Day 2 - Planes, trains and airport shuttles. Nothing went right.

I woke up about 5:45, hopped in the shower and was out the door at 6.  As I was halfway down the hall, I heard a phone ringing.  I realized it was probably the front desk calling to ask where I was.  I had signed up to leave on the shuttle at 6 am.  Our new flight boarded at 8:30 and I wanted to get there early.  I ran like crazy down the hall , down the stairs and into the lobby.  Sure enough, they were calling me.

I hopped into the shuttle next to Eric and another guy I had rode in with last night.  When we got to the airport, they had to check their bags.  I told them I would meet them inside and headed for the security checkpoint.  I never saw them again.

The line was short and I was able to go right into the scanner.  I emptied everything into the bins in what would become a routine I was very familiar with by the end of the day.  Pockets, money belt, shoes, two laptops.  I walked through the scanner without issue.  Then something came up in my bag.  "Sir, do you have any knives or other sharp objects?"

"No.  I have some computer cables, but everything came through fine before."

"Sir, do I have permission to search your bag?"

"Sure."

They pulled out my fudge.  Turns out because I got the peanut butter fudge, I couldn't take it with me.  I had to exit and eat it - not the breakfast I was craving - or throw it in the trash.  I threw it away.  What a waste.

I made it to the terminal without issue a few minutes later.  I was apparently very early, because no one else was at the gate, so I got a bagel with the airline-supplied meal voucher and sat down to read and wait.  Next to me a few people were talking.  Apparently their flight was canceled.  They then started talking about how they had spent all night in the terminal.  I began to get a sinking get a sinking feeling.  "Were you on the flight to Rio?"  I asked.  Indeed they were.  Later I found out that US Airlines had flown another plane in overnight, but they couldn't find a crew to fly it.  So they canceled our flight for the second time.

We spent 5 hours in this line.

The next 5 hours were a nightmare of standing in line with two hours of sleep hoping to get tickets to Rio when all the flights were already full for the next week.  We ended up calling the airline 5 times between the two of us while we were in line.  By 10:30 we had a flight that left at 11:00 for JFK, but we couldn't check our bags so that was canceled.  By 11:00 we had a flight that left at 1:30 for Newark.  But we still had to wait in line for a hotel voucher, meal vouchers and travel vouchers.  By noon we had everything.  We would fly to Newark, take a shuttle to JFK, and they were putting us up in the JFK Plaza Hotel!  Things were looking up.

We went to Chili's for lunch.

Planes,

We boarded the plane for Newark.  When we got there we had to take a shuttle to JFK.  The shuttle driver offered to drop us off at the hotel, so we called the hotel to make sure the driver knew where they were.  The hotel did not have our reservation.  We would have to pay $200 each for rooms.  We had them drop us off at the US airways terminal.

We went inside to get things sorted out.  The US Airways terminal was closing.  We managed to catch a couple of employees who were chatting.  We told them the problem with the hotel room cost.  One of them changed the amount on the voucher to cover the rooms, and they sent us on to the hotel.

and Automobiles

Trains,

We hopped onto the train at the airport and took it to Federal Circle.  We looked for the hotel shuttle we were assured would be there.  Logos for many hotels were painted on the sides of buses and vans.  Nothing for the Plaza Hotel however.  We asked around, and someone pointed it out to us.  It was a run-down passenger van.  Someone had printed out "Plaza Hotel" on computer paper, and they had taped it to the passenger window.  Oh crap.

When we got there the lobby was amazing.  Then we turned the corner.  The wall behind the counter was drywall painted like something out of a home decoration show.  You could still see the screws in the wall.  We got in line at the desk, hoping they would have rooms for us.  There were three people at the desk and three people in line in front of us.  We waited for half an hour.  While we did, people came downstairs and complained about their rooms being dirty when they checked in, their air conditioning not working, and there being no towels in their rooms.

We went with a faux-wood finish for the wall, but decided to go with white trash craptastic for the door.

I reached the desk with dread in my heart.  If they didn't have rooms, no amount of yelling or cajoling would move these people.  We were so screwed.  We gave them our voucher.  We weren't on the list.  Before we could say anything, another girl at the counter said, "US Airways?"  We responded in the affirmative.  "We have rooms for you."

We went to our rooms.  Jesse saw a maid's cart and stole two towels from it.  It was a good thing, because neither of our rooms had towels.  Mine also didn't have any lights.  They were all burnt out with the exception of the entry light.  At this point it was 9pm.  We didn't care.

The entrance to the Plaza dining room.

We went down to the Plaza restaurant for dinner and were overcharged for poor quality food.  Our drinks came in cans.  We both called friends in New York, but they were busy.  So we ended up chatting with the waitress and a little boy with his grandmother - the only other people in the restaurant.  The waitress was from Russia.  She had been in New York for two weeks.  She informed us that the hotel we were in was an overflow hotel.  All its guests were people who had canceled flights.

$6 for a soggy piece of inedible frozen apple pie.

Time for bed.  I should have been in Rio this morning.  Maybe tomorrow.

Day 1 - It started out as a good day...

The day started out great.  I got to Richmond early and browsed in the Borders for half an hour.  I found a book that I haven't been able to find for about six months, along with an omnibus version of the two preceding books with new material!  When I purchased them I received a $5 gift certificate, so I bought another book.  Had a great lunch with a friend, and then dropped off a graduation present.

Went to Kristin's house to drop off my car.  We hung out for a bit and then headed to the Richmond airport.  Check-in was a breeze.  I swiped my passport, got my boarding pass and checked my luggage.  Then I got to security.  I was carrying two laptops, so I had to take those out of the bag I was carrying.  I then had to empty both of my jeans pockets, remove my belt and camera, and take the stuff out of my breast pocket.  One of the security guards kept droning, "Remove all metal objects or you will be subject to a pat down."

It was at this point that I realized I was wearing a money belt under my clothes that had zippers on it.  I had to untuck my shirts and pull off the money belt.  Then I realized I was still wearing my shoes.  I now had five tubs filled with my crap.  I felt very obviously like an inexperienced traveler.

The scanner I walked through was very neat.  It was circular.  You stand inside it and it rotates a bar around you.  You cannot move and you must hold your hands above your head.  It's like being under pre-arrest.  I stepped out and then had to wait for someone to read my scan.  Luckily for me there were footprints painted on the floor.  Otherwise I might have stood in the wrong place.  I was cleared.

Then began the process of getting dressed again.  Shoes.  Money belt. Tucking in the shirts. Refilling the pockets.  Putting the laptops back in the bag.  As I was looking for the terminal, I got a phone call.  It was Jesse, the guy going with me.  He and his wife were lost in Richmond but on their way.  The plane left in about an hour.  He was sure he would be there, but I was a bit worried.  What would I do if he didn't get there?  I didn't speak a lick of Portuguese!  Could I continue on this flight if he didn't show up?  Should I wait?

After 45 minutes of worrying and praying, he made it.  We boarded our plane without incident and were on our way . . . to Charlotte, North Carolina.

On the plane it was announced that Miss North Carolina was on our plane!  She was heading to Las Vegas for something or other.  She was in seat 17.  That was the seat in front of me.   I listened to her and her seat-mate talk most of the way and read my book.  Jesse slept.  I decided that Miss North Carolina was not a very interesting person, or that her seat mate was an awfully boring conversationalist.  Either way I found the book more interesting.

Our plane got in fifteen minutes early, but then our spot was filled with another plane.  We were assured that if we were on the Las Vegas flight, they were trying to hold the plane.  When we finally got docked, Miss North Carolina made a beeline for the exit, but so did everyone else.  I hope she made it.

I stayed in my seat.  After all, I had five hours until my next plane and I was into my book.  When the plane cleared I exited.  Jesse and I went and ate dinner.  I would say it was ok, but it was faux-Mexican food trying to be Chili's.  Ironically Chili's had been our other dining option besides fast food but we had wanted to try something different.  We agreed to do Chili's next time - when we came back in two weeks.  Still, as a low for the day it wasn't that bad.

Chocolate Store in the Charlotte Airport

After dinner we found our terminal and did some window shopping.  We found a power outlet and plugged in my laptop, and then charged our phones.  We took turns exploring the stores.  I found a chocolate store.  After much deliberation I bought a little tub of peanut butter fudge for the trip.  I had a few bites but it was so rich I decided to save it for dessert on the plane to Rio.


An hour or so before our plane was to board, about 9 PM, we made our way to the gate.  9:45 rolled around, when we were supposed to start boarding the plane.  An announcement was made that there was a small problem and it would be about 10 more minutes.

Jesse asleep in the airport.

An hour of ten minute intervals later, I found out through listening to the crowd that something was wrong with the air conditioning and they weren't sure how long it was going to take.  A few minutes later we were told it was going to be another hour.  People started lying down to go to sleep.  Jesse curled up in a corner with his sweatshirt over his head.  I lay down as well, but the blazing lights of the room burned down through my closed eyelids.   I crawled under the seat I had been sitting on and slept for a good two hours.

Family I spent 5 hours with. They only spoke Portuguese.

The line for vouchers at 3am.

About half a dozen kids under the age of 6 were running around at one in the morning.  I felt sorry for their parents.  If might have felt sorrier for them if they hadn't all been 5 feet from me.  Still they were cute and I understood.  I would wake occasionally for reports - first in English, then in Portuguese.  I had limited dialogue with my neighbors - most of them only spoke Portuguese.  It was sitting there in the airport terminal all alone that I realized this was what my trip was going to be like.  I couldn't talk to anyone!



Three o'clock rolled around and then canceled the flight.  Apparently there was some rule that the flight crew could only work a certain number of hours.  Since we'd been delayed 5 hours, our flight was officially grounded.  We entered blobs to wait for vouchers for hotels and meals.  After waiting for about 15 minutes, Jesse and I were next.  We were given vouchers and asked where we wanted to sit on the next flight.

As we were making our way to call the hotel shuttles to come get us we found out that we were staying in different hotels.  We called our respective hotels and split up for the night.  I met a few other people waiting for the same shuttle.  One guy was named Erik.  He was from Canada.  He was going to Rio with a friend to keep him company for two weeks while his friend started a new job.

Plane in the ceiling.

We got into our rooms about 3:30.  I crashed.

I got two and a half hours of sleep that night.