Wednesday, February 18, 2009

On The Road Again

As I type this, Joel and I are sitting in the airport steaming mad. We are suppose to be on my way to Birmingham U.K. for another race, but instead we have been sitting in the airport on a delay for what seems like forever. Our stop is suppose to be in Newark, probably the worst airport to travel in and out of in America in my opinion and we only had an hour layover. So needless to say, I'm sure we won't make that connection to head to the U.K. Now they are talking about directing us through Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris, the worst airport in the world. I'm sure we won't see any of our luggage anytime soon if that happens. We will see what shakes out........

2 comments:

Taraneh Christine said...

Awwwww... welcome to my life. I hate, HATE when that happens!!!

ejheat said...

Sorry to hear about your travel delays, David. I have been through this travel delay situation and many other airport disasters way too many times. It has been a nightmare for me including even a emergency landing one time. I could write a book on my car, plane , train, and bus travels. I am praying that you and Joel get to the U.K. safe! This is the most important thing and maybe even your luggage will somehow show up ok.
I have to share this crazy travel bus story while I was at Penn State going from State College to Pittsburgh. You guys will get a big laugh out of this story. There was a big snowstorm and my bus never made it to State College. So, after waiting for way too long and seeing conditions outside getting worse by the minute, another bus from a different bus company made it and was going to Pittsburgh. So, they put all the Pittsburgh travelers on this bus. Oh, what a bus trip this would be. When we got on the bus, I immediately recognized this woman that I had not seen for many years because she was in the first seat right behind the bus driver. She was a girl that went to my church and she was mentally crazy. I can tell you that our Sunday school classes got R and X rated with her stories about her mom that she would start telling right in the middle of Bible verses and other church school and Bible information. She would always sit next to me and drive me crazy, and say some real weird stuff to me at church. Of course, I would always be nice to her and stop for her to tell me all these weird stories. So, when I saw her in first seat of the bus, I just was in disbelief that this could be happening to me. I just knew this was going to be a long trip to Pittsburgh. Her mom and whole family did all kinds of crazy stuff. I could write a book about this family and they would probably put it in the fiction department. But, it would all be true. Her mom still went to our church and had put her daughter in this mental institution in Central PA and she was coming back to see her mom. I have no idea how she even got out of the mental institution to go on this trip. My luck, there she was on the same bus as me in a record setting snowstorm. She was driving the bus driver crazy while I trying to hide from her on the bus. She did notice me, but she had not seen me in years and I had a huge beard at the time and she did not say anything to me directly, but she sure kept staring back at me. Also, she was driving the bus driver crazy, and the bus driver kept saying,"shut up lady." The bus driver was already so stressed out because of the horrible road conditions, and I heard him say that he did not think we were going to make it over the mountains to get to Pittsburgh. You can only imagine what was going through my mind at this time possibly being stranded on a bus in a snowstorm with a crazy girl from my past. The bus driver actually had his head out the window just trying to see anything because it was snowing so hard and the roads were really bad while other cars and trucks got stuck. This was the longest bus trip of my life. It took us at least 6 hours for what is normally a 3 hour bus trip. A riot almost started on the bus because my old church girl was driving everyone crazy. Shouting matches started between my old church girl and several people while I was just trying to hide and just keep my mouth shut. She probably would have recognized my voice. By the grace of God, somehow we made it to Pittsburgh. Would you believe that my dad ran into her mom at the bus station, and my dad and her mom did not exactly get along to well. Her mom cursed at my dad and grandfather before at church, and said some other nasty things to them. When I got off the bus, My dad and I got out of there as quick as possible. I can still picture this whole bus trip. It was such a stressfull trip at that time, but looking back on it, I just get a big laugh out of it seeing the wild and crazy girl from my Sunday school church past. Just an amazing story. And oh, yeah, I was also on a bus that actually got stuck in a snow pile in the parking lot of the bus station when the bus driver backed up a little too far. Also, a bus trip where our bus broke down in very cold weather and we had to endure frigid conditions until another bus came. More reasons why I hate snow and cold. I could go on and on. I hope you and Joel get a good laugh from my bus stories. This is the bottom line because me and Coach E said so!!!!

Eric