The Stills Day 1, Going to Florida
We were all looking forward to spending a few days in Florida. Who wouldn't want to escape the cold for a little while? We made it, but we definitely had our share of headaches on the way down...
I drove to Montreal to meet the guys in the afternoon, got all the gear to the airport, checked it, all was good. The plane left a few minutes late, but whatever, it happens...
The first flight was to Philadelphia. We got there on time, we could even see the skyline when the pilot announced that it would be another 30-40 minutes before we would land, so we circled. A lot. Finally, about 45 mins later, we hit the runway. We were a little worried because this severely cut into our stopover time to make it to the next flight, but we still had an hour to go, so we figured it would be fine.
Then the plane stopped at the end of the runway. We waited there for a few minutes, then we taxied over to the cargo gates. We waited some more. Then the pilot makes the announcement that we can't park the plane anywhere because there aren't any available gates. It's been about 25 mins now, we're starting to sweat a little... A few minutes later, we started moving towards a terminal, then we stopped. The pilot made another announcement to say there were no gates available for us, meanwhile there were planes coming and going all around us. He must've said something that pissed off the air traffic controller, because it took an hour to get a gate.
Obviously, this killed our stopover time. I was the furthest up front in the plane, so as soon as I got out, I ran to the next gate to try and hold the plane and make sure our gear would make it. The guy at the gate was really cool, held the plane for us and said he would send a baggage cart to get our gear off the first plane and bring it directly to our new plane. All seemed good. It took about 20 mins before the plane left the gate, more than enough time to get the gear over.
So, we relax, enjoy the flight, and a few hours later we landed in Orlando. We landed. The gear didn't. It seems our friend at the gate was just trying to get us on the plane and out of there, which we sort of expected but were hoping wasn't the case. We tracked the gear, still sitting in Philly, made arrangements to pick it up the next morning, grabbed our rental van and headed to the hotel.
We were planning to eat dinner in Philly during our stopover, but since that didn't happen, as soon as we got to the hotel we went out in search of food. We found a cool little pub like place called the Crooked Bayou that had the best hot sauce, tater tots and wings. A pretty good score for 1:30am. We didn't stay out too long cause we were kind of beat, so after eating we headed back and crashed.
I drove to Montreal to meet the guys in the afternoon, got all the gear to the airport, checked it, all was good. The plane left a few minutes late, but whatever, it happens...
The first flight was to Philadelphia. We got there on time, we could even see the skyline when the pilot announced that it would be another 30-40 minutes before we would land, so we circled. A lot. Finally, about 45 mins later, we hit the runway. We were a little worried because this severely cut into our stopover time to make it to the next flight, but we still had an hour to go, so we figured it would be fine.
Then the plane stopped at the end of the runway. We waited there for a few minutes, then we taxied over to the cargo gates. We waited some more. Then the pilot makes the announcement that we can't park the plane anywhere because there aren't any available gates. It's been about 25 mins now, we're starting to sweat a little... A few minutes later, we started moving towards a terminal, then we stopped. The pilot made another announcement to say there were no gates available for us, meanwhile there were planes coming and going all around us. He must've said something that pissed off the air traffic controller, because it took an hour to get a gate.
Obviously, this killed our stopover time. I was the furthest up front in the plane, so as soon as I got out, I ran to the next gate to try and hold the plane and make sure our gear would make it. The guy at the gate was really cool, held the plane for us and said he would send a baggage cart to get our gear off the first plane and bring it directly to our new plane. All seemed good. It took about 20 mins before the plane left the gate, more than enough time to get the gear over.
So, we relax, enjoy the flight, and a few hours later we landed in Orlando. We landed. The gear didn't. It seems our friend at the gate was just trying to get us on the plane and out of there, which we sort of expected but were hoping wasn't the case. We tracked the gear, still sitting in Philly, made arrangements to pick it up the next morning, grabbed our rental van and headed to the hotel.
We were planning to eat dinner in Philly during our stopover, but since that didn't happen, as soon as we got to the hotel we went out in search of food. We found a cool little pub like place called the Crooked Bayou that had the best hot sauce, tater tots and wings. A pretty good score for 1:30am. We didn't stay out too long cause we were kind of beat, so after eating we headed back and crashed.
posted by t. at 11:22 PM
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