Eclipse adventures part two

[fbhjr]

I left 4 hours to go home (38 miles), pick up my wife and drive to Boston (35 miles) to get on our 7PM flight to Seattle. (117.5 total km)

It’s a good thing I did as the highway between work and home was just plain stopped. Don’t know why.
So, having budgeted the time, I took the nice scenic back roads home.



About the time I got home, I got a text from the airline (JetBlue) saying “your plane will be late, but assume it won’t and show up when you planned to anyhow.”
This gave us time to have dinner at the airport.


We did see something strange. A plane with no company or name on it pulling up to the international terminal…


Our plane was indeed late.
I guess somewhere out in the rest of the world there was a big storm making planes late. Depending on where you asked it was: there in Boston (cloudy, but no rain out the window), New York, Washington DC, the central plains, Chicago or Down South.
And, wherever it was, it was making planes late.

This was reinforced to us with a plane arrived from Orlando full of people wearing Disney paraphernalia.
The fact they had boarded a plane to Newark New Jersey 
(about 150 miles/250km away), and expected to get off a plane there instead of Boston seemed to make them unhappy.
The pilots seemed to sense this and hid.
There were several announcements about the plane would really go to New Jersey as soon as the pilots were found and everyone should relax and get dinner, paid for by the airline.
Many sensed this was a trap and didn’t go get food.
They were correct because about 5 minutes after that they said “We found the pilots! Everyone back on the plane or you get left behind.”
Those off getting the free food had to run to get back.

Our flight was supposed to leave at 7:52.
It left about 10.


The pilot was an ex-air force person.
He was very clear about what we would expect.
“We’re behind schedule and I aim to fix that as much as I can,” he said. “This means we’re going to fly through the storm and not take longer to go around. So, when I turn on that seatbelt sign, I mean sit down, buckle up and hold on!”
I do not think I was the only one who responded “Sir! Yes, sir!”

True to his word, it was a bumpy flight. It was not as bad as my last flight to Seattle where I actually started to get motion sick. (A rare enough occurrence for me that it took me a while to realize what was going on.)

We got into Seattle about 1:30 in the morning instead of 11, so, not much time was made up.
I didn’t care, we got there.


I called the hotel and said “Hi, our plane was late and we just got here. Can you tell me where the 24 hour shuttle to your hotel is located?”
“What shuttle?” the person on the phone asked.
“The shuttle between the airport and hotel you advertise on your website.”
“We don’t have a hotel shuttle.”
“Your web site says you do.”
“We have an airport shuttle.”
“Good, I’m at the airport. Where do I go to get it?”
“How would I know? I work at the hotel, not the airport.”
I hung up.
“We’re taking a cab,” I told my wife.

When I told the cab driver where we were going he asked “why didn’t you take the shuttle?”
“Do you know where it is?”
“No, I drive a cab.”
“Let’s get going then.”

When we checked into the hotel, the phone rang behind the counter. The woman who was checking us in gave very detailed directions to someone about how to get the shuttle. What staircase to use. Where to stand. What the shuttle said on it. How many stops it would make.
I assume I talked with someone else…

But, we got our room and went to sleep.