2011 Girl's trip
Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2011 10:34 am
VI Day minus one....(this year's trip absolutely demanded a prequel so bear with me. I promise to get to the to actual trip report!)
This year the "menfolk" had decided they would pass on St. John so a "girls" trip was planned over the summer. Keep in mind that none of us are "girls" any more but that didn't stop us. Actually, the fact that we had no men to wait on or cater to actually enhanced the allure of the trip. A whole week of no cooking, no cleaning and no sacrificing our sacred beach time to cater to the fragile male ego......what more could a girl of any age ask for??? We counted down the months and day to our trip but....(cue the creepy music).... dun, dun, DUN.....a ominous cloud lingered on the horizon. Mother Nature thought it would be quite hilarious to alter the life of the entire New England area by dumping a record breaking blizzard on the area a good month or two before anyone would dare imagine.
We had phoned and e-mailed each other in the preceding days wondering how we should prepare, but we were all hoping that it was the usual meteorlogical miscalcuation and so we opted to wait to see how things unfolded. We were scheduled to leave on our trip early on Sunday morning, but an early wake-up call on Saturday morning from American Airlines announced that our flight the following morning was cancelled due to the snow. WTF!!! Outside my window there was still a brilliant display of colorful leaves on the trees and not one snowflake to be seen. Who cancels a flight an entire day in advance?? No one quite believed the weather reports yet even though a snow storm had been predicted for close to a week already and each day added another inch or so to the amount of snow predicted. How many times had we watched the news reporters standing in perfectly dry intersections with their predictions of doom and gloom that never quite seemed to materialize? How on earth could they cancel our flight when a single flake of snow hadn't appeared at that point??? Another flurry of frantic phone calls ensued and I decided we should grab the bull by the horns... we were going to make it to St. John, DAMN IT, even if we had to sleep at the airport and shovel the runway ourselves!!! One of the other ladies was a little more rational and after giving me an verbal smack on the head I realized that wasn't a very realistic approach to the problem. Luckily I'd had the presence of mind to reschedule our flight out of JFK hoping that we could skirt the bad weather by heading South. She had used a reputable and reliable limo service on a trip to JFK for a a European trip earlier in the year so we decided to call them and arranged a 1 pm pick up in our NW Connecticut town. We made reservations at the Sheraton near JFK and decided to roll the dice. A light snow began to fall at about 12:30.....no problem, we'd be long gone by the time it got bad.
We were picked up promptly at 1 pm by our driver, Stanley, who we immediately dubbed "Stan the Man". He informed us that we were lucky to have his services that day since he had dropped off his morning passenger and was starting on his way home when he got the call from the head office for our last minute request ro go to JFK. The first 10 miles of the trip were a blur of happy chattering about the things we wanted to do once we reached our destination. Then Mother Nature decided to give us a REAL challenge and opened up the heavens and it started to snow as though a dump truck had backed up and purged it's load over our heads. We started seeing cars in the ditch and trees were bending from the weight of the snow. Cars were stopped on the freeway so that drivers could clear the sticky snow from overwhelmed wiper blades. Stan the Man slowed our speed down to a snail's pace, but we kept up with the friendly chatter and asked Stan as many questions as possible to try to distract him from the road conditions. Lori look at me at one point and said that we were either f-ing brilliant or f-ing morons for making this trip since the roads were worsening by the minute and there was some question as to whether we would make it. Would we wind up stranded somewhere lost in a frozen wilderness forced live off of the frozen foods stashed in our luggage?? Would we have to become a modern day menopausal Donner party and begin to look hungrily towards "Stan the Man" after being forced to share our precious food items with him???
We finally reached the Westchester exit to pick up the fourth member of our group - her condo complex resembled a suburb of Baghdad after a successful airstrike - trees down, dented smoking vehicles littered the roadway and the ditches, and shell-shocked pedestrians trying to wade through the deep snow on the streets despite the abandoned vehicles or the other brave souls hoping that spinning their tires until they smoked would create enough traction to make the crest of the numerous hills. That portion of the drive turned out to be the most challenging and time consuming but our stalwart driver got us through. We finally picked up the last member of the group and crawled our way back onto the highway. The drive continued to be a challenge until we reached the edge of NYC and the snow eased up a little at the point and Stan was able to pick up the pace. We eventually made it to the Sheraton after a four hour harrowing drive that normally took two and a half. We tipped Stan handsomely and wished him luck on getting back home since Connecticut's roadways were declared a disaster that day! I also told Stan that he was the best money that I'd spent for a man in a LONG while. He laughed and went on his way -- I sure hope Stanley made it home OK.
We checked into the Sheraton exhausted from the stress of the ride, but now we had to figure out something to do with our frozen food items until the next morning. We checked with the front desk - sorry, the only space they had was in a refrigerated unit in the lobby snack/gift shop which was very limited. At this point we were ready to handle ANY sort of curveball headed our way so we piled the wrapped and baggied items in the bath tub in our of our rooms and started a bucket brigade from the ice maker on our floor. We covered everything with a mound of ice that nearly filled the tub. **Note to self - remember to write a polite thank you card to the manufacturer of that ice machine - it continued to spit out ice in spite of the intense work out we gave it that night.
We made our way down to the hotel restaurant to grab a quick dinner which turned out to be not so quick. The hotel was packed - probably with lots of other "brilliant" people with the same idea as us or with travelers stranded at JFK nearby because their connecting flights had been cancelled mid-trip. We called home and found out that about a foot of snow had already fallen there in the few hours since we'd left - power was out in much of the state and many highways were already being close due to slippery conditions, fallen trees and downed power lines and all flights were cancelled out of the local airport. If we had left even 30 minutes later we would not have been able to get out. Even though we were forced to wait an inordinate amount of time for a so-so meal we celebrated with a toast and hoped for the best. We went to bed with the snow starting up again outside our windows. God bless American Airlines, god bless Stanley and God bless hard working ice machines! Would we make it out or would we wind up stranded at the airport Sheraton for a week forced to each raw bacon out of our bathtub?? Only time would tell.........TO BE CONTINUED.
This year the "menfolk" had decided they would pass on St. John so a "girls" trip was planned over the summer. Keep in mind that none of us are "girls" any more but that didn't stop us. Actually, the fact that we had no men to wait on or cater to actually enhanced the allure of the trip. A whole week of no cooking, no cleaning and no sacrificing our sacred beach time to cater to the fragile male ego......what more could a girl of any age ask for??? We counted down the months and day to our trip but....(cue the creepy music).... dun, dun, DUN.....a ominous cloud lingered on the horizon. Mother Nature thought it would be quite hilarious to alter the life of the entire New England area by dumping a record breaking blizzard on the area a good month or two before anyone would dare imagine.
We had phoned and e-mailed each other in the preceding days wondering how we should prepare, but we were all hoping that it was the usual meteorlogical miscalcuation and so we opted to wait to see how things unfolded. We were scheduled to leave on our trip early on Sunday morning, but an early wake-up call on Saturday morning from American Airlines announced that our flight the following morning was cancelled due to the snow. WTF!!! Outside my window there was still a brilliant display of colorful leaves on the trees and not one snowflake to be seen. Who cancels a flight an entire day in advance?? No one quite believed the weather reports yet even though a snow storm had been predicted for close to a week already and each day added another inch or so to the amount of snow predicted. How many times had we watched the news reporters standing in perfectly dry intersections with their predictions of doom and gloom that never quite seemed to materialize? How on earth could they cancel our flight when a single flake of snow hadn't appeared at that point??? Another flurry of frantic phone calls ensued and I decided we should grab the bull by the horns... we were going to make it to St. John, DAMN IT, even if we had to sleep at the airport and shovel the runway ourselves!!! One of the other ladies was a little more rational and after giving me an verbal smack on the head I realized that wasn't a very realistic approach to the problem. Luckily I'd had the presence of mind to reschedule our flight out of JFK hoping that we could skirt the bad weather by heading South. She had used a reputable and reliable limo service on a trip to JFK for a a European trip earlier in the year so we decided to call them and arranged a 1 pm pick up in our NW Connecticut town. We made reservations at the Sheraton near JFK and decided to roll the dice. A light snow began to fall at about 12:30.....no problem, we'd be long gone by the time it got bad.
We were picked up promptly at 1 pm by our driver, Stanley, who we immediately dubbed "Stan the Man". He informed us that we were lucky to have his services that day since he had dropped off his morning passenger and was starting on his way home when he got the call from the head office for our last minute request ro go to JFK. The first 10 miles of the trip were a blur of happy chattering about the things we wanted to do once we reached our destination. Then Mother Nature decided to give us a REAL challenge and opened up the heavens and it started to snow as though a dump truck had backed up and purged it's load over our heads. We started seeing cars in the ditch and trees were bending from the weight of the snow. Cars were stopped on the freeway so that drivers could clear the sticky snow from overwhelmed wiper blades. Stan the Man slowed our speed down to a snail's pace, but we kept up with the friendly chatter and asked Stan as many questions as possible to try to distract him from the road conditions. Lori look at me at one point and said that we were either f-ing brilliant or f-ing morons for making this trip since the roads were worsening by the minute and there was some question as to whether we would make it. Would we wind up stranded somewhere lost in a frozen wilderness forced live off of the frozen foods stashed in our luggage?? Would we have to become a modern day menopausal Donner party and begin to look hungrily towards "Stan the Man" after being forced to share our precious food items with him???
We finally reached the Westchester exit to pick up the fourth member of our group - her condo complex resembled a suburb of Baghdad after a successful airstrike - trees down, dented smoking vehicles littered the roadway and the ditches, and shell-shocked pedestrians trying to wade through the deep snow on the streets despite the abandoned vehicles or the other brave souls hoping that spinning their tires until they smoked would create enough traction to make the crest of the numerous hills. That portion of the drive turned out to be the most challenging and time consuming but our stalwart driver got us through. We finally picked up the last member of the group and crawled our way back onto the highway. The drive continued to be a challenge until we reached the edge of NYC and the snow eased up a little at the point and Stan was able to pick up the pace. We eventually made it to the Sheraton after a four hour harrowing drive that normally took two and a half. We tipped Stan handsomely and wished him luck on getting back home since Connecticut's roadways were declared a disaster that day! I also told Stan that he was the best money that I'd spent for a man in a LONG while. He laughed and went on his way -- I sure hope Stanley made it home OK.
We checked into the Sheraton exhausted from the stress of the ride, but now we had to figure out something to do with our frozen food items until the next morning. We checked with the front desk - sorry, the only space they had was in a refrigerated unit in the lobby snack/gift shop which was very limited. At this point we were ready to handle ANY sort of curveball headed our way so we piled the wrapped and baggied items in the bath tub in our of our rooms and started a bucket brigade from the ice maker on our floor. We covered everything with a mound of ice that nearly filled the tub. **Note to self - remember to write a polite thank you card to the manufacturer of that ice machine - it continued to spit out ice in spite of the intense work out we gave it that night.
We made our way down to the hotel restaurant to grab a quick dinner which turned out to be not so quick. The hotel was packed - probably with lots of other "brilliant" people with the same idea as us or with travelers stranded at JFK nearby because their connecting flights had been cancelled mid-trip. We called home and found out that about a foot of snow had already fallen there in the few hours since we'd left - power was out in much of the state and many highways were already being close due to slippery conditions, fallen trees and downed power lines and all flights were cancelled out of the local airport. If we had left even 30 minutes later we would not have been able to get out. Even though we were forced to wait an inordinate amount of time for a so-so meal we celebrated with a toast and hoped for the best. We went to bed with the snow starting up again outside our windows. God bless American Airlines, god bless Stanley and God bless hard working ice machines! Would we make it out or would we wind up stranded at the airport Sheraton for a week forced to each raw bacon out of our bathtub?? Only time would tell.........TO BE CONTINUED.