Day 1614: Triple Whammy

Any one of the mishaps that happened on our journey home would have made the trip an eventful one, but we got a triple whammy.

Left the hotel at exactly 10:45 and with no traffic, we arrived at the airport a little after 11:00, checked in and got to the gate quickly.  Then, as we watched luggage being off-loaded from our plane, four fire trucks pulled up.  When crews were fueling the plane, the connection was faulty and allowed fuel to spill out on the tarmac.  Fully suited crews piled out to stand by while a fuel spill was cleaned up.  First, they sprayed it with foam and then covered it with absorptive pads.  All activity around the plane stopped while they worked.  The incident resulted in a one hour delay.

We arrived in Reykjavik late and the terminal was jammed.  All the flights were delayed because the air traffic controller's work slow down was still going on.  There were no chairs and very little food.  The food options are well-suited to Icelanders and other Scandinavians, but westerners were a bit put off.  Evan had introduced Steve to Skyr, and Icelandic type of yogurt, so he chose that and I picked a Greek yogurt and potato chips.   The one really positive aspect of Reykjavik's airport are the forty or so outstanding private bathrooms.  We left Iceland an hour late, too.

I had planned a three hour layover in NYC to make the connection to Buffalo and I could see it slipping away.

Two hours out from JFK, the captain announced the first diversion because of a huge storm over the east coast, and then another and then another.  We were just circling for a long time.  Finally, we cut through thick clouds with lots of turbulence and landed.  We thought we had only minutes to make our flight, but once phones were turned back on, we got texts announcing that the Buffalo flight was delayed by weather also.

The airport was jammed with people who had been caught by the storm.  Planes from all over could not land in NYC and got backed up everywhere.  Screaming babies, impatient passengers, not enough chairs, inadequate food and blaring music made for a very tense and noisy night. Why on earth do they keep blasting that raucus music? That might have helped the babies settle down.

Ultimately, the flight that was supposed to depart at 10 pm, finally took off after 2 am. We finally rolled in the driveway a little before 5 am.  A long journey indeed!