Wednesday, November 16, 2005

We're Home!

We spent 8 days in British Columbia visiting our daughter and her family, including 5 grandchildren who are 6 years old and under. Cheryl has chronicled some of our time out there on her blog recently.

I thought that I would mention our trip home. We got up at about 3 AM PST to shower and get ready to go and left shortly after 4 AM with Allan very graciously chauffeuring us to Vancouver Airport (YVR). At that hour of the day traffic was light and we arrived just before 5 AM.

Jean had warned that the lines are long so we were prepared for a wait. However, by 5:15 AM PST we had our boarding passes, had cleared security, customs and agriculture and were in the lounge waiting 1/2 hour for Tim Horton's to open so Jean could buy a bagel. After briefly searching for an AED (defibrillator) in vain, I settled down to reading book.

Our flight left on time for Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) on time and we had "good winds" which resulted in our arriving about 44 minutes ahead of schedule. We took the skylink train from terminal D to terminal A where our outgoing flight to Boston (BOS) would depart as well as the location for the only "in house" Subway shop was located. We ate our veggie delite subs then stopped at McDonalds for a small order of french fries and one of their parfait yogurts, which we took back to our gate to eat.

There we discovered that the flight was overbooked - seriously overbooked. They needed 5 - 6 individuals to fly the following day or be routed through Chicago arriving at nearly 1 AM EST for a $300 travel voucher. The annoucements about the overbooking stopped at about the time for scheduled boarding. But no boarding occurred. Jean investigated and a few minutes later it was announced that the flight staff were in Terminal C and would be about 15 - 20 minutes getting to Terminal A.

We were not started boarding until about 5 minutes before scheduled departure and we did not pull out of the gate until about 1/2 hour late. For the first time in my limited flying career we rolled past a line of eight airplanes waiting to take off so we could go ahead of them!

The flight was due into BOS at 7:46 PM EST and our Concord Trailways bus to Portland was scheduled to leave at 8:25 PM EST. The margin was reduced to about 10 - 15 minutes and we were getting nervous. Our flight was re-routed to avoid a band of strong thunder storms stretching from Houston to Chicago but we were still scheduled to "make up" about 10 mintues in flight time.

We were about 25 minutes out when the captain informed us that there was "visibility" problems at BOS and while we had begun our descent, we were in a "holding pattern" for about 15 - 20 minutes while planes ahead of us landed. I told Jean that I wasn't giving up hope but it looked like we would be delayed getting home by a couple hours if we missed the bus at 8:25 PM.

The "holding pattern" only lasted about 5 minutes and we started down to land once again. We reached the gate at about 8:23 PM but Jean had found out where we needed to go by calling Concord Trailways right after we landed. I grabbed the two larger carry-on bags and Jean took the two light ones as we de-planed. When we got to the door of the plane we came to a stop. The gang-way was completely filled with people - standing. Not walking. Finally an individual was put in a wheelchair and moved out and the line started to move.

When we hit the top of the gang-way we ran through the terminal to the entrance we were told to go to meet the bus. We arrived at 8:27:30 - there were LOTS of buses: Hertz, Avis, Alamo, Ramada, Airport Parking Shuttle, etc. Another man came up moments later - his plane had also just gotten in and he was trying to catch the bus to Portland as well. About 30 seconds after he arrived, Jean saw the Concord Trailways bus pulling up - it looked like he would go right by us. I got out on the edge of the street and waved my hands. He stopped, lectured me to NEVER get in the streets in Boston or I would be run down by reckless Boston drivers (he was the only vehicle moving at that time, and I was nowhere near his trajectory). Then he loaded our luggage!

This is one of the two closest calls ever. May 2004 was just as close - we arrived at the terminal where the incoming flight had radioed ahead that we were coming, we raced through the terminal, boarded and they closed the doors behind us and the plane took off. Our luggage did NOT make it on that flight and arrived in Seattle later that night after we had already left for British Columbia. This time we made it by about 1 minute or less. That was a really close call.

We had a great time in BC even though it rained most of the week. That's what there are shopping malls for, right?

2 Comments:

At 2:18 AM, Blogger Gail at Large said...

Oh the "joys" of travel...!

Glad to read you made it back intact and none the worse for wear.

 
At 10:32 PM, Blogger LarryandJean said...

Thanks! None the worse for the wear is the key, isn't it? I actually enjoyed the trip. I found that the Dallas-Fort Worth airport is a fun one to be in -

>lots of food at reasonable prices,

>great bookstores,

>flat panel TVs and monitors for Arrivals and Departures,

>Skylink for traveling around the airport INSIDE security,

>Lot of interesting folks to watch if all else fails!

OC

 

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