All roads do not lead to Rome!

Book me on the 6am, you never know what will happen in December but it will give me all day to get there if I need to find alternative routes…..

Concert in Rome NY at 8pm, Dec 10, starting point: Springfield MO.

Awake at 4:30am, 4 Airports, a cross-state car dash, an ice storm , snow, rain and semi-naked in the back of the car on the final leg!  Concert Impossible!

A travelogue for Monday December 10:

In the back of the cab on the way to the airport at 4:45am, a little drizzle, not really icing up so the dire forecast must have been wrong.  Well no, just the timing of it was wrong!  The United Airlines 6am flight to O’Hare is delayed 3o minutes because the crew got in late the night before, so at 6:30am we push back and within seconds I was asleep.

I wake an hour later thinking, wow I slept through the whole flight, great!  Ladies and gentlemen, we can’t fly in this ice storm that hit as we were pushing back, nothing will leave for the next 5 hours and possibly not for the rest of day! I was resigned to calling Syracuse and telling them there is no way to get there, but on my way down to ticketing I see a weather forecast, Kansas City was cold but clear, no ice.  I tell the ticket counter agent, I have to get to Rome, to which she replies Don’t we all!

It’s 8am and there’s a flight leaving Kansas City at 12:24pm.  By the time I get the new ticket it’s 8:15am and a 3 hour drive to get there (although we are in an ice storm and going north it is worse).  I think to call a cab (there are none waiting), go home, get my car and drive to KC.  I do the math, I wont make it.  So, I plead with Enterprise and they rent me a Jeep for the price of a compact!  Perfect.  No time in KC to return the car and make it a one way rental, so I have it for the week and it is now sitting parked in the lot at Terminal A.  The drive would be treacherous in my Accord but in the Jeep it is a breeze (well an icy one).  I arrive 50 minutes before the flight and soon I am on my way to Washington Dulles, connecting there to another flight scheduled to arrive in Syracuse at 6:13pm.  If all goes well I should get to Rome by 7:30ish enough time to change.  It’s a good thing I didn’t fly to Chicago, as they canceled everything in and out!

Ladies and gentlemen, the flight to Syracuse is delayed 30 minutes. OK, the new arrival time is 6:35pm, I can still make it.  We board, we fly and sure enough we land at 6:35pm, I did it, I made it woo hoo!!!! Ladies and gentlemen, there is plane parked at our gate, it should only be 5 minutes before they leave. 5 minutes go by, then 10, then 15, I look out, and every other gate is open.  I break FAA rules and get up to speak to the flight attendant,  explaining my situation and pleading with her, I have made it this far, can we not just pull up to another gate? She replied I am sorry but this is our only gate here, we don’t use the others to which I replied, but you are UNITED AIRLINES!!!!

The plane pulls into the gate at 7pm, my bag arrives at baggage claim at 7:18pm, Rome is usually a 45 minute drive.  My driver (little did she know an Indy car driver in the making) lead-foots her Volvo and we are off.  Now I must say that Volvos are not just safe and comfortable, but also a great car to change clothes in!  It’s just my luck that right when I take my pants off we pull into the toll booth on the thruway!  I say to her whatever happens don’t get pulled over…but officer the reason I had no pants on was……

Finally, finding and putting on everything I needed from my suitcase to change into it’s now 7:58pm and I am clipping together my festive red bow-tie (it’s a Christmas Pops after all) as we pull into the parking lot of the ironically called Rome Free Academy.  At 7:59pm I hand my scores to the librarian, at 8pm I walk out on stage!  I don’t remember ever having so much fun in a concert.

What you have just read is the explanation I gave to the audience as to why my tuxedo jacket was a little wrinkled!  Safe travels everyone!