Mize Clan Italy 2006
Monday, June 19, 2006
.. Arriving New York we made it to Continental agent to get boarding passes.
She confirmed what the Nice agent said, that there would only be room for seven and the remaining four would have to stay in New York the night. and would have to fly out Saturday.
So after wishing Jacob, Genna , Will and Meredith good luck the rest of us headed to the gate. Meanwhile Jacob and his team we're going back to British Air terminal at JFK to get them to cover the hotel.
While we're waiting to board Jacob calls to say they got on a 7:00 Pm Continental flight direct to Houston out of LaGuadia and they were taking a cab there.
At no time to this point had any of the numerous agents informed us of the LaGuadia options. We agreed to wait for them in Houston for the flight to Corpus ( since we would arrive ahead of them of course).
As we're boarding the Houston flight the agent informs us we're missing a critical piece of flimsy paper and refuses our boarding. So, after some intense dialog, monolog, with the agent, and watching the gate close we conceded defeat and decide to catch a flight out of LaGuadia, which means a bus ride first.
We then wait an hour for a bus to take us to LaGuadia to catch the last flight at 8:15. Arriving at Continental terminal LaGuadia, I purchase 4 more tickets (yes ones we had already paid for) and after more arguing got credit for two more -a minor Victory.
As we go to the gate we are flagged for a strip search since we all purchased last minute one way tickets - talk about salt in the wound!
Finally - we're walking to our gate and we catch Jacob and his group as they're boarding - their flight had been delayed. So now we had a real horse race to see which group get to Houston first.
Our flight to Houston was long but uneventful, and sure enough we see Jacob and his group waiting on their bags in Baggage Claim - and we found our bags already there - stacked nice and neat! So we won the race!
After depositing Regina outside to wait for her son to pick her up, the rest of us caught the Van to the FB0 where Tres was waiting with the King Air for the last leg to Corpus. Getting on our plane was like being home already.
Arrived at the house around 12:30 AM - my bed has never felt so good!
posted by gary mize # 3:07 AM 
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