As a travel lover, I have been on many flights.  I have experienced flight delays, but I have never had a flight canceled. That is, until this past Saturday.

I was headed down to Florida on a quick trip to see my sister Billie who is on the mend. I thought I was quite clever by taking a train down to New York City and then taking New Jersey Transit (train) over to the air train in Newark Airport. I had done this for my last trip to Florida in May and it worked out great. I didn’t have to spend hundreds of dollars parking, and I could reverse the process to get myself back home. My dear son does the drop-off and pick-up at the train station, and everything is easy-peasy.

So imagine my unhappy surprise when I looked at my phone on the NJ Transit train and saw the dreadful word “Canceled” in red on my United app.

That was it. No email, no text, just that little red word on my screen telling me that things were not going to plan.

I got off the train in Newark and headed back to the city on the PATH train, arriving at the World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan. Apparently there were hundreds of flight cancellations over the weekend, most of them blamed on the weather.  Not sure I believe all those weather excuses, since I have been on some flights that have flown through some pretty hairy weather, but what could I do? There were no other flights to catch on Saturday and on Sunday, airline seats were selling for over $2000. I beg your pardon! I could have taken a train, but I wouldn’t have arrived in Tampa until Sunday night. If the choice is either a 3-hour flight or a 36-hour train ride, it isn’t a choice, is it? 

I couldn’t bring myself to go home right away, since I had already packed and boarded my dog, and gosh, here I was in Manhattan, just blocks away from my daughter and her family. It was time for a new plan.

I got on my phone and found a hotel room. My daughter and her family were hosting her college roommate and her two daughters at her apartment, so the only place left for me to sleep would have been the bathtub.

I did, however, join them for dinner and then we all went to The Play That Goes Wrong, a hilarious farce still playing off-Broadway.

The next day we spent some time in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, checking out the mummies.

Then I went back to the train station for the trip home, where my chauffeur was waiting.

This weekend reminded me of two things: 1. We control nothing, especially not airlines. and 2. It’s good to be flexible.