blog post

October 6, 2011 – Best Laid Plans

 In booking our flights from Washington, DC to Rome and then returning from Athens we ended up having to fly out of Ronald Reagan National Airport with our return flight being from Athens arriving at Dulles International – not convenient, but we had a plan. We would park the car at the West Falls Church Metro station and take the Metro to Ronald Reagan and upon our return we would take the Washington Flyer bus from Dulles to the metro station to pick up the car and then drive home.

 The flight out of Reagan was at 4:40pm so we figured if we left the house around 1:00 there would be plenty of time for the 40 minute drive to the metro, park etc. and get to the airport in plenty of time. Ended up leaving the house about 1:20 and got to the metro station about 2:00. I dropped Linda at the curb with the luggage while I found the all allusive parking spot in the deck. I hurry on down to where I left Linda & the luggage and she is pointing to a sign that we had never seen before that clearly stated that any cars left for more than 24 hours will be ticketed and towed at the owner’s expense. Here is were the comedy starts – I rush back up to my car, pick up Linda and the luggage, pay the $4.75 or so for the few minutes I was parked and head back on to I66.

I all of a sudden realize I don’t exactly know how to get there from here! Tell Linda get out Gertrude (my trusty old GPS). We’re half way there and Gerty is still searching for the satellite signal. Finally 5 miles before the exit, she wakes up and does her thing.  Ok –we’re back on track with a slight change in plan, but what’s an additional $100.00 or so in parking any way. 

Things went smoothly at the airport, Finally, we’re sitting on the plane and they announce that the plane next to us has had a fuel spill so there will be a delay before we can take off.  A half hour after our scheduled departure time we depart for Montreal where we are to catch our transfer flight to Rome.

We get into Montreal airport at about 7:00 instead of the scheduled 6:15 and still have to go through customs and catch our 7:45 flight. There is a separate customs station for persons that are making connections. We are assured there is plenty of time and that they know where we are and the plane will not leave without us. It’s amazing how many friends you can make standing in line for 40 minutes. As we are standing getting our passports stamped we hear the announcement “this is the final call for Flight 892 – all passengers should be on board.”  We started flying before we got on the plane, but WE MADE IT!