Getting There is Half the Battle
When things start out wrong, they stay
wrong...
Like many folks, I am a creature of habit, and I
like convenience. As a Manhattanite, I find flying out of Newark more
convenient, for two reasons. It's often easier to get to, and I have a
Continental OnePass account. Continental has lots of nonstops to most places I
have gone to from Newark, and I really don't like taking off and landing more
than once a day, whenever
possible.
Usually, it's an easy trip to
Newark. Not this time.
Well, the hellish
commute started when I left the house 15 minutes later than I wanted to. I had
trouble getting a cab, and excessive traffic meant having to get to Penn Station
by taking Ninth Avenue. The entrance with the escalator was blocked off by the
the Country Music Awards. So, I missed the train to Newark.
It got worse. At the Newark
International train station, the monorail was backed up (it usually is very
quick and you get the car to yourself) and everyone had to transfer from one
train to another after the first stop. Of course, as we approached the station,
an empty train just left the station.
In
the end, I just made it to the boarding gate with minutes to spare. Luckily, it
all worked out. The flight went fine. But just try to get out of
DFW!
When I got the ground transportation
area of the Dallas-Fort Worth airport (the same airport where Sue Ellen Ewing
woke up drunk in the parking lot after JR was shot), there was no free shuttle
to the Gaylord Texan, and a man from the Super Shuttle service told me that cabs
don't look for fares at the airport. He literally said, "You expect cabs to come
to the airport and pick people up and take them to hotels?" I replied, "Um,
don't people want to make money in one of the biggest cities in Texas?" He also
said it would take a half hour for a taxi to come to take me to the Texan, which
is only 10 minutes away, but he said "Cabs don't like to do there." I called the
hotel, which said Super Shuttle is the company with whom they have a contract,
and suddenly, a Super Shuttle came and I got on. He then drove around the
airport. And, a woman on board said she had been on that shuttle for a half hour
already.
Eventually, we got there, but
the shuttle driver managed to put a tear in the outer pocket of my beloved
Samsonite luggage.
Posted: Tue - November 15, 2005 at 11:13 PM