Trapped In Philly
First rule of travel-2 words: Direct Flight.
I am currently coming to you live from Gate B9 in the Philidelphia Airport. I will be here for at least 7 more hours, as the boarding starts at 6:15AM. I assure you my being here was not done on purpose.
How it happened: I had a flight scheduled from Bradley International slated for 7:05, with a connecting flight in Charlotte, NC around 10:15. Sure I would get to Orlando, FL late-but Radisson has late check in and I was all set on this end.
But then Murphy and his pesky law decided that this would be too easy. So, my flight from Bradley was delayed by 3 hours. I would never make my connecting Charlotte flight. Scott F., the friendly US Airways guy worked his magic, slinking me on to a flight to Philidelphia, with a connection from there to Orlando. Every flight mind you was being delayed at this point. We arrive to Philly and breathlessly book it to Gate B11 from B5-our plane landed at 8:20-with the connecting flight leaving at 8:35. Once we reached the gate we discovered that our connecting flight left ON TIME-apparently the ONLY flight to do so this evening. I am in a wonder of the logic of sending off a plan barely half full with the people who were connecting to it trapped on late planes. Had they waited a mere 15 minutes-90% of the connection people would have made the flight. But according to the very beleagured attendent-FAA rules no longer allow a captain to hold a plane unless they are waiting for crew. So even if the Captain wanted to-he couldn't run over on time. Our Flight Attendent even had his Captain call and I know he tried but could do nothing to hold the plane.
After recovering from hyperventilating at the thought of spending the evening in an airport with 4 children-3 mine, one my friend Adel's daughter (incidentally Rory's best buddy), I stood in line for over an hour to get 5 meal vouchers (totalling $50)-I can get another $50 in the morning too-I finally got the kids fed and we decided we would rough it out. A kindly matainence man came by with a carton of airplane pillows and those silver emergency blankets (which do keep one warm-but they wrinkle and crinkle and squeak everytime one breathes) so I rearranged the waiting seats and tucked in 4 kids-reluctantly marooned at Philly Airport.

This would be a challenge to begin with-but wait it gets better! Apparently there is this God AWFUL muzak piping into the place-seriously-I feel like I am trapped in a large elevator.
On the happy side-when I went to use my $10 voucher at Au Bon Pain I had collected a couple of pastries on my tray. I was chatting with the woman-who was also the night manager (a 24 Hour Au Bon Pain-not too bad!) and once she discovered I was stranded with 4 kids-she handed me a pastry box and said -go nuts as she took my voucher. Oh the calories that will be had!
So if the flight leaves on time tomorrow at 6:45AM (boarding at 6:15AM)-we will arrive in Orlando by 9AM-I am already checked into the hotel-so we can go there and clean up then head up to Star Wars-hopefully the adreneline of being there will keep us through the day. I figure we can stay until the afternoon tomorrow and head back to the hotel, nap, swim, whatever and then head to the party I was told about. It won't be all THAT bad.
I do know without a doubt that I am not the only one NOT getting sleep this evening-there is no way Adel will knowing her daughter is camping out in an airport. I suspect Mark won't be getting much sleep either-he was very worried about me-at one point I couldn't answer the phone since I was settling down the kids-he was so upset! Thank God I packed some DVDs and my laptop can handle them! Goodfellas coming up next!
Well-hopefully this is the worst of it. We board in the morning and off we go! My next post will hopefully be full of Star Wars goodness!
P.S I really want to "borrow" one of those security cars and zoom around this joint tonight!