Vermont: Day 2, Part 1

Still drowsy from the few minutes of sleep I did manage to get, I packed up my few belongings and made my way to the ticket counter. I crossed my fingers, hoping that THIS flight to Vermont wouldn’t be canceled, too. Thankfully, things went smoothly with no help from my mom, whose constant pessimism required my calming presence. What would she do without me?

We sped through security, I grabbed some breakfast, and we were boarding the plane in no time.

It was a normal flight. Thank God.

We were wheels down in Washington, DC at 9:02, with our connecting to Albany, NY departing at 9:40. Walking from the shuttle bus to the terminal, I peered up to the departures board and found that we were to depart from the same gate as we arrived. That was easy. What wasn’t, however, was getting our boarding pass. I almost shit a brick knowing that we might be stuck.

Because we were a last minute addition to the plane, neither of us were assigned seat numbers on the flight from DC to NY when we were re-booked the previous day. You would think it would be easy to just stick us in a seat, but that’s easier said than done when the flight is booked solid. We went up to the US Airways representative, presented proper identification, and told him what the problem was. He started biting his nails as his voice went up an octave. He starts scanning the screen with his eyes, his fingers flying over the keyboard trying to accommodate the frustrated passengers before him. To make his job even worse, he’s constantly being interrupted by angry Mexican co-workers screaming in their foreign tongue, a barrage of questions flying at him from all directions, and the time is ticking. He explains to us that our flight is in a holding pattern, giving us time to work out this situation, but before he could get the whole announcement out over the intercom, the angry Mexican chick grabs another microphone and, screaming over him, warns that this is the final boarding call for our flight, 3704 to “Aaaalbeaunie”.

My mom is a wreck, I’m trying to make the best of a bad situation, and this guy obviously can’t figure out his right from his left. He passes the chore onto another attendant at the counter and runs off, presumably with his tail between his legs. This new representative manages to get leagues farther than her half-wit counterpart, and promptly hands my mom a boarding pass without explaining what to do. Just standing there with that ‘oh shit’ look, she meekly asks if she can board the shuttle bus to the plane — the same one on which we rode only 15 minutes prior. She waves her hand and we scurry off to the bus, finding only one other person, leaving ourselves to question whether we’re on the right bus for a supposedly booked flight. No sooner did this thought cross my mind than the lady sitting in front of us turns to us and asks if we were going to Albany. “I sure hope so”, I thought to myself, “I sure hope so”.

Finally. We’re one step closer to Vermont.

We board the plane, a bit bigger than the last one, and I immediately fall asleep. On touchdown, I’m jarred awake and find that I’ve slept through the entire flight. No problem with me. My mom, on the other hand, had a pleasant conversation with an old man seated to her left. He engaged her in conversation while she was walking down the aisle and wouldn’t let go of her ear until the plane had landed. As he was walking away, he asked for a hug. I’d be surprised if he didn’t show up at the reunion thinking he was part of the family after that.

We walked through the jetway and were greeted by one of the nicest airports I had seen in a long time. I called Ann to let her know we had arrived safely and see where she was meeting us, but she was still 10 minutes out. We walked to baggage claim, thinking that our lost luggage would just be the icing on the cake for this vacation. Thankfully, we found both our bags enjoying a leisurely ride on the conveyor.

Stepping out to the curbside pickup area, we were greeted with the smiling face of Ann in the truck, and soon we were off on our way to Sunderland, Vermont — only a short 1:30 drive from the airport. Ugh.