Tappan Zee Sunrise

My Late Night Greeting from Wingman

I had the unique opportunity of watching the sun rise over the far off glittering towers of New York City from the Tappan Zee Bridge this morning. This was not what I was supposed to be doing. Mother Nature and Southwest Airlines collaborated to make it happen. I’d heard there were some inbound East Coast thunderheads rolling in so I rushed out of the hotel at the end of the general manager conference trying get an earlier flight. That proved unsuccessful so I hunkered down in my future gate and hoped for the best. I ended up being there for more than eight hours.

Everything seemed copacetic as the afternoon evolved into evening. However the two conspirators had serious game up their respective sleeves. My 530pm flight was first delayed to 8pm. Around 520pm they announced the flight was cancelled. This led to the inevitable rush to line up at the gate to get re-booked. This is where Southwest definitely did not cover themselves in glory. They had one very personable but limited intellect ticket agent who took more than fifteen minutes with each passenger in line. The line comprised more than 150 people.

By 745pm I was only fifteen people away from the lone agent and people leaving his kind attention reported he was unable to get anybody back to Boston before Friday. This wouldn’t work for me because there was some critical software training scheduled for this morning, in Worcester. I decided to drive. After wasting all of that time waiting for nothing I pulled my IPhone out and used it to reserve a rental car. I hope my children are proud their father has embraced technology to the point I was capable of that action. I owe it all to them.

I then went in search of my checked bag and was told that it had already made it to Boston. I was a little enraged that the bag had made it while I had not. I eventually made it to the rental car facility, cancelling my Boston limo ride while enroute. My phone reservation actually worked and the only hold up was waiting in line behind a poor German kid vomiting into a cracker box (must be a European thing). The rental car agent took pity on me and upgraded me to a larger car and I was on the road after figuring out how to use my Phone as a GPS device (those kids again).

I left the rental car agency around 920pm and planned on getting the long delayed dinner while on the road since I-95 is liberally laced with rest areas with every known fast food emporium. I was making pretty good time when at the first rest stop I reported my decision and progress to the Favorite Panamanian. While I thought my idea and intended overnight drive was epic, she was less than complimentary. She brought up the whole age thing and not wanting to see me smeared along the side of the road somewhere.

Studying Hard

Unhappy that my heroic efforts to reunite with her were being underappreciated, especially since I received them at the same time I learned the fast food places with their hyper-energetic teenaged work force decided to stop serving at 1000pm, or thirty minutes earlier, I cast about for victuals. I raided the rest of the rest stop and ended up with caffeine rich soda, sugar cookies, and two bags of popcorn – the breakfast of champions. My wife continued to cajole and eventually brought my daughter into the fray to convince me to stop over in Maplewood for a semi-night’s rest.

Just Missed this Face

I pulled into their driveway a little after midnight and Wingman stayed up to welcome me , provide sustenance, and conversation. He brought me up to date on my granddaughter’s latest shenanigans. She’d lost chalkboard privileges when she decided to apply her art work to the living room carpet. She’s also forming complete sentences and allowing her hair to be pinned back as long as Wingman distracts her when it’s being pinned. I loved the brief opportunity to hang with Wingman but it was frustrating to be in the same house as both my daughter and the First Blog Reader, knowing I wouldn’t be able to see them. Wingman kept a close eye on me to keep me from sneaking in an awakening hug.

And This

I was back on the road just before 430am and reached Worcester before 8. The rental car was turned in by 9 and I was present for training in my office by ten. Note to self – four hours of sleep and a long night drive are not conducive to software training. But I did get that glorious sun rise. Now I have to track down my high flying luggage. Additional note to self – never book a flight on Southwest to Baltimore again, ever. 

Next Time