Vermont: Day 1, Part 2

After my last blog post, I hurried to get everything that I needed to take with me packed and ready to go. I, of course, was finished before my mom, regardless of her 5-hour head start. Richard showed up late, but we were soon on the road to the airport after checking to make sure the doors were locked and the garage was closed… twice. Shelby was taken care of at the vet to the tune of $33/day, but still there were whispered words of worry as we left the house. Nothing is ever easy in this family. Nothing.

Richard dropped us off at the Charleston International Airport at 5:00pm and some change. There is no parking in the drop-off and pick-up lane, so Richard grabs the bags out of the truck, bids his farewells, and is off on his merry way. We go inside, thankful that I was able to book a flight for the same day.

Nothing could stop us now!

We didn’t even get all the way through the front door before they so rudely informed us that our flight had been canceled. We were told to stand by the podium, but it must have been invisible, because I couldn’t find it. When it was our turn to face the wrath of the scary flight counter person lady, she grabbed my electronic tickets, made a couple of nasally noises and started shaking her head.

“What the hell is air traffic and why is it a reason to cancel a flight?”

Our flight had been canceled, but working some magic, I managed to get us booked on the earliest flight out of our dinky little Charleston airport at 7:32 the next day. At this point, it’s a dilemma whether to call someone and get them to come pick us up, grab a taxi, book a hotel, or crash at the airport. We’re too considerate to call someone to pick us up (Richard had prior obligations), too cheap to pay for a taxi, too close to book a hotel, so sleeping at the airport is the only option.

We found a spot and settled down — it wasn’t cozy, but it would work for the time being. My mom told me to go see if I could find internet anywhere in the airport, but I had no more luck near the windows at finding a free signal I could hop on and wi-surf. Walking through Hudson News on the fruitless trip, I spy something on the shelf that looks interesting. $19.39 later, I walk out with the latest copy of MacWorld, MacLife, and WIRED. I walk back to our seat, marked by our luggage, plopped the three magazines on the chair, and said “There’s my internet”.

Sitting back down, I pull out my laptop and look through my movie collection to see what would be occupying my time for the next half of a day. Around finding “Hot Fuzz” in the long list of pirated (ARGH!) movies, my stomach started to growl — time for dinner and my first meal of the day. I stuffed my MacBook back in the bag and went to the Food Court to investigate. Needless to say, $9.00 for a ham sandwich would certainly not cut the mustard. Scooping up our luggage and mustering the troops (erm, my mom), we made our way through the jubilous crowd greeting their loved ones and eventually plopped down in a comfy booth in Magnolia Grill. Dinner wasn’t what I would expect from an airport; we both had the cheeseburger with a fried green tomato, but the soup I ordered had a less-than-desired after effect. When the bill came, the $27 charge didn’t come as a surprise, but we both busted out laughing as we realized that for the price of dinner and the magazines we could have gone home in a taxi and relaxed. Oh well; it was too late to change our minds now.

Things started slowing down in the airport around 8:00pm as the stores and Food Court locked their doors. By that time, we had found two adjacent benches without arms to sprawl out on in the lobby. I turned on “Bedtime Stories” because my mom hadn’t seen it. She ended up dozing for about 20 minutes, but woke up in time to catch the happy, feel-good ending.

Shortly after the movie, I had to go visit the little boys room, followed by a walk to calm my restless legs. Sleeping lately has been hard enough, but trying to sleep in the airport is pure hell.

Trip Photos