Wheels on the Bus

Reference

Have you missed me? I have missed you!

Part of the reason I have been away so long is that Mr. Penney and I went up to Provincetown, MA for vacation. (Another part of the reason is that our Internet connection keeps on going out. It’s Comcastic!)

So, how was the trip? Well, this is how it starts out:

11:00 AM: Arrive at Delta ticket counter to check in for our 1:15 PM flight to Boston, where we will be getting on a Cape Air flight to P-town, arriving around 5 PM.

12:00 PM: All checked in, baggage checked, and through security. Now it is just waiting at the gate to board the plane. And look! We have a nun on the flight with us! That’s good luck, right?

1:00 PM: It is announced that our flight will not be boarding on time because of storms in the Boston area.

2:15 PM: After several announcements of delay, we finally board our plane, which makes its way out on the tarmac.

2:20 PM: Storms at BWI.

3:15 PM: Storms are over at BWI, but we still are not moving.

4:15 PM: We are told that the plane has not taken off yet because of the storms that are in our flight path, but they have a new flight path; and we should be taking off shortly.

4:30 PM: We finally take off for Boston. BTW, our flight to P-town was scheduled to take off around 4:30 PM.

5:45 PM: We are told that the flight is taking longer than normal because of the different flight path, but we should be in Boston shortly.

6:00 PM: It turns out that there are quite a few flights ahead of us, circling around Boston, waiting to land. The problem is that our plane does not have enough fuel to wait for all of those other planes to land. Because of this, we are being diverted to Albany, NY to refuel.

6:30 PM: We have landed in Albany, NY. Why are they taking our checked luggage off of the plane?

6:35 PM: It is announced that the flight to Boston is now canceled. They are arranging for a bus to pick us up at 7 PM to drive us to Boston.

6:50 PM: Get a seven dollar meal voucher to use at the Albany airport. This will be our only meal since breakfast that morning. Seven dollars does not go very far at the airport. The nun looks rather pissed. Imagine how the rest of us look. At this point, I learn from one of the other passengers that Delta stands for “Don’t ever leave the airport.”

7:00 PM: We board the bus to Boston. The young man at the other end of our row on the bus is in desperate need of deodorant.

7:20 PM: Call Cape Air to find out what flights leave the next day, since it is now official that we will not make any flights from Boston to P-town that day. Make reservation for the flight. Mr. Penney then uses the phone to call his friend that lives in Boston to find out where to stay at the airport. He then calls the Hyatt and makes reservations for the night.

10:20 PM: Arrive at Logan airport in Boston. Get off the bus. Get luggage. Try to find way to hotel. It turns out that you need to take the shuttle to the hotel.

10:45 PM: Arrive at Hyatt Harborside. Nice enough hotel, but we are now paying for two hotel rooms: one in Boston and one in P-town. Not happy at all.

11:00 PM: Go down to hotel bar and drink dinner. It turns out that MA is raising that sales tax, effective at midnight, and alcohol will now be taxed.

12:00 PM: Go to bed, but really don’t get much sleep. Mr. Penney is not feeling well.

5:30 AM: Wake up call.

7:20 AM: Make way back to airport.

7:30 AM: Get tickets on Cape Air.

9:05 AM: Board flight to P-town.

9:35 AM: Land in P-town.

10:00 AM: Arrive at hotel.

Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? The only part that I really have complaints about is Delta. I will avoid them like the plague. I just don’t believe everything that went on, especially when Mr. Penney’s friend in Boston said that they didn’t have any storms come through until around 5 PM.

We were eventually able to get over this and enjoy the rest of our vacation.

I usually don’t wear my collar up, but it was to keep my neck from getting any more burnt than it already was. Please don’t make fun of the pigment-challenged.

In any case, we dined, drank, danced, saw shows, whale-watched, and hung around the pool drinking wine and eating cheese. It was a good time.

And fortunately, the trip home was much easier.

Copyright 2009 by G. P. Donohue for textillian.com

9 thoughts on “Wheels on the Bus

  1. Aw, guys, I was hoping you’d made the trip before the evening storms came though. Damned Delta. Had I known you were staying, you would have been welcome to stay here for free, dinner and drinks included. Can’t wait to see photos of the fun part of the trip.

  2. Yup, that sounds about right for Delta! My sister and I stopped flying them when I lived in GA and she had the same “weather” issue. Glad the rest of your trip was better!

  3. Poor Patrick! Nothing worse than delays once you’re on the plane – unless it’s a bus ride!

  4. I felt like I was reading a thriller with high hopes of you arriving in a timely fashion. Even the nun was upset, that was not a good sign. I’m glad you had a wonderful time and pleasant travel home. I did not see any mention of yarn, surely there were yarn shops around there?

  5. I still have chills remembering the time my husband and I were circling around Logan with several other planes in view all around us, waiting to land, spiraling up and down. It was Delta. And weather.

    Nice you had sun and fun. And a collar to pop.

  6. Comcast and Delta, the evil twins.
    I had to access my yahoo account using a borrowed comcast account and it screwed up some links in a document. Just clicking on a link in yahoo with the comcast program in the background added stuff to the link that made it no longer work with yahoo. Thanks for the warning about Delta; I’ve added it to my list of Do Not Use companies.

  7. what a nightmare! i’ve only flown with delta once. luckily i didn’t have a problem.

    i love that photo of you and mr penney. the two of you look so happy!

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