March 18, 2007

Home

When we went through customs in Hub City, the inspector looked at my passport and said, "Where are you flying to?"

"Snowstorm City," I said. Well, I said the real name, not the pseudonym. After eight hours on a plane, I was looking forward to going home and sleeping in my own bed.

He looked up from the document he was stamping. "Good luck with that."

What? Last time I had talked to anyone from home, I'd gotten reports of warm weather and sunshine. But it turns out that while we were flying across the ocean, a snowstorm was moving across the east coast, closing airports everywhere.

As we walked through Hub City Airport, we saw long lines of people at ticket counters, trying to get flights to someplace, anywhere. We saw people sitting on the floor, lying down on their coats to take naps. The young man in uniform at our gate said cheerfully, "We are looking for people who are willing to get bumped, but we can't put you up in a hotel – everything is booked – and we probably can't get you out of here for days."

The flight was late, but Snowstorm City Airport stayed open. That's one advantage of living in Snowstorm Region – we have the equipment for removing snow. Sixteen hours after we'd left my daughter's flat, we hit the icy runway in Snowstorm City, snow blurring the windows of the plane as it screeched to a stop. We were home.

17 comments:

Kyla said...

Welcome home jo(e)!

Anonymous said...

you were lucky, our airport was closed. Welcome home!

chichimama said...

Welcome home! I'm impressed you were able to get out of Hub City Airport...

Sounds like you have a lovely trip.

seethroughfaith said...

welcome home :)

the airports stay open here too. Funny that! (grin)

Anonymous said...

Glad you made it! :)

Linda said...

Welcome home! Thank goodness you were only delayed.

Liz Miller said...

Welcome home!!

Yankee, Transferred said...

Welcome home, jo(e). Glad you made it safe and sound, and I sure enjoyed the ride with you.

my15minutes said...

Thanks for sharing your journey with us. Glad you made it home!

YourFireAnt said...

Ah, you were lucky. Tall Poet Woman who has been in Country in Other Hemisphere with Kiwis and was to arrive Friday got caught in the massive people pileup somewhre in the midwest.

Glad you're back.

FA

Kait W. said...

Glad you made it back safely. So sorry we couldn't meet up in the City of Dreaming Spires. Thanks for sharing the stories of your trip!

ccw said...

Welcome home!

Bridget said...

glad your back sae and sound alhtough i loved reading about london and paris. Especially since we had had almost the same experience with Evensong at Westminster and the sailboats in teh fountains.

Rana said...

Welcome back!

Lilian said...

Wow, I can't believe how lucky you were to be able to fly home!! Here in Philly apparently there were over a thousand people still stranded yesterday since US Airways seemed to have messed up big time (in addition to the weather).

Well, I'm glad you had a safe trip there and back! I, for one, will keep on dreaming with the day I get to take my sons to Europe, but that will have to wait a few years.

Queen of West Procrastination said...

Welcome home, jo(e). I've loved your descriptions of those two cities. Between you and my friend Barb travelling in the same cities at the same time (and I helped Barb plan her trip, giving her all my old metro maps and books), I've been travelling along with you in spirit all week.

BeachMama said...

Welcome home! And glad to hear your airport was still open. Ours was too, sad thing this last storm, we had no snow left when it moved in! Warm temps forecasted for late week though.