Eric and I are currently en route to California to celebrate Christmas with his family. And it’s been a heckuva route. We left our cozy NYC apartment on Thursday night to bring Baxter to my parents’ house in Rhode Island for a spa week while we wing our way to lovely Shaver Lake, California, where Eric’s nature-loving parents have built the home they plan to retire to. It’s a stunning place, which I’m sure I’ll have more to say about later in the week. (Hopefully they will prove less dramatic than Thanksgiving.)
Suffice to say that with a 4 hour drive to RI on Thursday night and a 3:30 am wake up call this morning (after a giant snowstorm no less) to get to the Providence, Washington, DC, and Denver airports on time, respectively, I was thoroughly prepared for things to be less than perfect. After all, this is the Holiday Season and a three-leg flight is NEVER a good idea. But, we were leaving at 6am ET, expecting to be in Fresno, CA at 2:30 PT. No biggie. A long day, sure…but I am prepared. I am zen. I am the walrus.
Yeah. Right.
As I write this, I am sitting on the floor of the Denver International Airport. I have been sitting on this patch of floor for approximately 6 hours. I’m thinking of getting a ficus tree. And maybe recarpeting.
Oh, our flight out of snowy Providence went off without a hitch, but things in DC were not nearly as well organized (I suppose we shouldn’t have been surprised by that), and we ended up missing our Fresno connection by mere minutes. Like, 7 minutes. Then, there was the hour stuck Dante’s 14th level of hell (United Airlines customer service–go back and check the Inferno. It’s there), after which we were FINALLY supposed to get out of lovely Colorado at 6pm MT. No go. Plane delayed. Maybe you’ll see California before Christmas Eve, suckers.
Back when I was preparing to be zen about the whole travel thing, I had plans. “No problem!” I said to myself. “I’ll take any extra layover time I can get to write!” Yes…well…as you can probably imagine…that didn’t happen. Instead, I read an entire romance novel on my new Kindle (OMG how I love the Kindle…but that’s another post for another time), confiscated Eric’s DS to play Super Mario World, and took the world’s most impressive nap (during which a child nearby had uncontrollable, unmutable hiccups for 2 HOURS. Jeez! Get thee to a doctor, kid!). Not a lick of writing done. My editor (who hopefully is not reading this) would be le disappointed.
Boredom finally set in about 10 minutes ago. You are the lucky recipient of the product of that boredom. If all goes well, when next you hear from me I’ll be in the snowy foothills of the Sierra Nevadas plotting to avoid actually going out INTO nature (Hazards of marrying a Californian–wilderness walks).
So…I’m thinking of you guys…may you have safe, speedy travels to wherever you’re going this holiday.
xoxo
December 21st, 2008 at 2:26 am
I had perhaps the worst flying experience the last time I flew back from NYC. Plane was supposed to leave La Guardia at around 5pm. Plane broke. Had to wait for a new one to fly in from Chicago. Left the ground sometime after 10. Arrived in Denver sometime after midnight. By the time I got my free hotel room voucher and luggage, it was past 1:30am. Took a 30 minute cab ride to the hotel. Slept for two hours. Got up, took a 30 minute cab ride back. Sat for two hours, and finally boarded my flight.
Yeah, flying is teh sux0r these days.
December 21st, 2008 at 2:50 am
Oh that does sound like hell! I hope you get to take off soon!
December 21st, 2008 at 3:56 am
Yea, my brother’s flight go delayed for quite a few hours. he was suppose to be here at one, and he just took off like 30mins ago. The weather must be pretty crapy. BUT Mario is a great time occupant.
=)
TruBlu
December 21st, 2008 at 9:17 pm
DIA! My old homeland! DIA trivia: the canvas-looking roof, which you probably can't see from the inside, was designed to look like the peaks of the Rocky Mountains. There is also a lot of conspiracy theory stuff about DIA with which you can cure your boredom here – http://www.google.com/search?q=dia+conspiracy&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
Well, don't get too close to that carpet – it's a bit on the musty side – surprising for such a dry climate.
And don't even get me started on United customer service. The good news is that with a little post-trip bitching, you too can get a $100 travel voucher, if you ever want to fly United again.
Good luck with the rest of the trip!