Back in October I headed to PA for a Penn State game. It had been a rough week and I was really looking forward to the game. That week I had been in the Chicago area for work. (See a future blog entry to be entitled The Adventures of Jill and Ginger.) I got back late Thursday night, went to work Friday and then headed to the airport for a 8pm flight. All of the Chicago related air travel had gone so smoothly I should have been anticipating that a disaster was around the corner.
My flight left Raleigh on time. Upon reaching my layover in Philly I learned that the flight to Scranton was delayed. I was annoyed because I was getting in late enough as it was. About 20 mins after our original departure time we boarded the plane and headed for Scranton. It is a short flight. Take off to touch down is 20-25 mins.
As the pilot told the flight attendant to “please be seated for landing” all I could think of was going to bed. At this point it was just about midnight. Not long after the flight attendant was instructed to buckle up, the pilot came on. He said “If you look out the right side of the aircraft you will see a cloud. It actually isn’t a cloud. It is fog on the air field.” Apparently it was illegal to try to land the fog was so bad. The pilot assured us they’d done this before and said we’d fly around for 20 mins to see if the fog lifted. Here’s the thing. Scranton, and therefore the airport, is in a valley. If there is fog in the valley at midnight it isn’t going anywhere until the sun comes up to burn it off.
After 20 mins I felt the speed of the plane change and thought “Oh good, they are going to land anyway.” Much to my dismay, the pilot came back on and said that we couldn’t land so we were heading back to Philly. Are you kidding me?!?!?! The flight attendant told us that if we could get service on our cell phones we could make calls. (FYI…apparently everyone on a plane can have their cell phone on and nothing happens). My parents were waiting for me at the airport so I started trying to get a text through to them. The service kept going in and out. I wasn’t able to get a text through for 10 mins and we landed 5 mins later. As soon as the signal was stronger I brought up the internet and was trying to find a car rental place that was open. I finally found one that said it would be open at 2am which is the time I was requesting to pick up the car. I didn’t want to believe it because all the others I had looked up were closed. I reserved it anyway.
We all de-boarded the plane. At this point it was 1am. I was on the phone with my dad having him tell my mom which car rental place to call to double check that I had a reservation. My mom asked me if it would just be easier for me to go back to Raleigh. That was not an option because I had the tickets!! If I didn’t get to my parents’ house by 7:30am no one was going to the game.
My mom confirmed that I did indeed have a rental reservation. I was trying to keep the fact that I had a car on the down low. You see, my parents live 30 mins south of the airport so I wouldn’t actually be going to Scranton. Unfortunately an older woman heard me ask my dad if I could just get on the turnpike. When I was off the phone she said “Are you looking for the turnpike? Just take A to B to the turnpike north.” Crap! How can I not offer her a ride now. I would seem like a total jerk. So I said, “Can I give you a ride anywhere?” She said she didn’t want to intrude. I said it was fine and I could probably use the company to stay awake. I had been up since 5am. We had to wait in line to talk to the airline rep to tell her we needed our luggage and not to bother rebooking us on the 8:30am flight. As we waited, the woman overhead a couple in front of us who were trying, unsuccessfully, to get a car. She looked at me and said “They are trying to get a car too.” *Sigh* So I said “Excuse me. I have a rental car confirmed. I have no idea what size car it is because I just took the first available vehicle. I can’t promise it will be a comfortable ride but you’re welcome to come with me.” They gratefully accepted.
At 2am I was sitting behind the wheel of a rental car with three complete strangers. Scranton was 2 hours away. Once we got underway we all began introducing ourselves. The older woman was a nun. The man was a teacher and his wife was a PR rep. I, of course, was the auditor.
We had a very pleasant ride to Scranton getting to know each other and trying to laugh about our situation. As we pulled into the airport I announced “Welcome to the Wilkes-Barre Scranton International Airport where the local time is 4:00am.” After dropping them off I headed to my parents house.
I arrived at 4:30am. I carried my suitcase upstairs, took of my heels and proceeded to collapse into bed wearing my work clothes. I took a 2 hour nap until my mom woke me up at 6:30am to get ready for the game. At 7:30am I was in a car headed to State College which is 2 ½ hours away. The game was great. Every once in a while I caught myself phasing out though as exhaustion set in.
Penn State won! Which was good news for the team, because if they had lost after all I’d been through to get there, they were going to get a personal call from me J Next year, I am not going to be the one to buy the tickets!
Ah, there is always a story!
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