The 2015 Trip With My Boys
* disclaimer.... we have no internet, so will be using a "hotspot"
off Tracy's phone. We do not have spell check.
Giiven these two things, there will be spelling errors and there will be
no pictures. I may fix these things when
I make it home, I may not.
Planes, trains and automobiles..... Okay no trains, but everything else..... We all got here, not without issues, or a
story to tell.
Jay and I were scheduled to leave Rochester at 6am on
Wednesday, February 4, 2015. I thought
we were safe, no snow for days.... just
really cold. Or so we thought. Little did we realize the rest of the country
was experinecing a terrible storm.
Flights were being delayed and cancelled all over the place. When I went to "Check in" at home,
we found that our flights had been
delayed. At first glance, it was only
delayed by a few minutes. Not bad. No, at closer look it was delayed 12 hours and 15 minutes. We would arrive in San Juan at 2am. An even closer look we found it left us with 20 minutes to change
planes at JFK. Given the fact that we
would be changing from one terminal to another, I thought it wasn't going to
happen. When we looked a the new seat
assignments, Jay was in row 5 and I was in row 25..... Saddness, but hey we
would both arrive in Puerto Rico at the same time.
We got to the Rochester airport and inquired as to if we could
get on a different flight. The guy at
the counter told us that perhaps through a different airport we could get to PR
sooner. He said that we could drive to
Buffalo and get an ealier flight, not happening! He did
say that once we got to JFK, there may be more optSions, or we could wait until
tomorrow, Thursday.
Given the weather and the forcast of of bad weather, we
didn't want to chance it. Off we
go. We made it to JFK. The scheduled arrival by the time we took off
had us landing gave us 10 minutes to
make our connecgting flight. I have
this wonderful husband who says, so no big deal, if we miss the flight we take
the next one. No stress. I
didn't stress. We landed, got off the
plane and headed to the terminal.
Ripley's belive it or not, where we got off the plane in Terminal 4B,
there were no monitors with flight information. We knew based on an app I have that we had to get to
Terminal 4C. Jay spotted a "bus
stop" for getting to terminal 4C, and asked if it would get us to the
Puerto Rico flight. To our pleasure the
woman "manning" the bus stop was New Yorican"! Yes she said in Spanglish. She assured us we would make the flight. We boarded the bus with the other Puerto
Rican bound travelers. As we got to
terminal 4C, Jay over heard a conversation between this lovely woman and the
terminal saying the terminal for the Puerto Rico flight changed from terminal
4C to terminal 4B. Back to where we
started! She told us just stay on the bus, he'd take us
there. Apparently no one else on the bus
heard the conversation.
We got back to terminal 4B and were first to the gate for
our plane. ....and I was worried. Everyone else at the gate in terminal 4C had
to change to terminal 4B, in addition to the people who got off the plane with
us, got on the bus, got off the bus and didn't get back on the bus. (follow that?)
Fast forward... we land
1:30am in San Juan. Jay had
called to change our rental car the night before when we heard our trip had
been delayed. We get to the rental car
desk and they have us arriving at 2pm on Thursday. My sweet husband being who he is, was able to turn it around and
get us al car. We made it home to Moms
at 3am. We went right to the house
thinking she may be up. Hey never
know! She wasn't. At this hour, our only option was to make our way the local Walmart parking lot and
sleep until morning.
We had a really nice visit with Mom in Arecibo. I do need to point out that I have noticed
since watching modern family, that Mom sounds a lot like Sofia Vegaria's character when she says
"Jaaayyyy". Close your eyes,
hear her say it and that's what Mom sounds like! Love her to peices!!!!
Sean and his girls arrived as expected on wednesday
evening. (The twist to our trip ~ traveling
with 9 and 11 year old girls). They arrived in Puerto Rico on Wednesday evening
at 9 pm. Got their rental car. Drove 2 hours west to Rincon and couldn't
find their hotel. They did find the
local Police station, at which point Sean
realized he couldn't speak Spanish and the officers (3 of them) didn't speak
English. After much going back and forth, with McKenzie in tears the police
escorted them to the hotel only to find out it wasn't open at that hour. The police had already left them. Sean and the girls drove around for a while
until they found "2 beautiful girls from New Jersey", who knew of the
security guard at a bar, who knew some people at a hotel who then went over to
open the office for them. (following this?), After the cost of two hotel rooms later they
made it to a room. The price of driving
around an Island where you don't know the language. The joys of Carribean travel.
Tracy and Kosti made it to the Island on Saturday. We spend some time visiting Mom and then
headed west. Prior to leaving Mom's the
girls made fast friends with Sally the salamander. Jay and I thought there was no way they were
catching it, but no they did.
We spent the day driving.
Please now if you ever travel to a Carribean Island that 90 miles takes
4+ hours. You think it has been fun
and an adventure til now. ... No, the fun is just starting! Thanks to Kosti's navigation skills we manage
to find our condo complex. Looks lovely
at first blush. We punch int he code at
the security gate. Our directions tell
us our unit is in the first building on the right. We pull in.
It just didn't look right. I
can't wait to load pics of this place.
First waring, there is not another soul or car or sign of life to be
seen..... looks likea modern version of a an old west ghost town. The build foundation was cracking. There were wires hanging out where light
fixtures should be. There were weeds
growing in the stairwells. No numbers on
the condo doors. Not looking good. We parked, Kosti and I explored. Not a soul anywhere.
After some walking Kosti and I did find a building in a bit
of better shape, with numbers on the parking spots and unit doors. We found it.
The first key box we tried did not work the second did. The until isn't bad. It is modern.
Pretty stark. but hey.... there
are no weeds growing in the stairwell.
This is where I leave you for today. It is 12 noon and I have too many Karribean
Kositi's to continue writing. Never fear
though, the stories continue... you are
going to have to check back for more.
I miss my little Red
Rose but I know she is having fun with Mikey, Sammy and Charles Barkley. I have my husband, Popi Cruz and Tracy,
Kosti and Sean and the girls for adventure!
We are so enjoying the sun and warm!
Check back soon as it all continues!
Janet
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