Flight Trouble
I am not one to do crazy things. I am very afraid of pain and so avoid anything dangerous where bodily harm is likely, such as skiing. I did try mountain biking once but ended up walking my bike down the mountain because riding down a dirt path with rocks and trees in the way seemed a little iffy. I like to plan and organize and while I love surprises, I also like to be prepared. So it was quite surprising to my mom when I called her from the Chicago airport in June 2000 and told her the changes to my plan.
I had been in London on study abroad from January to April and then done a two-month term at BYU in Provo, Utah. It had been six long months since I had seen Josh and while I was in London, it had even been hard to talk to him very much because of the prohibitively expensive long distance phone rates, as well as the fact that I was sharing one phone with forty other students. I was so anxious to see him and was thrilled to get on a plane headed to Rochester as soon as my last final was complete. I remember picking out my outfit thinking I needed to be comfortable on the plane but wanted to look good for my man when he picked me up.
When I checked in for my flight, I was told there was weather trouble in Chicago and it might be tough to get out but I didn't care. I needed to get to Rochester and Chicago was a lot closer than Salt Lake so I got on the plane. Once I got there I realized that this weather had really messed things up. The lines at the gate desks were so long with people trying to rearrange their flights. By the time I got up there (my flight to Rochester had been cancelled) the soonest I could get a flight out was a day and a half later. I should have been concerned about sleeping in an airport for two nights but mostly I was heartbroken that Josh and I wouldn't be spending the evening together when I was so desperate to see him.
There was a man talking to a woman in line and I kind of overheard them talking about flights to Toronto, which is only three hours from Rochester. The guy worked for Xerox and said he could charge the cost of a rental car to the company so he was thinking about trying to get on the Toronto flight. The woman seemed super nice and was a younger grandma who was anxious to not spend two days in the Chicago airport and I piped in that I would love to join in on that plan if that was okay. So the three of us booked flights to Toronto that left later that night and landed sometime around 2am. Then we got a rental car and drove to Rochester, arriving at about 6am. I had them drop me off at Josh's house and I went in and woke him up because I was so happy to finally be with him.
It sounds crazy now to think about flying to technically a foreign country with two strangers and then taking a road trip with them. But I remember feeling totally safe with them and they were really very nice people to let me tag along. We were an interesting trio (a young grandma, a college student and a nerdy middle-aged single guy) but I was so grateful to them for getting me to where I wanted to go. Just a few years later my mom and I drove through a bad ice storm to get from Michigan to Rochester again to see Josh and this time we got married so that I wouldn't have to ever travel to him again! Now anything crazy I may do is with him, which is exactly where I like to be.
I had been in London on study abroad from January to April and then done a two-month term at BYU in Provo, Utah. It had been six long months since I had seen Josh and while I was in London, it had even been hard to talk to him very much because of the prohibitively expensive long distance phone rates, as well as the fact that I was sharing one phone with forty other students. I was so anxious to see him and was thrilled to get on a plane headed to Rochester as soon as my last final was complete. I remember picking out my outfit thinking I needed to be comfortable on the plane but wanted to look good for my man when he picked me up.
When I checked in for my flight, I was told there was weather trouble in Chicago and it might be tough to get out but I didn't care. I needed to get to Rochester and Chicago was a lot closer than Salt Lake so I got on the plane. Once I got there I realized that this weather had really messed things up. The lines at the gate desks were so long with people trying to rearrange their flights. By the time I got up there (my flight to Rochester had been cancelled) the soonest I could get a flight out was a day and a half later. I should have been concerned about sleeping in an airport for two nights but mostly I was heartbroken that Josh and I wouldn't be spending the evening together when I was so desperate to see him.
There was a man talking to a woman in line and I kind of overheard them talking about flights to Toronto, which is only three hours from Rochester. The guy worked for Xerox and said he could charge the cost of a rental car to the company so he was thinking about trying to get on the Toronto flight. The woman seemed super nice and was a younger grandma who was anxious to not spend two days in the Chicago airport and I piped in that I would love to join in on that plan if that was okay. So the three of us booked flights to Toronto that left later that night and landed sometime around 2am. Then we got a rental car and drove to Rochester, arriving at about 6am. I had them drop me off at Josh's house and I went in and woke him up because I was so happy to finally be with him.
It sounds crazy now to think about flying to technically a foreign country with two strangers and then taking a road trip with them. But I remember feeling totally safe with them and they were really very nice people to let me tag along. We were an interesting trio (a young grandma, a college student and a nerdy middle-aged single guy) but I was so grateful to them for getting me to where I wanted to go. Just a few years later my mom and I drove through a bad ice storm to get from Michigan to Rochester again to see Josh and this time we got married so that I wouldn't have to ever travel to him again! Now anything crazy I may do is with him, which is exactly where I like to be.
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