Now, incase you were wondering, Vermont is not an easy place to get to. Personally, I think it is some sort of New England conspiracy, but don’t take my word for it. Instead, try to find affordable airfare into Burlington from Dallas, Texas. The cheapest I found: $1,600.00 a ticket. Yeah. I could fly to China for less than that.
Anyway, Trevor and I left for the Northeast on Friday after work. Our flight into Hartford, CT (the most inexpensive flight we could find within driving distance of Middlebury) was due to depart at 7:00 PM, which didn’t leave much time to get from work to the airport that afternoon. Then, throw in all the Labor Day traffic hiccups (which I somehow failed to foresee), and you have the makings of a near disaster. This was (of course!) further complicated by the remote parking situation over the holiday weekend at DFW (read: Absolute. Nightmare). All the remote parking lots were full, and – after driving in circles for almost half an hour at Remote Parking South – I was finally offered a coupon that made terminal parking quasi-affordable ($10/day as opposed to the normal $17).
So, with my car finally parked, Trevor and I hastily made our way through security to the departure gate – only to discover that our flight had been delayed for more than an hour. This, unexpectedly, gave us time to grab a bite to eat and browse the various airport newsstands for the latest novel by Stephen King or Michael Crichton (yes, my academic days are behind me. Sue me). The two of us returned to the gate just in time to discover that our flight’s departure time had been delayed even more because – I KID YOU NOT – American Airlines was trying to “locate a crew to fly the plane to Hartford”. Uhmmmm, yeah. That’s kind of an important detail, donchathink?! I mean, call me crazy, but those big, metal planes don’t just fly themselves…
Long story short (or shortER, at least), Trevor and I finally arrived in Hartfort, CT around 1:30 AM. Since we knew we would be getting in late (even before you threw in the unexpected flight delay), we had already arranged to spend the night at the Marriott near the airport. However, we did not anticipate the following:
- Being unable to pick up our rental car upon arrival - even though we supplied Dollar with our flight number (and they knew our flight was delayed leaving Dallas). Dollar was apparently closed for the night, despite the fact that their competition over at Thrifty, Budget and Avis all kept their rental facilities open and their shuttles running for their customers arriving late on our flight.
- The shuttle from the airport to the hotel being closed down for the night as well.
- The taxi taking us to the WRONG Marriott.
- The concierge at the wrong Marriott being a complete and utter crackjass. He actually said to me, “Why didn’t you tell the cab driver that you didn’t want to be taken to the wrong hotel?” My response: “Really? You really think I came to the wrong hotel on purpose? At 2:30 in the morning? You’ve got to be kidding me!”
- Dollar-rent-a-car putting Trevor on hold for 45 minutes while they checked to see if we were lying about our flight being delayed.
- Finding out that Dollar had given away our rent a car when we hadn’t shown up by midnight.
- Learning that Dollar no longer had any available rent a cars due to the holiday weekend rush.
So, yeah. Fun. Loads of it.
The good news: We finally DID check into our hotel room (at the RIGHT Marriot) around 3:30 AM. And Dollar? Yeah. They “suddenly” located an available car after we…ahem…reasoned with them. Crisis averted (although barely).
The rest of the trip went more or less as planned. We woke up early(ish) on Saturday morning and drove the almost 4 hours to Middlebury, VT (and I always thought those New England states were little!). Trevor even learned about “Tag Sales” along the way! Yey!
Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of the wedding. Isn’t Becky a beautiful bride?!
Middlebury, Vermont
Before the ceremony...
Becky making her entrance...
The bride and groom...
Husband and wife...
