I’ve been on many trips, some business and some personal, throughout my life… run into a few minor travel headaches here and there (luggage arriving on different flight than me during my honeymoon, other minor delays) but nothing like I experienced today. Goal – travel to Sarasota, Florida to visit my company’s office by way of Philadelphia flight to Tampa. Seems pretty mundane and routine. Got up at the lovely hour of 4am, left house around 4:30am, got my usual morning cup of Wawa’s Kona coffee, then proceeded to get on the Northeast Extension of the PA Turnpike. At exactly 5:10am, about 2 miles north of the Lansdale exit, traffic in both southbound lines grinds to a halt. For the next 4, yes FOUR, hours, we sat at a dead stop. Apparently a diesel tanker, tractor trailer, and a couple of cars decided to play in the roadway and the resulting fuel spill covering both lanes made for an unplanned exception to my travel plans. I was literally sitting in portable lawn chairs on the yellow lane divider watching northbound traffic fly by at 80mph!
At around 9am, traffic finally got moving, albeit one lane only until we passed the cleanup effort. By this point, my 7:55am flight to Tampa was enroute, and per US Airways, as long as I could get to the airport in 2 hours, I could go standby for a later flight. Check. Definitely broke a few speed limits but got to the airport parking lot, hopped on the shuttle, then raced through the terminal to the ticket counter (had already printed what turned out to be a worthless boarding pass at this point). I should also mention Philadelphia got 8″ of rain the night before, a near record, causing major flooding, cancelling all American Airlines flights until noon that day, and power outages at the airport. Coupled with news that the 9:30am flight to Tampa was cancelled, you’d think US Airways (in the process of merging with American) would have staffed appropriately for the large amount of passengers with scheduling issues. NOPE! 2 people… seriously… 2 people behind the counter! After another 40 minute wait, the lady informed me that the earliest she could get me out was 8:30pm… 10 hours stuck in the airport???? Thankfully, after some discussions about getting me anywhere in central Florida, she booked me on an 11:30am flight to Orlando. Disney Passholder + An Afternoon To Waste = Fun Times.
I should have started to see a pattern by this point… but alas, the hell continued. In the span of 30 minutes, I went from Terminal C security, which then had power issues, back to Terminal A to get through security, only to find out my flight’s gate was in Terminal C (ran back down in the secure area), to find out they didn’t update the flight departure screens, and that my flight was in Terminal A. Ran back to Terminal A, grabbing a small sandwich along the way (hadn’t eaten anything since 4am), thinking I would barely miss my flight, only to find out the plane was being unloaded from the previous flight and would be delayed. Another hour and I was on my way to Orlando, which thankfully, turned out to be the most uneventful portion of my trip.
Arrived in Orlando, got my rental car, then spent a few hours visiting the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, the Contemporary Resort, and Downtown Disney. Picked up dinner, a few gifts for the kids, and then off on what I didn’t realize was about a 100+ mile trip to Sarasota. By 9:30pm, I checked into the hotel, and literally crashed. Little did I know, as tired as I was, a good night’s sleep would not happen as is typical for me on the first night of a trip.
Here’s hoping the rest of the trip goes better… what a mess yesterday!