Thursday 13 - 13 People I Met On My Journey to America

13 people I met on my journey to America

If you haven't yet read the story of WHAT HAPPENED to make the journey so eventful, check out this post.

1. When I got off the plane in Newark, got through immigration and then made my way to the Continental desk so that we could sort out what was going to happen next since the onward flight had been cancelled, there was a lady who was a continental member of staff on the phone. I could hear everything she was saying. Apparently some member of her family had already missed out on some physical therapy sessions and was going to miss out on more unless the person on the other end of the phone could send someone to fetch this person. She was not a happy lady!
   
2. Another not happy lady was the Continental member of staff who arrived at this point and sat at the desk next to the one I ended up at. She was seriously in a bad mood. She moaned to one of the other staff members "I don't know why they send these people when they know the weather is like this." Hopefully she wasn't grumpy with any customers, cuz you know, OK her day sucked a bit, but I reckon ours sucked more!
   
3. While trying to sort out where I was going to stay for the night I needed to get change for the phone so went to one of the news stand to buy a kitkat. The lady was very nice and kind, and was obviously new, because a more senior member of staff was showing her how to work the register.
   
4. The Howard Johnson mini bus driver was awesome! I was cold wet, fed up and he smiled and took my bags and was just so friendly that it cheered me up. He drove carefully and got us safely to the hotel! And was just as cheerful at 4am the following morning.
   
5. When we were all sat around waiting to see if our flight would be leaving, there was a man who was working at the little kiosk there, selling overpriced dried fruit and stuff like that. We were right opposite one of the banks of departure arrival monitors. As more and more flights began to be cancelled and turned red on the board, he would occasionally talk to those of us who were waiting and when eventually they decided that no flights were leaving until 2pm he said that he had NEVER seen THAT MUCH RED on the board, EVER!
   
6. One of the guys who should have been on my flight was trying to get somewhere to watch his son play basketball with his school team. His son was then to separate from the team and travel somewhere else with his dad, this guy. He was making phone call after phone call, trying to find out what the team was doing and trying to convince his son that staying there and waiting for his dad really was NOT a good idea, because it looked like he was going nowhere. I think, that in the end he managed to convince him and changed his flight plans to just head home and his son would head home with the team.
   
7. There was another guy, obviously well educated, well paid, etc travelling with his son who must have been around 12 years old or something like that. When our afternoon replacement flights got cancelled as well he was messing around on his laptop and just decided that he would spend another $800 and go get flights with Delta instead! Oh to be able to make decisions like that.
   
8. There was a lady with a Kindle, at the waiting area by the time we got to the afternoon. She was happily passing it around to other people who had never held one to give them an idea of the weight and what it feels like to use one. Apparently this was her 2nd Kindle because she had trodden on her first one and bust it!
   
9. The lady who had helped us in the morning at the desk at the gate turned out to be the same person who helped me up at the main continental desk when the afternoon flights got cancelled. She was so nice, so kind, and friendly with it, and she managed to work out that she could get me on a flight to Cleveland and then from there onto Atlanta that day. She was a bright spot in that day, really.
   
10. I felt so sorry for the young lady who was our flight attendant on the flight to Cleveland. I was right in the back seat by the galley on this smaller plane and heard every interaction she had with the ground crew who were bringing stuff on through that back door. She realised we had got no sugar and asked the ground crew to pass her some, this turned into a major hoo ha and they wouldn't let us go without it, she was desperately trying to tell them it was OK, that we would manage, but they insisted. THEN they realised we didn't have a container for the waste bag to sit in. She tried to insist it was fine that she was perfectly capable of using a waste bag without a container to stand it in! She was trying so hard to get us to leave.
    
    
11. On my way to the Holiday Inn at Cleveland airport I met a lady who was going to be speaking at a training session in one of the ballrooms at the Holiday Inn the following day. It was a session for home daycare providers. She was pregnant and hoping she would get enough sleep, but aware that she still needed to check out the ballroom etc before she could head to bed.
    
12. When I got to Washington, I knew I was having another overnight layover and I knew that that was OK because one of my friends was coming to get me and take me back to her house. Oh Pat, it was so good to see a friendly face and you were SUCH a blessing to me! We talked and talked, well, until I fell asleep on the recliner!
    
13. Finally, 4 days after leaving home I got to Atlanta airport! On my way to find my friends, I passed the Continental baggage office and spotted my case. Yes, my case had made it there without me, as it had been tagged through to my final destination and I had done those 4 days with JUST my cabin baggage office was so friendly, she said she had been tracking my journey knew all the places i had been and had been leaving messages for me all over the place to say that my bag was safe and in Atlanta! She was so sorry for all I'd been through and hoped it wouldn't put me off coming back to America!
    

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