As you can tell from the numerous posts, I'm back from New York, a very enjoyable and mostly flawless trip, save for the first day, which is the topic of this post. I'll get to the rest of the trip in a later post.

Heading into the trip, it seemed something didn't want us to go to New York. There was a highly publicized shooting at City Hall. And then, there was the great blackout, which darkened New York and most of the Northeast. After that blackout, we were supposed to fly there the next day!

We had an early morning flight at 7 am to Newark, where some of my family live nearby. They were going to pick us up at 5 pm, when the plane touches down. There isn't a direct flight to Newark anymore as Continental decided to cut that flight out of the schedule. So we chose the cheapest one, which happened to be American Airlines. There was to be a connection in St. Louis. The flight to St. Louis was a breeze. No problems. Though, the airline is getting cheap with food. Yes, airline food is pretty bad, but I was hungry and all they gave us was yogurt, a granola bar, and some raisins. We got to St. Louis at 1:00 with a one-hour connection.

So by 2:00 we were sitting on the plane at the gate waiting. And waiting. And waiting. At 3:00, the captain informs us thunderstorms were in our flight path and the FAA wouldn't let any planes leave the airport. He also thinks it will be another hour, so he forces everyone off the plane since it's probably more comfortable in the terminal. During this time, we had our share of overpriced terminal food, a small $7 sandwich and a $3 bottle of water. So by 4:00, we were off and running. Well, flying. The captain says we're almost to Cleveland when the radar breaks. With low visibility and thunderstorms below us, we have to land somewhere to fix it. Cleveland won't take us; they're socked in by thunderstorms and still recovering from the blackout. Chicago won't either; they've got thunderstorms too. So, we make a major U-turn and head back to St. Louis. It's 6:00 when we land again in St. Louis. We must wait another half hour for another plane to get ready. By 7:00, everyone's on the plane, anxious to leave. We taxi to the runway and start to speed up. Just when we're ready to take off, silence. The right engine dies. You can't really fly with one engine. We taxi back. Passengers sigh and are angry, rightfully so. They begin to ask for vouchers, food, anything that will appease them for their inconvenience. The airline stays silent and simply refuses. Keep in mind, no drinks or even peanuts have been served. So everyone's hungry and tired and angry, a terrible combination to have in an enclosed space.

We go back to the terminal at 7:15 only to find it empty. Apparently, they close it down early, leaving no food places open for us. Everyone is resigned to slump on chairs, awaiting the next folly. The new plane is finally ready and by 8:30, we leave, boarding for a 4th time. Soon, we are flying in what will be a trouble-free flight. What did we get for our troubles? A bag of pretzels. No, wait... 2 bags of pretzels. Just an awful experience.

The flight to Newark took two hours. From above, we still saw the thunderstorms. It was cool to see a lightning strike black out a community almost immediately. It would be 11:30 Eastern time when we finally landed. My aunt was kind enough to stay up that late to come and pick us up, only 6 hours late. I'd been up for 16 hours flying and all I wanted to do was go to sleep.

Luckily, the flight back was pretty much flawless. Only a 10 minute delay from Los Angeles to San Jose was the only hiccup.

As for the six days in the New Jersey/New York area, that'll come later. Now, I've got a late class to attend.