Recession force people dig deeper for better deal, meanwhile UA just started accepting mileage in exchange of one-way ticket instead of round-trip only. So, with only 5 bucks processing fee, I'm so proud to be able to fly from NYC to Seattle, but, only 2-stops ticket left by the time I booked. Not bad, after all, this is the first day of my 35-days trip, several hours more shouldn't be a problem, I thought.
Everything went smoothly. Greyhound bus - Newark - Denver, by the time I landed on Spokane, SE Washington state, I was almost 40 minutes ahead of schedule and all happy in picturing the famous Crab Pot before cruise tonight.
When there's no sign of boarding 30 mins before departure, my first doubt was my watch. Yes, I adjusted it twice, Denver and after. It turned out that the flight was delayed. Apparently, I had been checking on the "arrival" board for more than an hour, it just happened that there was a flight with similar number arriving at same time, and, I was not even waiting on the right gate. Lucky me, it's a small airport, the right gate is just nearby.
Would I run out of luck for the day after that? Because, after another 45 minutes, a small jet landed, with its communication system "possibly" down. "Not mechanical system", the lady with airline still carried hope for everyone, from where I could see, no more than 30 passengers.
Kids were running with dogs (every 10 persons bring more than 1 dog on this flight), families were planning weekend breaks in big city like Seattle or San Francisco (per conversations overheard during waiting). Until I noticed an old couple from Pennsylvania trying to cancel a reservation for tonight on the phone, I seemed to be the only one flying all the way from east coast and somehow, stuck in this unknown town. How about my reservation? $42 prepaid/non-refund cruise, last round for the day, my first arrangement of the entire trip, was departing in less than 3.5 hours, and it says "arrive 20 minutes prior to departure".
Soon, it was confirmed that our flight got cancelled and the earliest alternate I could catch was at 3:40pm. Horizon Airline, never heard, but it didn't bother me at all. I got my hope back, if I could be in Sea-Tac airport at 3:40+00:59. The 3G data signal I required from T-mobile this morning hadn't shown up on my phone yet (later I knew it's a simple setting), and this airport has no wifi ("what a surprise"). I started calling a friend in Seattle, tried to figure out how long it'd take to downtown from airport by train, and how much, in the worst case, by taxi. No answer and not even voicemail box transfer...
I ran across the whole building, re-checkin then blended into the crowd belonging to one and half flight, plus a long waiting list for stand-by passengers (poor them, they won't even get a chance). Past 3:40pm, the scheduled departure time, we got on the plane, a turboprop one though (see previous blog air travel _ flight). And, my friend called back, offering pick me up from the airport!!
No doubt, my luck came back from that point.
The turboprop flied faster than jet today and landed at 4:50pm on Sea-Tac. In the next one and half hour, I was able to meet my friend, browse the great Seattle skyline from highway, check in hostel and run (literally run, due to heavy downtown traffic, car was given up) down the hill to Pier 56. By 6:27pm, Argosy Cruise was right in front of me, shining in Seattle's waterfront.
[Things kept felling out of my plan in the following 34 days. However, instead of bringing regrets, it came with tons of extra fun far beyond words can possibly tell, but I will try, promise :)]
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| sunrise @ EWR, NJ |
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| sunset @ Seattle, WA |
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| Puget Sound (top) Union Lake (bottom) |
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| lovely facades and boating community |
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