This is the day we left New York. We woke up far too early for people who went to bed far too late. We zombied our way through packing, getting ready, and eating breakfast... if we did eat breakfast. Honestly we can't remember. I think Dad had woken up early and gotten us breakfast, but I may be wrong. I was tired. Before leaving the hotel, Jason and I wrote Jordyn and Jace's name on pieces of paper and left them in New York. I started this tradition for Jordyn when I went to Europe, leaving his name on the Eiffel Tower and in hotels in Rome and London. Here are pictures of their names:
After leaving their names and meeting my parents, we checked out of the hotel. Dad then called Muhammad, the taxi driver from our first day in NY. We made our way with the luggage toward the street, and began to wait. And wait. And wait. We were soon worried we would miss the plane because NY traffic is atrocious. Seconds before Dad was about to call him to cancel, Muhammad showed up. I guess he knows the city better than us because we got there on time.
I remember being shocked at how easy it was to go through security at the New York airport compared to Atlanta. Kind of crazy. We made it easily through the airport, grabbed some cookies and granola bars, and waited to board. The wait was a little longer than expected, however. Turns out our flight was delayed. We wondered if we would miss our connecting flight because of it. After quite a while, we boarded and took off to Charlotte, North Carolina.
The flight wasn't supposed to be a very long one, but it was obvious we were flying for a lot longer than they original told us. Eventually the pilot came on the intercom and informed us we would be making an emergency landing at Greenville, North Carolina. Apparently we had been circling the air and unable to land due to bad weather. We were now almost out of resources. Circling the air with little fuel, I received this text from my mom, "they may leave us on this plane with dwindling food and water--for hours." Jason looked at me and said, "No, we'll crash long before that's a problem." haha! It was a pretty rough flight for anyone who hates airplanes. The flight was very bumpy. It was also fairly disconcerting to hear the pilot say we were running out of fuel.
There was one moment when the plan jolted to the side unexpectedly. The teenagers behind my mom screamed very loudly and huddled together in fear. Jason says "perhaps huddling together the three of them may summon at least a shard of courage." Oh boy! It really was a rough plane ride though. Mom can attest to that.
Once landing, they informed us we would need to wait on the plane until able to take off. We sat on the runway for roughly 45 minutes while they refueled. Slowly a few passengers learned they could forfeit their ticket and get off the plane if they chose. Many decided to leave and rent a car instead. At one point we decided to get off the plane ourselves and rent a car. We grabbed our luggage and made our way to the inside of the airport. We were met by the pilot and a few people who work at the airport, informing us the plane would take off in just 10 minutes. After being talked into staying on the plane, we made our way back to our seats and waited another 30-45 minutes before actually taking off. Greenville sucks.
Back up in the air we went, bumpy as ever. With every dip and bump, mom could be heard gasping. One particular rough patch led Mom to look to the strange man next to her and say "I knew I should have gotten of this plane." In roughly 15 minutes we made our way to Charlotte for our connecting flight. We waited and waited and finally realized they had changed our terminal without informing us or making any announcements. The terminal we were sitting in was a flight going to Vermont. Shortly after learning this, we were informed that our entire flight was canceled. Mom and Dad were amazing. They waited in line after line, trying to figure out what to do next. We were able to get a plane to Atlanta later that evening. We spent the next 3-4 hours stuck in North Carolina... or, as I like to call it, Purgatory.
We decided to grab dinner at the food court. Dad got Mexican food and the rest of us grabbed some Burger King. We then continued our wait at the terminal. Hours later, we were headed back on an airplane. The last flight was a fairy easy one, thank goodness. Once landing, mom let out a massive sigh of relief and we headed toward baggage. We grabbed our belongings and headed toward the shuttle to find our car. We walked quite a long way until Dad asked someone where the shuttle was. The man pointed at where we originally came from and said "Over there." Mom, being very tired from her near-death plane ride, let out a grown and said "They would!" We all laughed and then headed back. Finally, on the shuttle. Not a minute or two later we found the car and were headed home. Mom and Dad were kind enough to drop us off at home since both Jason and I had to be at work tomorrow morning. We got home at around 10:00 when originally we should have been home at around 2-3.
What's funny is that Mom and I had debated purchasing different tickets home. We picked the 9 O'clock one because it meant we would get home mid-afternoon. Ha! Turns out, if we had left at the 11 O'clock flight to Atlanta, we would have been home around 4-5 with no trouble, canceled flights, or delayed take-offs. To quote my mom, "They would!"
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