The UN-friendly Skies

Yeah, that trip home from Providence did not go quite as smooth as the trip up. Going up it was: board plane at 7am, 1 hour to Baltimore, 30 minute layover, 1 hour to Providence, get luggage and rental car and on the road by 10:30 in Providence. Bingo, bango, bongo. Tic, tac, toe.

Via Facebook posts, I'll relive the trip home to Pittsburgh (mostly thanks to a big thunderstorm along the east coast--not really an airline issue).

Flight leaves Providence at 3:00. Thanks to flightaware.com, I can show you the route we took.

Here's the Facebook post thread:

Oscar Shutt our flight home to PIT was to stop at BWI. Because of storms, they rerouted us to Hartford, CT and we're sitting here instead. Hopefully this won't become too long of a day. Monday at 4:32pm

That's right, 1.5 hours to get from Providence to Hartford (with a couple of loops along the way). I just checked on the Google directions and it would have taken 1:50 to drive between the two airports. The pilot said that BWI was CLOSED due to the storms. Originally we were going to park at Long Island (ISLIP--I thought at first he was saying Iceland. I was really confused), but then ended up in Hartford. Beth and I were thinking the plane should've just flown straight to Pittsburgh and then went back to Baltimore--wishful thinking.

Cary Craig Ugh! I made it home without incident. The only plus to early AM departures is missing the afternoon t-storms. Monday at 4:37pm

Indeed, Cary!

Beth Buchheit Shutt Hey, we didn't get too far. Monday at 4:42pm

Sleepyhead missed most of our circuitous route to Hartford. We were able to get off the plane and we decided to eat dinner because we weren't supposed to get off the plane at BWI--just pick up passengers. It was a good call based on how the timing worked out.

Oscar Shutt Just landed in Baltimore. Hopefully Pittsburgh's right around the corner! Monday at 7:40pm

If only that was to be the case!! We sat by the runway for almost an hour because there weren't any open gates due to BWI trying to catch up on sending flights out.

Oscar Shutt Finally leaving Baltimore! Rumor has it Pittsburgh may be in our near future....once we get some pilots to fly the plane. Monday at 9:28pm

This was classic. I had the first part (before the ...) in my phone ready to send as soon as they said to turn off all electronic devices. The way the day was going I wasn't going to send it until it was certain. I noticed there was no one in the cockpit while the new people were loading on. Beth said I should just send it, but I held out...then the pilot comes on to the plane and says that he had reached his FAA max hours for the day and couldn't fly to Pittsburgh. So, they were efforting to find new pilots. So I add the ... extension to the FB update.

Oscar Shutt Ah the highs and lows of airline travel. After getting off the plane, we're now reboarding (with pilots this time) and we'll see if we take off--a thunderstorm is currently passing through. Monday at 11:21pm

At least we were able to get off the plane and wait in the terminal and stretch the legs. I grabbed a 6" Quizno's sub right before they closed at 10pm and it sure hit the spot.

Oscar Shutt And we're off! Pittsburgh, here we come...albeit on Tuesday now. Monday at 11:30pm

Again, not hitting 'send' until we were actually moving!!!

Oscar Shutt Touchdown in Pittsburgh! Tuesday at 12:33am

Got home right around 2am. I skipped XC practice Tuesday morning.

Cary Craig Wow, I think it was faster flying to CA, even with a 2 hour layover at ORD. Glad you got home! Tuesday at 12:12pm

Indeed, Cary, Indeed.

Fortunately, we haven't had many trips like that. There was the ill-fated trip to Portland a few years back, but other than that we haven't had many issues (other than my plane having to wait for President Obama to take off and almost missing a connection because of it).

Just to tie up some loose ends:

*Beth ended up 1st in her age group and 3rd amateur overall at the race--great job!!

*Fun dinner with Cary, Beth, Lindsay, James, and Mom B (and fun seeing Maija, Adam, Coopy, and Frito)

*I'm sad to see the World Cup end. Pretty exciting games. Hopefully the US can go further next time. Now time for following the Tour de France.

*The All-Star game was pretty exciting. It's amazing how much good, young pitching there is right now. Hopefully the Pirates can develop some with their drafts the last three years.

*Today is Ju-ly Four-teenth! (See the movie Con-Air with Nicholas Cage to get it).

*My triathlon is less than a month away. I'm doing the Morgantown half. No big goals, just finish and check off doing a half IM off my list. I'm planning on running the Philly Marathon again this fall and hoping to avenge all of my missteps from last year.