Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Traveling Tales

Meg is going on vacation to Hawaii. She won the traveling Starbucks thong. I wanted to win the thong at one point. Now, I do not. Please visit Meg's site http://www.megs411nosmoke.blogspot.com/ and post your traveling tale. Here is mine. Keep that thong moving.

I was 7 months pregnant and wanted to join my Spousal Unit in Europe. I had a 20 month old toddler and a dog that I needed to drug to travel. My Father dropped me off at the airport with the toddler, drugged dog, and all the worldly possessions that were recommended not to ship. Lots of stuff along with a car seat.

Dad was a salesman and traveled, so he was just doing as drive-by, as he dropped us off.

Enter the thunderstorms. All flights were cancelled out of Philly. Other passengers were offered alternative flights to their destinations later in the evening. I was told that I couldn’t take the one flight offered through London, because of the dog. (England has a mandatory 6 month quarantine).

When I went back to the counter to inquire about my flight status, I was told that they were not a 24-hour airline, that I had refused a different option, (Not true, because of the dog, it wasn’t offered) and needed to get out of the airport. Everyone else on the flight was able to make other flights or hotel arrangements, ala, the airlines.

Toddler and I were stranded.

Drugged dog was waking up.

The counter agent then recommended that I spend the night at the Salvation Army room in the basement. I went and checked it out, and it was not a pretty sight. Not in any way, shape, or form. Think, many drunken bums getting off the street for the night.

No way would I take my baby in there, or even a semi-drugged dog.

At my wit’s end, I called home.

Father was back home and said he would come for me.

An hour and a half later, Dad loaded us up, and took us home.

We got to do the airport thing again, 5 hours later.

This time we made it to NY and we were given preferential treatment to board the plane because of the toddler. Of course, the plane was overbooked because of the storms and a dude came up and said that I was in his seat. I showed him my ticket and just protruded my very pregnant belly. The flight attendant checked them both out (belly and tickets) and found the dude alternative seating.

I kept my seat, toddler kept his seat, and the drugged dog survived.

TWA went out of business. Yeah, I won.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I never knew that happened. What a great story!!!

krysta said...

ugh! what a nightmare.

The Super Goop said...

Oops! New to this stuff . . .
I never knew that happened. What a great story!!!

Kim said...

Knock wood, I've never had a bad experience. I feel for the people on ATA today when they found out their airline went bankrupt.