, that's just my thought on it.
Another note: always call ahead to your hotel if your going to be
late. They were completely booked but saved our room
because we had called. I wanted to hug the clerk but I just might
have fallen asleep hanging on her...and then that just might
have freaked her out a little but, that is also just my thought.
After we had our quick showers the hubs fell right to sleep
but I noted the time and began texting with my son who,
back home, was just getting up to head to the airport.
I eventually got 1 1/2 hours of sleep but snapped awake just
shy of 8am. We still needed to run to WP get our 4-year passes
and then head to the elusive Newark airport to grab
our son...who, it turns out, landed even a little early.
No delays, no issues.
Calm and well-rested for what was to come.
Did I mention God was up to something there???
Next post:
R-Day and an update on my latest project.
Happy quilting, and let go and let God!
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