Ten Hour Vacation to Newark Airport

Life has been crazy lately. About three weeks ago I looked at our calendar and knew July was jam packed. I was heading to Maine with the church mission trip. While I was in Maine, Don planned a camping trip at a music festival near Pittsburgh. About a week later plans had us heading to the Azores, Lisbon, and Porto. Four days after returning home, I am to head to Montreal to see a long-time friend.

In-between the usual fun activities were planned: going to see Luma Luma in Asbury Park, gatherings with friends, a retirement party for my favorite doctor, etc. etc.

You have probably heard the expression: the best way to make God laugh is to tell her your plans.

Dad's sudden, not sudden passing had me returning early from Maine, and Don cancelling his camping trip. We saw family and friends non-stop for over a week. 

I was really looking forward to relaxing in the Azores when we headed to the airport on Tuesday, July 28. Pam offered to drive us to the train station, which would take us to the airport. Before we boarded the train we knew our flight was delayed, but we had a plan with too many moving pieces to shift. Besides, I love airports. I find them relaxing.

We are at the airport super early. We cruised through the TSA Precheck Line with only a person or two ahead of us. Now we have four hours to wait. We ate the turkey sandwiches we packed and got comfortable. 

One of the reasons I wanted to arrive at the airport early was that I had not finished researching what to do on vacation. I had spent a lot of time figuring out what to to in the Azores -- I had too many things to do in the Azores! I found a walking tour of Porto that would occupy most of our too-little time there. I had not looked into what to do in Lisbon other than look at the photo album from our 2003 trip with a one-year old for inspiration. Sitting at the airport on my regular cell phone data plan would give me the time I needed to actually make plans.

As we sat at the gate and the time kept changing for our flight, I had flashbacks to when our trip to Bali was cancelled in 2024. The airport was eerily calm, even as flight times were pushed back, and eventually cancelled.

Our 11:05 pm flight was pushed back to 12:02 am.

Then to 1:58 am.

Then to 2:22 am.

Then to 3:31 am.

Then cancelled around 2:30 am. I don't know the exact time because I fell asleep on top of my bag around midnight. The flight was only supposed to be 5 hours long, so I figured taking a nap would help me in the long run. Don said I was out cold.

We called for an Uber at 3 am -- the first time we have called for an Uber in the United States. It was either that or wait for the first train at 5:04 am to Princeton Junction and then having to find a ride home from the train station. The train tickets were about half the cost of the Uber.

A few stories from our long wait.

1) At TSA precheck I met a woman who Ubered from LaGuardia to Newark because her family's flight from LaGuardia to Cleveland was cancelled. They thought they would make out better from Newark. Only to have that flight cancelled, too.

Later I wondered if they would have made out faster renting a car from LaGuardia and driving to Cleveland. Alas, that was not an option for us that night.

2) I met a family from Florida who was supposed to fly to the Azores the night before. Ironically that flight left early before their flight arrived from Florida made it to Newark. I saw her taking a picture of her nieces in a cutout of an airplane having them say "Cancelled" before our flight was officially cancelled.

The shops at Newark Airport seemed to be closing around 9. Not all shops, just some. I came across a shop with the magazine racks pushed to front along with a couple of shopping baskets giving the aura of coming back soon. I popped in and saw the crossword book I wanted -- Dell (not Pennypack) variety (not just Sudoka). A book that will keep me entertained for many future flights. Trouble was, there was no way to pay. I peeked in the back. I waited. I shrugged my shoulders as others wondered if it was open or closed.

Then I got a text from Don. It was 10:15 and they just announced our gate was changing.

I figured he was okay sitting still and waiting for me to move our two carry-ons and two personal items. But he was impatient.

When I made my way to the gate, alas without the perfect crossword book, he had moved to the new gate. I found him. At the gate were four flight attendants finished with work for the day but stranded at Newark. They were trying to figure out how they could get home. None of them were on our flight, so we wished them luck and left them in peace. No idea why they didn't hang out in a space not so visible to the public.

By now our flight was moved back to our original gate, so we brought our bags back and settled in the same seats. Along the way Don came with me to see the situation at the CIGO shop. We talked to someone at a different CIGO shop. He said we could pick it up from the one and pay him. Felt like stealing, but no one stopped us along the way. And, yes, I did pay for it. I thought security would be a bit tighter at the airport.

The Uber ride was quiet. I stopped our driver from making a couple of wrong
turns, but he was not up for engaging in conversation.

Back home we reached out to the travel agency. The best United could be offered was standby on a Sunday night flight. The best the travel agent could offer was a Sunday flight to Porto, the next part of our vacation, and scrapping the first four days of a nine day vacation. We said no thank you and called the travel insurance company. They offered to refund our trip because United could not offer a flight within 24 hours. 

After a mopey day at home trying to regroup, Don encouraged us to still go away. It would have been easy to stay home. Friends were offering to fill our newly found free time with dinner, lunch, baseball games, a walking tour of Trenton, a tour of a handbell factory, etc., but Don recognized I really needed to get away. He took the reins and away we went.