Sonny's memorial service was to be held Friday (2/12) in Cucamonga CA. The blizzard of the century hit Pittsburgh just before that and dropped feet of snow. I made my reservations so I could land in CA at a decent time for family to pick me up and get up to LA but I never really thought through the getting to the airport details for myself. As has been said many times, the devil is in the details.
Unbelievably another storm came hammering into the NE bring tons more snow. All flights to NYC, Boston, Philly and D.C. were closed, Buffalo flights were sold out and I had originally scheduled Pittsburgh because the winter weather in Buffalo is so tempermental. That one gave me a good laugh.
In order to make my flight time I had to leave the morning after the latest snowstorm at an incredible 3 a.m. I-80 and I-79 were not allowing motorcycles (duh), cars pulling anything, empty tractor trailers and the speed limit was 45 mph. That's when I started to worry. I did promise myself I would stop if I got scared, but it didn't happen, the main roads were clear enough.
I got to PIT and then the fun began. I planned to park in extended parking but didn't know it had never been plowed, vehicles were parked every which way. I was so glad Miki had convinced me I needed to take the winter beater truck, I put that baby in 4 wheel low and powered her over as much of a snow bank as I could get and ran for the airport. Then another mistake: I needed to check my bag. Southwest Airlines is a fantastic way to fly and inexpensive, but totally no frills so I had to check my bag myself. That wasn't bad but since so many flights had been canceled days before, all that day's flights were 100% full. The line was forever. Starting to get even more nervous. Then I had to go through security, at least with so many Eastern flights still canceled that wasn't so bad. Now I'm running for the jetway. Forget the fact that I had planned to have breakfast at the airport, forget that I was supposed to call daughters and boss to let them know I made it to airport. As I got to gate they were already past boarding my seat so I hightailed it onto the plane and sent a quick text to let someone know I was on plane.
That should have been the end of the excitement but no way. First we had to wait for last minute luggage, a little cringe here, I think mine was in that pile. Then the chain is attached and they start to pull the plane out. NO WAY. We're stuck firmly in the snow bank. The chain breaks, men with shovels appear, NOPE, then finally after an hour the front loader appears and breaks us free. Everyone applauds and a little voice in my head says, "Geez I hope they de-ice us". We start taxiing and we are going to a part of the airport I have never seen before. YES. We are being de-iced. We left Pittsburgh 2 hours late. I do want to stop here and say how great the Southwest Airlines crew was. We were kept informed by both the steward and the flight crew during this entire time. We also got a free drink.
By this time I figured there was no way I was going to make the flight connection to San Diego. However, when I asked the steward he said about 10 of us were on that flight and he would see what he would do. I don't know how they picked up the delay but we made it to Las Vegas I transferred planes and so did my luggage. In fact I have no idea how the luggage was able to make it. I walked out of the jetway from my PIT flight, into the jetway for the next flight and was seated -- all within about 10 minutes.
I have no recollection of the San Diego flight except for a very nice lady in the aisle seat smiling at me the one or two times I opened my eyes. As far as I know that flight lasted 5 minutes. It might have something to do with 2 Bailey's and Hot Chocolate (some breakfast huh?).
I landed in SAN, my family picked me up, and within an hour we were on our way to Ontario CA. I remember most of the drive, dinner at a lovely French restaurant and then I slept and slept and slept.
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