Shuffle back from Buffalo

This is just a quick note to say that Ben and I had a great vacation, and are now home safe. Niagara was really fun. Some parts were a little disappointing (The American side is a complete ghost town!) but we were in such good spirits that we still enjoyed it. Our hotel was wonderful (thank you mom and dad!) and the Canada side was great. The falls were majestic.

Unfortunately the ending was marred by traveling woes. We got to the airport smoothly, easily checked in, waited for an hour, and boarded the plane 20 minutes early. The pilot announced that there was a maintenance problem being checked, and he'll get back to us when he knows more. At 11:00 am, scheduled take-off time, he announces that the wing has been dented, they don't know how or when, and they're measuring it to see if its flyable. 15 minutes later he says it's definitely not flyable and we should all deplane and wait at the gate. So we do. Here is where we start to realize that Delta's customer service is completely inept. They continue to tell us to wait at the gate every so often, lasting 40 minutes. At that time they announced that the plane is unflyable (which we already knew) and that we all need to go back through security to the ticketing counter to rebook a different flight. They didn't have any other planes so they just cancelled the flight. This is 1.5 hours after the original announcement. The whole crowd runs out of the terminal to the ticketing booth. The "customer service/ticket reps" wave us away and point to the 4 phones that say "Reservations." They refuse to help us personally. After 5 or 10 minutes we realize those phones are just connecting people to the general 1-800 number, so we all call on our cells. We're told the only option for getting to Denver is flying standby. Ben and I refused, especially since this is a small airport anyway, thoroughly booked, and now all our fellow passengers are probably also going to fly standby. Luckily they agreed to refund the whole ticket price. After pushing through the crowds to the customer service desk we learn our luggage has been dumped at the claim center. There was no general announcement about it.

After getting our luggage we go to Jet Blue, hoping to get to Denver via another airline. They can do it for almost $500. I want to look at other airlines, but Ben insisted that Jet Blue was the cheapest and that our best option is to DRIVE TO DENVER. At this point I'm very upset and starting to feel hopeless. So Ben pushes me to the car rental desks and we find that there is indeed a Budget car we can take to Denver for $97. I told Ben that I wanted to check for other flights, and again he says this is the best choice and goes ahead and makes the contract to drive to Denver. I only didn't protest because at this point I was so beat, and the sticker price seemed so much cheaper. Ben said we could get home in 19 hours and that it would be FUN. I did not agree, but went along anyway. It was miserable. 10 miles away I knew he had made a big mistake. My parents reported that google maps says it is a 25 hour drive. we had 24 hours to get the car back to the DIA, or we'd be charged another day. At least we really got 26 hours because of the time zone change. So now we were driving on unknown roads, fast, all night, with a time limit. I was stressed to the bone. Oh, and the car smelled like cigarettes.

I could go on and on about the wretched last 24 hours. It was horrible. I never want to drive cross country again, and I let Ben know several times how mad I am that he pushed me into this. The only reason I sort of agreed was I figured it would be cheaper. But with all the gas and snacks needed to fuel the drive, and the lost wages for missing work today, and the danger of driving at night through fog and heavy rain, it was totally not worth it. If he had just stopped to think through his decision instead of grabbing the first solution that pops in his head and then romanticize it and bully me into agreeing, we would have taken a later, leisurely flight and gotten home last night.

That's all I'm going to say about it. I wish our great trip hadn't ended on such a foul note, but I can't change things now. We're home in one piece, the animals are all fine, and with no work at least he could drive me to and from the mechanic to get badly needed new tires on my car. So now that I've shared, we'll pretend it didn't happen. Later when I'm more rested I'll upload some photos from the good part of our trip. Going to sleep now.