The adventure continues

February 21 – 22: About a  month later than originally planned, it took us three tries to actually get to Las Vegas to pick up the van.

Try number one:  Cheryl dropped us at Newark at about 6:30 am, then turned around to go to the gym back on Staten Island.  We searched for a gate assignment for about 15 minutes, then for the Spirit desk for another 5 (lower, lower level, behind the pillars) only to find when we got there that our flight had been cancelled. Apparently after sending an email asking ticket holders to confirm their status (which we did), completing the pre-check process (which we also did),  after assigning seats, and after looking for volunteers to give up said seats they decided at 3:00 AM to cancel the flight, sending an email at 3:11 AM informing ticket holders of said cancellation.  3:11 AM!!! How many people actually check their email at that hour? And we were not the only ones caught unawares.  The scramble was on to find another flight; we rushed to terminal C, got on line at United’s Additional Services counter and waited only to find out all the seats on the morning and afternoon flights were sold. We called Cheryl and made our way back home to book a flight for the next day.

Try number two: Cheryl again brought us to Newark, a little later this time, and dropped us off.  After unsuccessfully trying to check in via the kiosk, we got an attendant to help us.  He took our information, checked the passenger roster and informed us that our flight was not the 8:55 AM one we were trying to board, but the 8:55 PM flight.  In my hurry to buy tickets I somehow overlooked that very important information.  At that point I lost it and became a blubbering mess.  He must have wanted to get rid of me so he booked us as standby for an afternoon flight and waived the very hefty change fees that United usually charges for basic economy passengers.  Trying to make the best of it, we took a cab to Jersey Gardens, caught a movie and lunched at Applebees before catching the airport shuttle back.  When we got to the gate we found that it was also a fully booked flight and that only 11 people had not yet checked in.  Since we were numbers 14 and 15 on the list we knew we weren’t going to make it so we settled in for another four hour wait.

Try number three:  This one worked.   We boarded a very crowded plane, took our seats and booked a hotel in Vegas for the night, one with an airport shuttle and a good breakfast.  Arrived at the Tru hotel, part of the Hilton chain, well after midnight and crashed.  Couldn’t say what the room looked like but the bed was comfortable and the room was warm.  After a good night’s sleep we took Lyft (our inaugural run) out to Best Time RV to meet up with the Zioness once again. Chatted with Brian about the Roadtrek drama, vans in general and his experiences before heading south once again.