Adventures Make Great Stories: December 2009

I have often heard it said that Christmas Eve is a terrible day to travel. Despite these reports, travel is what Ashley and I did this year...and it was not our best day ever. Here is a timeline of events leading up to our arrival in Redlands, CA:

4:30am: They day began with the wonderful buzz of an alarm clock, and would continue for nearly 21 hours.

5:15am: The adventure began as we left the house, closed the door, and instantly realized that we had just locked ourselves out of the house. Not that big of a deal as we have a friend staying with us who has a key (the problem being that this friend was back in CA with our key). Luckily, it was not until much later that we realized we had forgotten things. Oh well...none of the forgotten stuff was super important.

5:40am: We arrived at the Del Rio airport. Now for those of you who know nothing of Del Rio, it's airport is very much representative of the city. Though an international airport in name, do not be fooled. The airport consists of a small sitting room, a single check in desk for the only airline to fly out of Del Rio (Continental), one metal detector and tiny waiting room on the far side of "security," and a small snack room consisting of a coffee pot and a vending machine. The airport has two flights a day, and caters primarily to Laughlin personel trying to flee the town on what many call the "Freedom Bird." Moving on. Arriving at the airport we were greeted by several friends who were on the same flight, and quickly found out that the flight was delayed for 2 hours due to thunderstorms in Houston (all flights in and out of Del Rio go through Houston). We knew at that moment that it was about to be one of those days. This meant we would be missing our connection, and our entire travel plan was about to be null and void. Checking in, we were re-booked on a flight that would get us into LA only 3ish hours later than planned. Not to bad...or so we thought.

7:30am: We were informed that the flight was now being delayed due to mechanical problems, and that the estimated departure time was now 9:30. So up to the counter we went, to be re-booked again. This time, doing so was not so simple. Being that it was Christmas eve, flights were booked completely full. After about 20 minutes, the agent was able to finally re-book us on a flight that would get us into LAX at 8:04pm, meaning a 6 hour layover in Houston. As I stood there hearing this, I realized that this was going to be one heck of a day. But at least we were getting a free up-grade to First Class. Could be worse I guess.

I should pause here and tell you what our initial travel plan was so that you can understand why the next few hours were just down right stressful. The original plan was as follows: depart Del Rio at 0620, have an hour layover in Houston, followed by a flight to LAX; from there we would take a shuttle to John Wayne Airport and be picked up by my sister; my sister would then take us to Biola to pick up the truck we would be using for the duration of our time in LA. All in all a bit of a hassle, but it would get the job done. Unfortunately our delay through all of this off.

11:00am: We finally made it to Houston. Hurray. After grabbing a quick bite to eat, we headed for the USO (military lounge). From there we began to brainstorm how in the world we would get to Redlands from LAX. As noted above, the original plan relied on my sister being available to drive us to get our car. Unfortunately, my sister had plans with the in-laws for the evening, causing us to rethink our plan. After some brainstorming, we decided we could cancel our original shuttle, rent a car, go pick up our borrowed car, and return our rental...no harm done. So that's what we planned to do. Calling up the shuttle company, I found out I had made a major mistake...I had booked our shuttle for the wrong day, and they would not refund the money. Deciding I would call and deal with them later, I began calling rental companies, and after two hours on the phone with every rental car company at LAX we realized that this new plan was not going to work. Why not? There wasn't a single rental car to be had on Christmas eve. So now, plan C. Call up the shuttle company, and try to fight to have our shuttle changed to Christmas Eve night, and not have to pay again for a shuttle we didn't take. Spending about 30 minutes on hold, I finally was able to speak to a real person at Prime Time Shuttle. Speaking in a very rude tone, the customer service rep told me in no nice way that I was out of luck. I then asked to speak to a manager, and the person on the line made it clear I was bothering her, and told me to just go to the rep at the shuttle stop when I got to the airport and they would be able to change my ticket. Not really buying what she was selling, I called back 15 minutes later and after another 20 minutes on hold, was connected to another manager. This guy told me strait up (though in a much more civil and respectful tone) that there was nothing that could be done. By the end of this ordeal, Prime Time Shuttle lost my business forever. All this is to say, we ate the $40, and rebooked with another shuttle company.

8:05pm: We finally arrived in LA. We got our bag, hailed the shuttle and got a ride to Biola to pick up our truck.

9:30pm: Arriving at Biola, we grabbed our truck and headed for Redlands.

12:00am: After sitting in traffic for an hour of our 2.5 hour drive, we arrived in Redlands. Strait to bed for us.

So what's the lesson of all of this? Sometimes traveling sucks.

So, my lovely best friend made the trek out to Del Rio to visit us last weekend! I picked her up in San Antonio (a good excuse to get some shopping done in The Big City) and we spent the whole weekend just hanging out. She got the official tour of Del Rio, which means driving up and down the main boulevard, getting some Mexican food, and tasting wines at the Val Verde Winery. I loved having her experience what our life is like especially since she may be the only person to visit us in Del Rio before we move in February. Her visit coincided with the first night of Hanukkah, so of course we had to celebrate the occasion. Above is a picture of Zach manning the potato latkes.

As a special treat, she gave Zach and I a free photo session and edited the pictures the same day. Enjoy!