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Flying the feindly skies.

Post 1

marvthegrate LtG KEA

Ok, here is the tale of Marv's Trip to Florida.

I ended taking off Friday from work for my 1300 departure. I wanted some time to get my stuff together prior to the trip. I packed my backpack, and headed to the airport.

I got there a couple of hours before my flight because the way things are these days it can take a while to clear security. Sure enough, I get searched by the security people, as my flight was technically one way (I flew out there on one carrier and back on another).

I sit around in the plane waiting for it to fill and we end up being delayed by about 45 minutes. OK, I have an hour layover, with luck it will be a few minutes late as well and I can still make my connection.

We fly in to Atlanta, and I boogie on over to my gate. The flight is three hours delayed! The rains in Jacksonville and the rest of Florida have flights delayed by many hours all over the place. I call my friend's brother M who is planning on picking me up to let him know. OK, we will drive to Miami early on Saturday morning instead of Friday night. We go to bed around midnight for what should be 4 hours sleep. The plan is to hit the road to West Palm to meet up with Jr, and then on to the show.

We wake up at 0630, instead of 0400. OK, no worries. We will just boogie on down and be an hour or late to the show. We load up the truck, get coffee and soda etc for the ride, and then heard on down I-95 on our way to West Palm and Miami. Thins are going well up to Daytona. The traffic suddenly grinds to a halt and we wait. And wait. Wait some more. Finally it starts to move a bit, but it soon stops again. We get out of the car and stretch a bit. Talk to our fellow travelers. Take some pictures in the mist (and I thought it was humid in NC). At last we start to move. We pass the wreck of a tractor-trailer that was very bad. It was on our side of the road at least. The pagan rubberneckers looking for a fatality on the other side of the motorway were causing just as bad of a block as the wreck did on my side.

We stop for breakfast soon after Daytona and then keep heading down the interstate. A while later, in Melbourne I think, the traffic slows again. This time it is only thirty minutes or so (I think) that we were held up. Nevertheless it is a bad omen for what is to come. We drive (four hours or more late) in to West Palm Beach to meet up with Jr. We then drive the rest of the way in to Miami, find our hotel (right across the street from where the event was held) check in, get some booze from a nearby liquor store, have some drinks and ready ourselves for the show.

We get in line at the show at 1700. The show started at 1100, which was when we wanted to be there. The line is amazing. Thousands of people are waiting to get in to the show. We work our way through the throngs of party-goers and finally are in to the rave.

We spend the night listening to DJ after DJ. Never staying still for too long, because there were too many acts that we wanted to see. I was dissapointed by some of my favourites, but pleased at some new sounds. 60,000 other people were having a great time as well.

Midnight nears, and the party ends. The after party is just down the way at a basket ball arena, and we have tickets. I go to lay down for a few mminutes to recharge and wake up at 0500 when Jr and J (neither of the J's that I live with (for the record)) return from the after party. They crash at the hotel and I get a couple more hours of sleep.

I wake up at my usual 0630 and decide to go for a walk in downtown Miami. Few stores were open, so I just wandered around scoping out the city. I go back to the hotel and wait for M, Jr, and J to wake up. Once we are all up we decide to go to Miami Beach for breakfast. This close to Cuba, we wanted some Cuban food. We find a cafe in the Lincoln Centre where we enjoy some great Cubanos sandwhiches and coffe. On the way out we stop by a market for some Halla bread.

We separate in Miami, Jr going to West Palm and M, J and I heading on up to Jacksonville. We have a fairly decent drive this time, and only one accident along the way. That one we got past just as it happened, so no wait on our part. Though we did feel we could have stopped.

We have some time to kill, so we decide to go up the A1A to see the ocean and some beaches. We stop at some surf shops, where I find that they don't make surfer t-shirts in Big Bastard size. After that minor dissapointment we go pick up M's girlfriend and then head to the airport.

At JAX I look up my flight number, see that it shows on time, fumble for my ticket to verify, look back up and they have pushed it back to 2200. My flight in Atlanta was supposed to leave at 2200. I go talk to a ticketing agent and they tell me that my connecting flight in Atlanta will be gone by the time that I would be there and that if I have a place to stay in JAX to do that and booked an early flight the next morning. That flight should have got me to RDU (home) by around noon and I might have salvaged some of the day. We leave the airport, go find some dinner, and then retire for the evening in St. Augustine.

M and I get up early for the drive back to the airport. My flight is at 0700 so we shoot for a 0600 arrival. M drops me off and heads off to get some errands taken care of. My flight is on time, all I have to do is check in.

The Line.

There are hundreds upon hundreds of people waiting in line. It seems that the carrier cancled some flights due to weather and all of those people were in line trying to get other flights. By the time that I get to the counter my flight is boarding. They refuse to give me a boarding pass and I miss the plane. They book another flight for the *next* morning as the the entire schedule is sold out due to The PLayers Championship (some golf tourney), Spring Break, and Easter all ending at the same time. I am seething with pissed-offedness at this point. I start wracking my brains trying to figure out how to get home. M calls me and lets me know that Orlando has flights, so I work my way back through the line and book a flight out of Orlando, meanwhile M (who is over an hour away at this point) agreed to drive me to Orlando. While I wait for M, I look at my pass. It does not say Orlando. It says JAX. I accost another worker for the airline to verify my confirmation. I am not on a flight out of orlando at all. She hooks me up and gets me the right itinerary and I drive the back way to Orlando with M. M drops me off at the airport in Orlando and I check in. I actually get a boarding pass, find my way to the gate and wait for my flight to come in.

Two hours go by (we got there very very early on purpose) and my flight shows on time. I then look up (about 30 minutes before the plane is supposed to arrive) and it says 2150 (it was supposed to leave at 1900). I cry out in dismay, echoing the feelings of all around me. "Why? Why me?" Well, I never did get an answer. The plane was sitting there. Empty. All ready to go. It was windy in Atlanta, and everything was put on hold. The departure time actually creeps down to 2040, and that is about the time that we pushed out. We take off, fly to atlanta, and I prayed for my connection to still be there.

At atlanta I see that my flight is still there, but it leaves in 20 minutes. I am in A concourse, my connection is in E (of course). I run to the train, dash up the escalators, and about pass out from exertion (I am a big bastard after all) and a nice skycap in a golf cart picks me up for the long drive down tot he end of the concourse.

Well, I made my flight. I got to RDU at 0030 this morning and home by 0120 or so.

What a trip.

I am still adding up the hassle for the fun. I am not sure where it will end up. I may have broken even, but it came a quite a price. I have to say that M went above and beyond to help me get home. Kudos to you dude.


Flying the feindly skies.

Post 2

Hypatia

Presents Marv with a glass of home made spiced apple smiley - redwine ans a special recipe brownie - just to take the edge off.


Flying the feindly skies.

Post 3

marvthegrate LtG KEA

Danke. I needed that.


Flying the feindly skies.

Post 4

Good Doctor Zomnker (This must be Tuesday," said GDZ to himself, sinking low over his Dr. Pepper, "I never could get the hang of Tuesdays.")

Drive next time Marv.


Flying the feindly skies.

Post 5

marvthegrate LtG KEA

Nope. Next time I will be flying in days earlier, getting a good room in a better hotel, staying a day or two later, and flying back DIRECT. No layovers in Atlanta.


Flying the feindly skies.

Post 6

Witty Moniker

No, GDZ is right. Anywhere south of DC and it's faster to drive once you factor in the extra time you have to allow at the airport for security.

Sorry it was such an ordeal. smiley - hug


Flying the feindly skies.

Post 7

marvthegrate LtG KEA

I very nearly rented a car. Thing is, I don't like driving across foreign countries (and if you don't think that the South East is a foreign country go spend 28 years in Utah) that I am completely unfamiliar with.


Flying the feindly skies.

Post 8

Teuchter

What an ordeal smiley - hug.
Modern travel's great when it works - but when it goes wrong, boy does it go wrong.


Flying the feindly skies.

Post 9

Luna(Queen of Hearts)

next time you want to head south call me. I love to drive, we'll rent a big comfy car. I am a very good driver and have been throughly initiated in "southern driving techniques" smiley - winkeye
Besides, now I don't have to cross the country to come get you.

smiley - moon


Flying the feindly skies.

Post 10

marvthegrate LtG KEA

Sounds like a plan.

I have to go to SLC here in a couple of weeks. This is the first time I will have the chance to go see my family.


Flying the feindly skies.

Post 11

Luna(Queen of Hearts)

Sounds like a plan. God knows I'm ready for a roadtrip!

smiley - moon


Flying the feindly skies.

Post 12

marvthegrate LtG KEA

Alas I am flying for this one. I am flyng out on a wed and oming back on sun. It's too much flying. I have flown more in the last six months than the last 20 years.


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