Oregon, Pt. 1

The YankeeVox summer vacation is over. First and foremost, I hope that everyone has come through the recent East Coast natural disasters--the August 23 earthquake and Hurricane Irene--relatively unscathed. Ellen and I were extremely fortunate that we were almost entirely unaffected by the storm (and completely unaffected by the earthquake). As it happened, we were on the West Coast visiting Ellen's family during the worst days of the hurricane/tropical storm, and the only snags we hit were travel-related.

We were originally scheduled to fly from Manchester Airport to Newark and continue on from Newark to Portland last Thursday afternoon and evening. Unfortunately, an unrelated rainstorm delayed our flight out of Manchester for more than three hours, which meant we missed our connection in Newark. Maddeningly, our Newark-to-Portland flight was also delayed, so instead of missing it by a matter of hours, we arrived at the gate literally minutes after they shut the cabin door (the plane had not yet left the gate, but they refused to reopen the door to allow us to board). There were no more flights to Portland that night, so we were rebooked onto an early-morning flight to Seattle instead. A good friend from college lives near Newark, and he graciously offered to let us spend the night with him and his family, as well as providing rides to and from the airport. Thanks again, John!

Once we boarded our Newark-to-Seattle flight, things went more smoothly. We had an uneventful trip and brief layover before our final flight, from Seattle to Portland. My mother-in-law picked us up at the airport, and we began our visit, albeit regrettably about fourteen hours later than we'd hoped. Our time in Oregon itself will be the subject of a subsequent post.

Except for the text message Ellen received from Orbitz partway through Friday afternoon, which informed her our Portland-to-Newark return flight on Sunday evening had been canceled (our Newark-to-Manchester flight wasn't canceled until Saturday, but it was a moot point by then). As Continental Airlines had canceled hundreds of other flights too, their phone lines and website were overwhelmed by people attempting to rebook. Fortunately, we were staying only a few minutes from the Portland Airport, so we drove over there on Saturday morning to attempt to rebook in person. The ticket agent, who was remarkably pleasant considering the barrage of no doubt stressed-out passengers with whom she'd been dealing all morning, told us that the next available flight combination ending in Manchester would be on September 3. If we couldn't wait that long (which obviously we couldn't, as both Ellen and I had to go to work), then she could put us on a flight into Dulles Airport the next morning. With no other options we could see, Ellen and I chose to fly into Dulles.

Sadly, this meant cutting short our visit by close to twelve hours on the tail end, too. It also meant trying to find a way from Washington, D.C. to New Hampshire when many trains were not running due to flooded tracks and many buses were sold out. Renting a car was an option, albeit a sufficiently costly one that we considered it an absolute last resort. Finally, we were able to find bus tickets from Baltimore to Boston. And once again, we were bailed out in a major way by college friends of mine. One friend, who lives outside Baltimore, offered to pick us up at Dulles, let us spend the night in his apartment, and then drop us off at the bus terminal in Baltimore in the morning. The other, who lives in the Boston suburbs, agreed to drive us from South Station to Manchester Airport, where we could pick up our car. Ryan and Chris, thank you so much!

By the end of the day on Monday, nearly thirty four hours after we left Portland, Ellen and I had arrived safely in Enfield. It was a great trip, well worth the travel hassle. Pictures and a trip report to come soon!