Written From the Road: Travel Training

Thursday, February 11, 2010

I anticipated the past 24 hours to be ‘travel training,’ but I never expected the adventure to be quite the clusterfuck it’s become. That said… this past day has proven to be incredible preparation for what’s to come. I’m proud to see how patient, calm and optimistic I’ve been despite the ongoing tribulations.

The recap: I was scheduled to fly to Cancun on a direct flight from JFK yesterday morning. At 11pm the night before the flight was cancelled due to the ‘blizzard-like’ conditions that were expected to hit New York. At some time in the early morning someone else going on the trip emailed me that the flight was back on. I was up at 6 and out the door with my giant new backpack, my yoga mat and some crust still in my eyes. Quite zombie-like I made my way to the subway and then to the LIRR. Just as I was arriving in Jamaica to hop onto the Air Train I got an email that the airport was closed. I was so tired and carrying such a heavy load. This was the worst news. So I paid peak fares back to NYC and went back to bed.

Around noon I woke to a flurry of emails from the others that were on my flight. They’d spent the past few hours researching options and were hopping Amtrak to Rochester to catch a flight to Cancun with a connection in Baltimore. I hadn’t met these people before and this sounded nuts even for me, but it also sounded like an adventure, and I decided… if I wasn’t going to be in Cancun I might as well do something!

So, I met my new friends in the Amtrak station around 3. It’s a group of 2 girlfriends, Meredith and Allison, and a guy named Alex. I immediately feel old having about 10 years on the girls, but they are very sweet and friendly.

We headed up on Amtrak and when we hit Albany Meredith gets a call telling us our Rochester-Baltimore flight has been cancelled. It was quite comical. We all sat there looking at each other… now what? A woman on the train tells us she was able to find a flight out of Cleveland. After a couple hours on the Blackberry we book 2 separate flights from Cleveland to Cancun in the morning.

The train pulls into Cleveland around 3am and we head to the airport. Alex and I checked in for our Continental flight. Allison and Meredith scored seats on a ‘USA 3000’ flight that leaves 2 hours after mine. Yes, the airline is called USA 3000. No, we never heard of it either.

I slept on a chair in the airport for about 2 hours and then made my way through security, boarded and FINALLY departed for Cancun! I will be arriving around 1pm Thursday, which is just 24 hours later than I had planned.

If nothing else this has made me earn my vacation and think that the relaxation and beach will all be more worth it since it was such an adventure getting there. I haven’t really felt an ounce of stress, though. I’m taking it as it comes. I’m laughing a lot. I’m being flexible. I'm thrilled for the adventure behind and before me.