God Bless American. Naw, naw, naw. Not God Bless American. lovely American!

[wiegie]

Edit to add: The thread's title should say "God Bless American. Naw, naw, naw. Not God Bless American. God d@mn American!" (stupid filters)

 

So, after almost ten months of living in Europe, my family and I are finally back in America... but it sure wasn't easy getting home.

 

I traveled back home with my wife, two small sons (ages 2.5 years and 11 months) and my mom. We left Zurich on Saturday morning and things started out going really well. Between the five of us, we had 9 checked pieces of luggage--each of which came within 1/2 pound either way of the 50 pound limit, so we didn't incur any overweight baggage charges. (I was worried about this because my one-year old didn't have his own seat and was only entitled to a smaller 20 pound checked piece, but nobody said anything about it.) In addition to the checked pieces, we had two pull carry-on suitcases, one large backpack, one small backpack, a diaper bag, one very small children's pull carry-on full of toys for the flights, two car-seats and a stroller. The two adult-sized pull carry-ons were both well over the weight limit and I was worried that they would weigh them, but to my relief, they didn't. At the gate we got a really nice piece of news, the airline was going to move us from the four seats I had booked at the back of the plane to five seats in the 10th-row bulkhead--so my one-year old now got his own seat. Sweet. At this stage of the game, I was loving American Airlines.

 

The flight over the ocean went really well and my kids were actually (and very surprisingly) quiet and calm. We made it into JFK and had no problem going through immigration or customs (I was worried about how we were going to get all of our luggage through customs and then rechecked onto the connecting flight, but I hired a porter and it all went smoothly). We made it to the gate for our connecting flight in plenty of time and the thought of being home in a few more hours was very nice.

 

And then it happened. Our connecting flight was delayed by thirty minutes and then delayed by another 10 minutes. Still no big deal at all. We boarded the plane and then left the gate. The pilot announced in a somewhat annoyed voice that there was a long backup so we would be waiting a while to take-off and so he was going to shut down the engines to save fuel. OK, seems reasonable. After about 45 minutes, we got to move again and went a few hundred yards, then we stopped again and waited for another 30 minutes or so (in the midst of which the pilot came out of the cockput and walked to the back of the plane to use the restroom--that's not a good sign). It really appeared that we were second or third in line for take-off, but then when we started to move again our plane took a weird right-hand turn when all of the other planes were going straight. When we came to a stop, the pilot called the flight attendent and I watched her expression as she listened to what he said--and it was clear that she was not happy. The pilot then announced that air-traffic control had shut down our route from JFK to St. Louis because of severe storms in Ohio. He said that he had an alternate route planned, but that we needed to get back to the gate to take on more fuel. (I'm not stupid and as soon as I heard that we were going back to the gate, I knew things might get ugly). When we arrived at the gate, the flight attendent announced that "to the best of my knowledge, we are not going to deplane." No sooner had she said that then the pilot came on and announced "We are going to have you deplane and wait in the terminal."

 

By this time, my 2 year-old was sleeping, so deboarding the plane was not that easy as I had to carry him out in his car-seat, while my wife and mom somehow managed to carry out my one-year old, diaper bag, two backpacks and the small child's suitcase. (The two larger carry-on suitcases, stroller and second carseat had all been gatechecked since the plane was a small one.)

 

By the time we got back into the terminal, it was about 6:30 EDT (which means that it felt like 12:30 a.m. for all of us). My one year-old was still awake, though tired and not happy and then my two year-old woke up as well. Eventually while we were waiting to see what happened with our flight, my wife was able to get them to fall asleep behind a row of chairs on the floor of the terminal. The gate attendents gave us a couple of updates, most of which were "stay here at the gate while we see what is going on" (although one of the messages said that our flight was going to board immediately and we all were happy... for about two seconds... because then one of the gate attendents came back and said that they were sorry but someone had pushed the wrong button and the message we heard should not have been played.

 

While all of this was going on, outside the sky just opened up and rain, lightning and thunder were pouring down around us. Then around 8:30, they announced that our flight was cancelled due to weather and as such they would give no vouchers of any kind to anyone. OK, so this was not going to be fun, but still no big deal... we'd get a hotel and then flight out in the morning. This is were the fun really begins, I went up to the gate to rebook our flight and was told that we had been booked on the first flight in the morning... out of LaGuardia. OK, swell, so I have to get my family to LaGuardia in the morning, a bigger inconvenience, but still not horrible. So I then innocently stated "So, our checked bags will get taken over to LaGuardia and put on our flight in the morning?" And the response was, "No. Your luggage is available for pickup on carousel #9 and YOU must take your luggage to LaGuardia yourself." They then went on "But your luggage will only be delivered to carousel #9 once our boarding ramp is open (it was currently closed because of the storm) and we have no estimate on when this will happen."

 

I won't bore you (even more) with all of the details, but despite my best efforts, there was no way around the fact that I was going to have to get myself, my wife, my two kids, my mom, 9 large 50-pound suitcases, two heavy carry-ons, two back-packs, one small children's suitcase, a diaper bag, two car-seats and a stroller over to a hotel and then again over to LaGuardia. I really wasn't sure how I was going to manage it, but I knew it was going to cost me plenty of money that I would have preferred to have used on something else.

 

I was able to use the ground-transportation desk to book a private bus (one of those large shuttle vans) to take us to a hotel I booked near LaGuardia--and I was very thankful to get it as the woman at the desk called a number of shuttle-bus companies before the last company on her list finally said that they had one available van. Then van got there and we got everyone and everything packed in and then headed off to near LaGuardia. The trip probably would have taken about 30 minutes under normal conditions, but NYC had gotten 2 inches of rain in 45 minutes and in one spot on the highway we were traveling on there was so much flooding that only one lane was (barely) open and there were 6-7 stalled cars strewn about all over the place--so traffic was backed up for miles and it took us more than 1.5 hours to make it to the hotel.

 

When we got to the hotel (which was somewhat of a dump (especially at $280 per room)) my family went up to our room while I dealt with getting our luggage put behind the desk--there was an old porter who helped me a little bit, but unfortunately, I had only a couple of U.S. dollars to tip him with (then I remembered that I had a 5 euro note and I asked him if he would take euros too--he said "sure" and then asked how much it was worth and he seemed happy enough when I said about $8.) Then when I got up to our room, my wife and mom showed me that it was still dirty from the previous occupant (unmade bed, dirty bathroom. etc.). So I went back downstairs and got us a new room, that, although it smelled bad, was at least sort of clean. By the time we were completely in the room, it was 1:00 a.m. and we had all been awake for more than 25 hours. I couldn't sleep though, because I was still worried about how we were going to get all of the luggage and crap from the hotel to being checked in at the airport. The hotel had a shuttle, but I had heard the guy at the hotel desk say that almost all of their rooms had been filled that night by stranded passengers; so I was worried that it would be hard to get my family and luggage onto the shuttle. I was also worried about whether or not LaGuardia had curb-side luggage check-in and whether we would be able to use it or not (Zurich doesn't have it, and having to pull all of our luggage through the check-in line had been a nightmare the previous morning).

 

So around 4:30 I got up and showered and went down and found that the shuttle bus was already running. So I went back upstairs and woke my family and we all got downstairs and ready to go by 5:30. There was already a line for the shuttle, but it looked like there was a good chance that we would fit on the next van that came--and then I noticed that the guy driving the shuttle was the same guy who had helped me with my luggage from the night before. He looked at me and said "Hey, I remember you... I'll get you and your family on the next trip." And he did... it was tight, but everything fit. Then we got to the airport and there was indeed curbside luggage check-in. I laughed outloud when the luggage porter asked me if I wanted him to use curbside check-in or to instead let him check in our bags for us. He got everything set up for us and we were good to go--and all of my previous night's worrying had been for nothing. (Both of the shuttle-bus drivers and the luggage porter got great tips from me--never in my whole life did I need help more than what I needed during this experience.)

 

We ended up making it through security and to our gate with about 90 minutes to spare before boarding. My two-year old was active while we waited and I was worried about how he would be on the plane so I told him that we would get to look out of the window of the plane and he was excited about that--but as it turns out, they rearranged us so that we were in the very last row of a Super-80 and there is no window in this row. But it didn't matter too much as both of my kids slept from before take-off until after landing.

 

We got in to St. Louis and all of our luggage arrived in one piece (mostly) and then we made it back to my mom's home by about 1:00 p.m. CDT--38 hours after we left my inlaw's home in Switzerland.

 

I am happy to be back home but I still am exhausted.

 

(Relatedly, all of my obnoxious "Well, over here in Europe they do it this way..." posts will be replaced with the even more obnoxious "Well, when I was living over in Europe, they did things this way..." posts.)

Edited June 17, 2008 by wiegie

[cre8tiff]

Edit to add: The thread's title should say "God Bless American. Naw, naw, naw. Not God Bless American. God d@mn American!" (stupid filters)

 

So, after almost ten months of living in Europe, ...

 

 

 

... exhausted.

 

(Relatedly, all of my obnoxious "Well, over here in Europe they do it this way..." posts will be replaced with the even more obnoxious "Well, when I was living over in Europe, they did things this way..." posts.)

 

Welcome back to the LOU. You brought some outstanding weather back with you!

Edited June 17, 2008 by cre8tiff

[Bier Meister]

st. wiegie

 

 

 

unbelievable experience.... hope you get to sit and relax....for a day

[Big John]

WB.

 

Now get some rest as this made you

[Ursa Majoris]

So, do you now need to get all that lot back to Grand Rapids?

[skylive5]

Had you had no problems what would you have had to remember about your trip home? Nothing. Now you have a great hardship story you can dine out on for years to come. Some people have all the luck.

 

Glad you and yours are home safe and sound at last.

[wiegie]

So, do you now need to get all that lot back to Grand Rapids?

yep--actually we have even more stuff that we have to take back--but we will be driving back and can take it up in several trips.

 

Of course, Grand Rapids could turn out to be adventurous too as no longer have a home there and we are initially moving into a furnished condo that I am renting sight-unseen from some guy on Craig's List while we look for a house to buy.

 

[Puddy]

To help you overcome your problems, I'll take you to the Cardinals/Tigers game next week.

[Ursa Majoris]

yep--actually we have even more stuff that we have to take back--but we will be driving back and can take it up in several trips.

 

Of course, Grand Rapids could turn out to be adventurous too as no longer have a home there and we are initially moving into a furnished condo that I am renting sight-unseen from some guy on Craig's List while we look for a house to buy.

 

Jesus, Wiegie, you sure are adventurous for an economist.

[wiegie]

Had you had no problems what would you have had to remember about your trip home? Nothing. Now you have a great hardship story you can dine out on for years to come. Some people have all the luck.

I was actually thinking that exact thought as the whole event was unfurling. I did make some people in the terminal laugh when I thanked my one year-old for giving me a suprise one-night stay in New York as a Father's Day present.

 

Glad you and yours are home safe and sound at last.

Thanks.

[Puddy]

Oh and I hope my flight back on Friday is way less eventful. Of course, it is direct so that should help.

[twiley]

Welcome back and enjoy the weather here in the Lou.

 

Look me up if you want to grab a beer (excpet tonight).

[Egret]

Welcome Back.

 

My son would have flipped about no window seat. That's his favorite part of a plane ride. Glad all made it back safely.

[polksalet]

Welcome Brack choty

[Chavez]

Glad to have you back in the US, wieg.

[Azazello1313]

jeez, that would be challenging enough for a regular sized person...very impressed wiegie was able to pull it off.