Travel

I have a suggestion for those of you that plan to travel by air in these uncertain times. If you have a desire to get to your destination in a timely fashion I suggest that you follow the TSA rules (although they don't seem to follow their own rules) and I have one extra special tip for you. Check to make sure that there are no Montgomerys on your flight. I am referring specifically to any Montgomery that would be directly related to me.

The airlines can be a tad cranky about showing you the passenger list, so I suggest that you proceed directly to your gate, take a look around and see if you can see me or any members of my immediate family. For those of you that aren't familiar with my immediate family and still have a desire to arrive at your destination on time, it would be well worth your while to just stand up and announce "Is anyone here related to Karen Montgomery"? Members of my family will then fess up and you can immediately rebook yourself on a different flight.

It won't matter if your flight was direct from Pittsburgh to Cleveland and re booking means that you now have a layover in Bangladesh, you are going to get there faster if you don't travel with us.

My travel woes are legendary. I have missed 3 days of a Scandinavian cruise because of a truck accident in Philadelphia. It makes for a great story, but I missed the white cliffs of Dover. I have spent 5 days touring the Mediterranean without my luggage courtesy of USAirways. We even left an entire day early for that trip, just to make sure that everything would go well. I have spent countless nights in odd cities because my connecting flight was late or the last flight out was canceled. I avoid Philadelphia like it has a plague and I would rather travel to Atlanta to get home from New York than be the last flight out of Washington/Dulles. For years I thought that it was only I that traveled under a black cloud, but as it turns out, it is genetic.

Our daughter Lindsay flew back to college in Jacksonville Florida on the same day that some nut in Newark decided to walk the wrong way through security. You might think that a jerk in Newark wouldn't have any effect on travel from Pittsburgh to Jacksonville, but you would be wrong. Nothing flys direct to Jacksonville. Lindsay had a layover in Charlotte. Her connecting flight originated in ... you guessed it, Newark.

To make a long story short (and traveling with us is always a long story) our attempt to get Lindsay back on campus, in to her new room, and ready for class the next day failed miserably. She was rerouted to Gainesville where a friend agreed to make the 70 mile drive to pick her up and help her get back to school. Meanwhile, USAirways managed to loose her bag. The very same bag that they charged us $25 to put on the plane. After a ridiculous runaround, they found her bag - in Jacksonville. They delivered the kid to the wrong city and the bag to the right one! Oh, that TSA "rule" that says they won't put a bag on a plane unless you are traveling with it.... they lie.

I've been busy putting my calendar back together after the upgrade to Windows 7, confirming hotel reservations and flight info for speaking engagements and training classes. I may be the only person that makes travel arrangements based on where I would like to be stranded. Next week three of us are traveling to Chicago. Three Montgomerys on the same plane? .... we decided to drive!

Home.... again.

I was in Florida yesterday…. and Georgia, and North and South Carolina and both Virginia and West Virginia.

Friday I flew to Jacksonville Florida to visit the University of North Florida with my college bound daughter. Lindsay was born in Florida and we prepaid her college tuition before her first birthday on the off chance that she would want to go to school in Florida. The program will refund your investment with a bit of interest if your child decides to attend school outside of Florida (Like Lindsay’s older sister). Unlike her older sister, Lindsay doesn’t think she will have any trouble studying with palm trees on campus.

We’ve looked at several Florida Universities and although she liked them, Lindsay was undecided.

Within hours of arriving on campus I snapped this photo and at that very moment I knew that we were going to be the parents of a UNF freshman next fall. To Lindsay, it felt like home.

The 80 degree temperature didn’t hurt either. Debby helped by text messaging us the weather report from Pittsburgh on Saturday morning “18 degrees and snow flurries” as Lindsay was walking around in her flip flops.

As a parent I prefer to think that Lindsay’s decision was based more on her discussions with the department heads than fact that campus is just 8 miles from the beach. (stop laughing!)

We did check out the beach and even a few quilt shops. We ate lunch on the patio of the restaurant, did some shopping to enjoy the weather and by the time I crawled into bed on Saturday night, I was convinced that it was the best trip possible.

I should have checked the Weather Channel

We intended to fly home yesterday. If you know anything about my travel woes, the following will not surprise you.

All went well until we checked out of the hotel, returned the rental car in a slight drizzle and went to check in for our Delta flight. Due to bad weather, ALL flights were canceled that went through Atlanta. If you have ever flown on Delta, you already know that ALL DELTA flights go through Atlanta. By the time I waited in the mob to get to the customer service desk, they had already graciously re-booked us on a flight that would get us home TUESDAY morning instead of Sunday afternoon.

To fly home I was going to have to re-rent a car (hotels with shuttles were already full) check back into a hotel (at my expense, airlines do not compensate for weather related delays) and wait 30+ hours to return to the airport in hopes that the weather cleared in time for our flight – which had a 6 hour layover in Atlanta.

Lindsay had a huge anatomy test 3rd, 4th, and 5th period today. I have a class tonight and I had the computer with all of the handouts with me. Instead of sitting around hoping for the best, we hit the rental car counter, secured a car, and drove home – through the weather that wouldn’t allow planes to fly. Being from Pittsburgh I am use to ice and snow (people in North Carolina are not, which is why we counted 13+ cars that had lost control and ended up meeting tow truck drivers and state troupers yesterday). Actually, it wasn’t that bad. All 13 hours and 18 minutes through 7 states and every type of weather you can imagine were spent with my daughter that I am going to miss next year. It was a long day, but we are home safe, the college decision is made, and now my biggest concern is how to keep an acute case of “senioritis” from setting in!