The old switcheroo

August 6, 2014

Knock on wood, but it is a relief in some ways to be back in our own car and in an area of the country without $13 bridge tolls.  We had an amazing time back East, but I was always having to think ahead about making a train, plane, taxi, subway, bus, ferry, etc. connection.  We have made it back to Colorado but not without a few hurdles on the way. 

Last night we thought about getting up early this morning, catching the subway to the Staten Island Ferry in order to see the Statue of Liberty, but everyone seemed exhausted, and no one seemed too thrilled about he idea.  We had all seen it before (although Katie doesn’t remember it), so I didn’t push it.  Instead we slept in a little and then packed up our stuff.  For breakfast/lunch we had Dunkin Donuts and slices of NYC pizza. 

That’s when things started getting a little hectic.  If it was only one or two of us, I would have taken a subway and bus combination to get to the airport, but with the kids and all of our luggage, we decided to splurge on a taxi.  I had called and ordered a taxi for 12:30, but the guy didn’t speak English really well, and I got a call on my cell phone at 11:00 from the taxi driver who was at our hotel to pick us up.  I told him we were walking around and not at the hotel, but if he wanted to wait, we could be ready in half an hour.  Otherwise, I said he could go, and we’d call another taxi.  He seemed to want the fare and said he would wait without being on the clock.  I figured that it wouldn’t hurt to get to the airport early so we went back to our hotel, grabbed our stuff and made it to the airport. 

That’s when things got really crazy.  I had booked a flight on Frontier because of some reward points, but Becky and the kids were flying on Spirit Airlines because we found a significantly cheaper fare. Their flight left earlier than mine, but they had a layover, and mine was direct to Denver.  The plan was that I would get our car once I got in, and then I would wait around and pick everyone else up at the airport.  We got all the bags checked in, made it through security and to the gate.  Our gates were at the same terminal so we could wait together.  We were pretty early, but we were fine with that. 

Then Becky gets a call on her phone; the Spirit flight had been “downgraded”, and they wanted to put Becky and the kids on another flight. I guess that means that they decided to fly a smaller plane, but we didn’t want to mess with that since we had already checked our bags and were at the gate.  They had just started offering future flight credit when Becky and the kids were paged at the gate.  The people there offered to refund part of their tickets and buy them a non-stop flight on United to Denver that would get in around the same time as my flight.  We went ahead and did that so that they could avoid the layover.  It was a bit of a hassle getting our luggage back, checking it into another airline and going through security again, but we were there early, and overall it worked out better because they got into Denver close to three hours earlier than they would have otherwise, and we got some of our money refunded. 

The timing worked out perfectly; my flight was a little late, but I had not checked any bags on my flight so I went straight to a hotel shuttle – our friend Mike works at one of the hotels near the airport so he parked our van at the hotel where he works.  When I picked it up, Mike and Kathy had cleaned it and even had snacks waiting for us – very nice.  Thank you guys.  By the time I got the van and made it back to the airport, Becky and the kids had arrived and had the bags.  I was able to pick them up at the curb, and we headed to the hotel in Colorado Springs that Mike had booked for us.   Crazy travel day, but it all worked out in the end.  Again, knock on wood, but I have been so pleased with how all of the transitions have worked out on this trip.