On Wednesday morning, July 18, we woke up around 6 a.m. (1 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time) at Rob and Susan's home in Kingclere, took showers, grab bananas, packed the rental car and left around 7:15 for London Heathrow Airport. The trip there went smoothly, as did check-in and security. The flight to New York's John F. Kennedy Airport was uneventful, although we did arrive a few minutes late due to queues for take-off at Heathrow.
Upon exiting the plane, we knew we would have no time to spare in getting to our 2:55 flight to Pittsburgh. American Airlines realized this also, as we were greeted when we disembarked and given a bright orange pass allowing us to move to the front of the lines at immigration, customs and security. Of course, that didn't make our luggage come off the plane ahead of anyone else's, so we had to wait about 15 minutes at the luggage carousel. By the time we arrived at the security line, we had 30 minutes to departure, and I knew that our gate was at the very end of one of the terminals. Unfortunately, the woman managing the queue spoke English as a second language, and she was a long way from fluency. Finally, we convinced her that we needed priority. After picking up my stuff on the other side of the x-ray machine, I dashed ahead of the others. I made it to the gate with about 20 minutes to spare and just in time to hear a gate announcement that the plane which was flying from Pittsburgh had been diverted to Buffalo, New York, because of bad weather, so our flight would be delayed a few hours!
The time of departure was listed as 5:00 p.m. I sent the first of several texts to Beth Ann, who was meeting us in Pittsburgh, to report the adjusted estimated time of departure. Before 4:00, it changed to 6:00 and then quickly to 6:45; we decided we'd better get some dinner. We went to the food court in the next terminal, where we ate and watched the dark storm clouds which had been approached over the previous hour finally break loose with torrential rain, reverberating thunder and jagged bolts of bright yellow lightning. There was very little activity at any of the gates that we could see through the large windows or on the runways.
Back at the gate, we waited and waited as the skies cleared. I was feeling really exhausted by 7:00 (when the latest ETD was listed as 8:00) as I had not slept on the flight from London. Flights were being cancelled, but finally it was announced that our plane had departed from Buffalo! Shortly after 9:00, we boarded with the other tired passengers, most of whom had also been on a previous transatlantic flight. After we were all settled in, the captain came on the the PA system to announce that we would be delayed slightly longer because the flight attendant was close to exceeding her maximum hours-worked allowance and another attendant had to be found. To complicate matters, the pilot and co-pilot had to get the plane to the gate in Pittsburgh before 10:45 because after that, hours worked by them would exceed FAA time regulations, so if a flight attendant couldn't be located quickly, the flight would have to be cancelled entirely!
There were no happy campers as everyone trooped off the small plane a few minutes later to line up to make arrangements for flights the next day. I was third in line for one agent, but I waited at least 45 minutes to make it to the desk. I really have no idea why each change of itinerary took so long, although I understand that the task was complicated by having to issue vouchers for hotels, meals and taxis. By the time I talked to someone, there were no direct flights available at all the next day (Thursday, July 19), and the earliest we could depart from La Guardia would be 6:00 p.m., with routing through Washington, D.C.! In addition, the agents could not find any hotel rooms because so many flights had been cancelled all afternoon and evening, so I was told to check with the hotel desk by the luggage carousel and inform the people there that American Airlines would cover the cost. (When I went there a while later, I was told there were no rooms and, unless I had a voucher, which I had not been given--even though I had asked the AA agent about this and been assured I would not need one--I would have to pay myself. Of course, this was a moot point because of the lack of vacancies.)
Fortunately, we had purchased travel insurance, and while I was waiting to get to the front of the line and then waiting another 15 or 20 minutes to get new tickets and meal and taxi vouchers, Peter was calling the insurance company. While the insurance representative was very helpful, she also could find no hotels in New York, so she helped Peter book a rental car when we decided our best option would be to drive the 450 miles from JFK to New Cumberland despite our exhaustion.
At 1 a.m., early on Thursday morning, we were on the road (after having picked up food to go with one of our meal vouchers). We used the GPS on Peter's phone to navigate out of the New York City area. Unwisely, we had programmed it to avoid toll rolls because I didn't want to use the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The result was that we also did not use any toll roads around the city, so we took a somewhat direct but slow route, crossing through lower Manhattan, going through the Holland Tunnel, and taking the not-so-scenic route through some of the port, manufacturing and warehouse districts of New Jersey before finally getting back on the freeway. We took turns driving for a while and then all slept in a McDonald's parking lot somewhere in eastern Pennsylvania for a couple hours in the middle of the night. Otherwise, we only stopped for gas, snacks and drinks and kept on driving through the early morning mountain fog. Finally, we arrived at Mom and Dad's house, but, of course, we had no key, so we hopped back in the car and drove for 10 minutes to Fox's in Chester to get Dad's key. By now, it was nearly noon and they were getting ready to have lunch, so we came back to the house and took showers and relaxed (well, I cleaned the kitchen and bathrooms, but at least I was no longer sitting in a car, on a plane, or in an uncomfortable chair in the gate area at JFK). Peter slept for a few hours.
We arrived back at the assisted living/nursing home facility before 5:00. A luau and entertainment were scheduled for that night, and the staff set up one of the family rooms for us for dinner. Afterwards, we joined the other residents and staff outdoors for music and dancing from Hawaii and the South Pacific. There were three performers. The main guy, originally from Samoa, played guitar and the ukelele and drums and sang songs from Hawaii or with Hawaiian themes. He was very upbeat, musically talented and humorous. Joining him were his two young adult children. His beautiful daughter did several hula dances; she also played the drum while her brother performed dances with flaming swords. The two of them also did hula dancing together. Some of the staff were cajoled into learning a hula dance, and two of them actually did quite well. The entertainment lasted about an hour. We were amazed at the high quality and authenticity, but Dad told us that Fox's routinely provides this type of entertainment.
(We realized we made the right decision to drive to West Virginia, because we started receiving recorded messages around 5 p.m., during dinner, informing us of flight delays because of thunderstorms in Washington!)
We left shortly after the entertainment and came back to the house, all collapsing into bed immediately. This morning (Friday, July 20), Peter and I were up before 6:30. I had a lot to do including five loads of laundry and packing of all the sheets, towels, kitchen items and other things we need at the condo in Ocean City. Peter had to wash and clean the station wagon, get the topper on the car, and fix things such as the drain on the patio, which was functioning so poorly that heavy rain created a wading pool on the concrete and was overflowing into the garage. Matthew spent many hours working on his online algebra course. (Katya, of course, spent many hours playing a game on her DS--serious addiction problem!)
Finally, we had everything ready by about 3:30 and went to visit Dad and Mom. Dad was having dinner, but it wasn't yet dinner time at Mom's facility, so Mom, Katya and I went to the family room with the fish tank and, since there was a TV available, Katya turned it on. We ended up watching a few episodes of "Friends" and some other show after that. Dad and Peter joined us there. The staff brought Mom's dinner to our TV venue. She didn't eat much because she was much more interested in the programs!
We came back home about 7:30, ate dinner and took care of last minute details. Now, everyone is sleeping and I am going to join them. We plan to get up about 1 a.m. and drive all night and through the early morning to Ocean City. Hey, we can always sleep on the beach! Besides, we have experience now with the Atlantic Coast-West Virginia northern panhandle night trek; we will just be doing it in reverse 36 hours or so later!
Upon exiting the plane, we knew we would have no time to spare in getting to our 2:55 flight to Pittsburgh. American Airlines realized this also, as we were greeted when we disembarked and given a bright orange pass allowing us to move to the front of the lines at immigration, customs and security. Of course, that didn't make our luggage come off the plane ahead of anyone else's, so we had to wait about 15 minutes at the luggage carousel. By the time we arrived at the security line, we had 30 minutes to departure, and I knew that our gate was at the very end of one of the terminals. Unfortunately, the woman managing the queue spoke English as a second language, and she was a long way from fluency. Finally, we convinced her that we needed priority. After picking up my stuff on the other side of the x-ray machine, I dashed ahead of the others. I made it to the gate with about 20 minutes to spare and just in time to hear a gate announcement that the plane which was flying from Pittsburgh had been diverted to Buffalo, New York, because of bad weather, so our flight would be delayed a few hours!
The time of departure was listed as 5:00 p.m. I sent the first of several texts to Beth Ann, who was meeting us in Pittsburgh, to report the adjusted estimated time of departure. Before 4:00, it changed to 6:00 and then quickly to 6:45; we decided we'd better get some dinner. We went to the food court in the next terminal, where we ate and watched the dark storm clouds which had been approached over the previous hour finally break loose with torrential rain, reverberating thunder and jagged bolts of bright yellow lightning. There was very little activity at any of the gates that we could see through the large windows or on the runways.
Back at the gate, we waited and waited as the skies cleared. I was feeling really exhausted by 7:00 (when the latest ETD was listed as 8:00) as I had not slept on the flight from London. Flights were being cancelled, but finally it was announced that our plane had departed from Buffalo! Shortly after 9:00, we boarded with the other tired passengers, most of whom had also been on a previous transatlantic flight. After we were all settled in, the captain came on the the PA system to announce that we would be delayed slightly longer because the flight attendant was close to exceeding her maximum hours-worked allowance and another attendant had to be found. To complicate matters, the pilot and co-pilot had to get the plane to the gate in Pittsburgh before 10:45 because after that, hours worked by them would exceed FAA time regulations, so if a flight attendant couldn't be located quickly, the flight would have to be cancelled entirely!
There were no happy campers as everyone trooped off the small plane a few minutes later to line up to make arrangements for flights the next day. I was third in line for one agent, but I waited at least 45 minutes to make it to the desk. I really have no idea why each change of itinerary took so long, although I understand that the task was complicated by having to issue vouchers for hotels, meals and taxis. By the time I talked to someone, there were no direct flights available at all the next day (Thursday, July 19), and the earliest we could depart from La Guardia would be 6:00 p.m., with routing through Washington, D.C.! In addition, the agents could not find any hotel rooms because so many flights had been cancelled all afternoon and evening, so I was told to check with the hotel desk by the luggage carousel and inform the people there that American Airlines would cover the cost. (When I went there a while later, I was told there were no rooms and, unless I had a voucher, which I had not been given--even though I had asked the AA agent about this and been assured I would not need one--I would have to pay myself. Of course, this was a moot point because of the lack of vacancies.)
Fortunately, we had purchased travel insurance, and while I was waiting to get to the front of the line and then waiting another 15 or 20 minutes to get new tickets and meal and taxi vouchers, Peter was calling the insurance company. While the insurance representative was very helpful, she also could find no hotels in New York, so she helped Peter book a rental car when we decided our best option would be to drive the 450 miles from JFK to New Cumberland despite our exhaustion.
At 1 a.m., early on Thursday morning, we were on the road (after having picked up food to go with one of our meal vouchers). We used the GPS on Peter's phone to navigate out of the New York City area. Unwisely, we had programmed it to avoid toll rolls because I didn't want to use the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The result was that we also did not use any toll roads around the city, so we took a somewhat direct but slow route, crossing through lower Manhattan, going through the Holland Tunnel, and taking the not-so-scenic route through some of the port, manufacturing and warehouse districts of New Jersey before finally getting back on the freeway. We took turns driving for a while and then all slept in a McDonald's parking lot somewhere in eastern Pennsylvania for a couple hours in the middle of the night. Otherwise, we only stopped for gas, snacks and drinks and kept on driving through the early morning mountain fog. Finally, we arrived at Mom and Dad's house, but, of course, we had no key, so we hopped back in the car and drove for 10 minutes to Fox's in Chester to get Dad's key. By now, it was nearly noon and they were getting ready to have lunch, so we came back to the house and took showers and relaxed (well, I cleaned the kitchen and bathrooms, but at least I was no longer sitting in a car, on a plane, or in an uncomfortable chair in the gate area at JFK). Peter slept for a few hours.
We arrived back at the assisted living/nursing home facility before 5:00. A luau and entertainment were scheduled for that night, and the staff set up one of the family rooms for us for dinner. Afterwards, we joined the other residents and staff outdoors for music and dancing from Hawaii and the South Pacific. There were three performers. The main guy, originally from Samoa, played guitar and the ukelele and drums and sang songs from Hawaii or with Hawaiian themes. He was very upbeat, musically talented and humorous. Joining him were his two young adult children. His beautiful daughter did several hula dances; she also played the drum while her brother performed dances with flaming swords. The two of them also did hula dancing together. Some of the staff were cajoled into learning a hula dance, and two of them actually did quite well. The entertainment lasted about an hour. We were amazed at the high quality and authenticity, but Dad told us that Fox's routinely provides this type of entertainment.
(We realized we made the right decision to drive to West Virginia, because we started receiving recorded messages around 5 p.m., during dinner, informing us of flight delays because of thunderstorms in Washington!)
We left shortly after the entertainment and came back to the house, all collapsing into bed immediately. This morning (Friday, July 20), Peter and I were up before 6:30. I had a lot to do including five loads of laundry and packing of all the sheets, towels, kitchen items and other things we need at the condo in Ocean City. Peter had to wash and clean the station wagon, get the topper on the car, and fix things such as the drain on the patio, which was functioning so poorly that heavy rain created a wading pool on the concrete and was overflowing into the garage. Matthew spent many hours working on his online algebra course. (Katya, of course, spent many hours playing a game on her DS--serious addiction problem!)
Finally, we had everything ready by about 3:30 and went to visit Dad and Mom. Dad was having dinner, but it wasn't yet dinner time at Mom's facility, so Mom, Katya and I went to the family room with the fish tank and, since there was a TV available, Katya turned it on. We ended up watching a few episodes of "Friends" and some other show after that. Dad and Peter joined us there. The staff brought Mom's dinner to our TV venue. She didn't eat much because she was much more interested in the programs!
We came back home about 7:30, ate dinner and took care of last minute details. Now, everyone is sleeping and I am going to join them. We plan to get up about 1 a.m. and drive all night and through the early morning to Ocean City. Hey, we can always sleep on the beach! Besides, we have experience now with the Atlantic Coast-West Virginia northern panhandle night trek; we will just be doing it in reverse 36 hours or so later!
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