4-17-23 SHORT HILLS: I know I promised more Charleston, but there is breaking news. We went to CHS for our morning flight home to Newark, EWR, on Saturday. There were delays, mechanical, weather in NY/NJ, more mechanical, then a ‘Ground Stop’ at EWR. More than once they had us line up for boarding and then aborted. Late in the evening they canceled the flight.
Everybody tried to find alternate flights to EWR, LGA, JFK, Washington, Philly—nothing, anywhere, even on Monday. So we ran to get a car. There was a line of forty people at Avis, the only open agency. After an hour or so we rented a car, and after another hour or so, four of us, me Judy, Bill and Roger got the luggage in the trunk and started out on “The Last Road Trip”, alas, there were no six-packs with us.
Bill was driving as we headed west to I-95 North. After we crossed into North Carolina, we started looking for a motel, but found only No Vacancy’s. Near Fayetteville, around 3 AM, we found a no name place with vacant ‘smoking rooms’. They stank like ashtrays, were dirty and greasy, fixtures were loose and wobbling. I didn’t dare take my socks off in the room. Judy and I fell into bed, slept and both woke up at 7 AM, roused Bill and Roger, and we all had breakfast at Mickey D’s, and gassed up.
We were back on the road at 8:15 AM, Judy driving and heading north on I-95 to Union Station, Washington DC. Roger wanted to take the train back to NYC. We got there a little after 2 PM, having had severe traffic delays in VA, especially after Richmond.
The three of us drove on through the afternoon, through traffic, through Maryland, through Delaware, stopping only for fast food, I think, in Maryland. The mother of all traffic jams cost us an hour getting across the Delaware Bridge to NJ. After that it was smooth sailing up the NJ Turnpike, then to the Garden State, to NJ-24 to Short Hills with only one fuel up. We arrived before 8:15 PM.
It was 826 miles. Waze led us the whole way. We all slept well at home that night.
2 comments:
Omg. Glad you took photos when you were smiling
Soooo glad you made it home safe. What an odyssey
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