Better grab a cuppa (British for hot tea) or a cup of Joe, it's going to be a long one. You know, on second thought, I'm so tired of thinking about it, I'm going to make it short and sweet.
1. Left Rome at 6:30 a.m. on Sunday morning.
2 Boarded the plane for the 8 hours and 44-minute flight.
3. Sat on the runway for an hour.
4. That meant that we would miss our connection at JFK since we only had 2 hours to get through passport control, customs, claim our bags, and recheck them.
5. Arrived at JFK at 2:15 only to find that our flight had been delayed. Yay! That meant we'd be able to make it.
6. Stood in crazy long lines to get through all the things.
7. Flight continues to be delayed.
8. Flight is delayed yet again.
9. Flight is canceled at 7:30.
10. We called Mary, my travel agent friend who handles all our travel. She started working on it.
11. No flights until Wednesday night.
12. She finally finds a flight for us in Philadelphia for Monday at 5:55 pm. Of course this requires renting two cars to get all 6 of us there (Stephanie, Nicky, Mindy & Justin).
13. No cars available on Sunday night.
14. No hotel rooms close either. Mary finds 3 rooms in Queens for $500 each for the night!! It's a friggin' Holiday Inn Express!
15. Had to stand in the taxi line for 30 minutes.
16. Took two taxis to the tune of $100+.
17. Arrived at the hotel at 11:30 p.m. This means it's 5:30 a.m. in Rome--we are exhausted, hungry and crabby.
18. Hotel smells funky. Room is humid.
19. One bright spot the bed was very comfortable--sheets divine (I'm pretty particular about my sheets).
20. Second bright spot: great night sleep and good breakfast.
21. Uber to car rental where we have two cars rented for the day. Don't know how much that cost.
22. Get in the very long, hot, in the sun, car pick-up line. Some guy tells us that it could take up to 3 hours to get through the line because they only have 2 people cleaning cars and one person delivering them.
23. Butch and Steph go to the office and are told that there are no cars. Butch shows the reservation. From this point on, he's in that Seinfeld scene where Jerry says, "You know how to "take" a reservation, but you don't know how to "hold" a reservation. The most important part is "holding" the reservation!"
24. Agent tells Butch that they can give us a Tahoe that will hold all 6 of us and luggage, but is more expensive.
25. Butch gets it---$800--for less than 6 hours.
26. We start the drive to Philly, do a little geo-caching, stop for lunch, let the "kids" visit the Liberty Bell and the steps made famous by Rocky. Nicky actually runs up the stairs!
27. Butch drops us at the airport while he returns the car.
28. Our flight is delayed.
29. Our flight is delayed again.
30. Our flight is delayed again.
31. Steph, Nicky, Mindy and Justin head to the counter of a flight leaving for Nashville at 7 p.m. to see if there are any seats left.
32. Somehow she manages to get us all on that flight with less than 5 minutes to spare before boarding.
33. All middle seats but we'll take it.
34. Our luggage won't make it, so will have to be picked up on Tuesday.
35. We board and get settled while breathing a sigh of relief. Finally going home.
36. Not quite. We sit on the runway for a half hour. Not sure why.
37. Finally, we're in the air.
38. Once we arrive in Nashville, we cannot go to the gate because there is another plane there.
39. We wait about 15 minutes for that plane to leave.
40. We roll up to the gate, but cannot de-plane.
41. AA is shorthanded and there is no one to put the jetway on the plane.
42. 20 minutes later, we finally are able to leave.
43. All this took so long that our original flight landed and de-planed before we did.
44. By the time we got to baggage, our luggage was already there which meant that our luggage beat us there.
45. At least we don't have to make a special trip to the airport to collect it.
Whew! What an adventure. An adventure we could do without. When the party's over, you just want to get home! The trip seems so far away now. Italy was fabulous!
PS We weren't the only ones with travel problems. Everyone else, Matt & Sharon, Jordan & Robbie, Morgan & Olly also were delayed. Not quite as bad as us, but still. Sandy and family didn't have any problems which is pretty amazing since they were going to Atlanta. That's just about always hell. Lucky for them.
Until the next time...
Oh my. How tiring, frustrating and expensive! The last thing you want after a relaxing trip away. I think you left Italy at the right time, every day it is getting hotter and hotter in their heatwave at the moment!
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