Bloggin from PA

I had a few minutes to kill so I wanted to mention some things regarding the flight before I forget them. When I was packing for the trip I was debating whether I wanted to take a 3rd bag along to check, my volleyball bag. I knew that normally they say just 2 bags but I figure hey maybe they charge me an extra 5 bucks or so, big deal. Well luckily, I reconsidered and went with only 2. When I got to the airport I immediately took notice of what appears to be an industry wide change, luggage surcharges. Not only do they charge you for an extra bag to the tune of 80 DOLLARS, they also charge you if the bag weighs over 50 lbs! I guess the airlines are struggling to find ways to make ends meet but damn that pissed me off. 80 dollars to take an extra bag is lunacy.

I never really looked at my itinerary after I bought the tickets a month or two ago. Upon looking at them yesterday I realized my flight went from Fort Myers, to DETROIT to Philly. Yuck. Talk about going a roundabout way. The flight to Detroit was full but ok. I was impressed with the Detroit airport. The terminal we were in was ultra-modern. It had an elevated tram system that I never saw before. It also was the first time I saw a FULLY automatic bathroom. Not only did it have automatic flushing toilets, automatic water faucets, autotmatic soap dispensers and the GRAND FINALE, automatic paper towel dispensers! Stick your hand in front of the unit and it shoots out a decent size chunk of paper towel. Cool!

I ate my dinner there. As I was finishing up I heard down towards my gate an announcement about needing volunteers to get bumped from the flight because they were overbooked. I was all over that. I immediately headed down there and put my name on the list. Since I didn’t HAVE to be in PA Thursday and I was traveling alone it was the perfect bumping situation. In reward I would get a free ticket anywhere as well as being put up in a hotel and be booked on a 7 am flight the next morning. Awesome!! By the time I got there a couple had already volunteered but the lady said I was on the list and depending how things turned out they very well may need to bump me. Cool.

So they call for boarding, all the volunteers were told to hang tight since the final decision couldn’t be made until everyone else had checked in. I almost felt like I was holding a lottery ticket I hoped I could cash in. After much studying of the seating, the clerk said they only needed one person to bump, so that eliminated the 3 couples that had volunteered. I eagerly rose my hand and said THAT’s ME! Immediately the women a few seats down said that’s me too! Then I realized that I saw this woman in line in front of me when I offered to be bumped! Ah crap. She was one ahead of me on the list. Oh well, I boarded the plane reluctantly thinking how excited Ali would have been if I told her I just earned us a free ticket. My seat was all the way in the back of the plane and since I was waiting out there to get bumped, all overhead storage was full so I jammed my bag under the seat in front of me, eliminating what little foot room there was. Things got worse when I saw and smelled my next seat neighbors, 2 big black women, one of whom was munching away on a big smelly taco bell meal that stunk like onions. Argh. Even after she was done eating the smell never really left. I spent most of the flight in my aisle seat, leaning out with my little air jet at full blast to help minimize the stench. She was also one of these people that had no problems claiming the entire mutual armrest as her own. To be honest it didn’t bother me all that much since I was leaning away from her so much that I wouldn’t have used the armrest anyway.

Luckily the flight was only an hour, it seemed like two. In true Philly airport fashion, the luggage took forever to arrive. At baggage claim, I saw the woman that was ahead of me on the bump list! I asked her what happened. She said last second they didn’t even need her to bump. Oh well that made me feel a little better. 🙂 I rented my car, some Suzuki sedan (much nicer than expected) and drove to my buddy’s place where I am shacking up. I didn’t get here until close to 12:30 am, I didn’t go to sleep till closer to 1:30 and I STILL woke up on my own at 6 AM. Crazy.

Charlie told me last night the forecast for Saturday was great, upper 70’s and partly cloudy! Perfect!!!! I wake up this morning and now it is supposed to pour tonight with a chance of lingering showers tomorrow morning. This was one of the things I hated about PA. The weather forecast is NEVER right. Down in Florida it is almost always consistent because the weather patterns are so set in stone. So anyway, the best I can hope for is that they mess up this forecast as well. If not it will mean the last 3 events I came to PA for will all have been rainy or rained out.