Blog-TOWER OF BABELI have discovered that I do not like to say no to flights that are very hard to man.
A company asked me to fly on Easter Sunday and since this holiday is not big in my family, I said yes. Ben is past the point of caring about Easter egg hunts and the standard chocolate basket. He usually goes with his dad for the day. So I traveled to MMU (2 hours) to take a dead head flight from MMU to New Hampshire to pick up 1 pax and bring him back to MMU. Sounds simple, right? One thing I forgot about, I landed at 530 p.m., left the hangar at 630, I am 90 miles for MMU. I sat in my car for 6 hours in traffic.
The Tappan Zee Bridge had a major accident, so I opted for the George Washington Bridge. I sat so long my butt was afire, my brake foot numb. It was now 1230 a.m., the next day. I sat at the Fort Lee exit for another hour before I just gave up the fight. I had to wait another 45 minutes to get to the next exit, to do an illegal u turn. There must have been a major accident, to this day I will never know.
I ended up in the hotel from hell. I did not want to spend and arm and a leg, but this one was for the books. The Travelodge at Fort Lee was something from a Quentin Tarantino movie. There was a bullet proof checkin window in the lobby, "no checks accepted" sign behind the managers desk, and fly paper , yellowed spiraling down over a 60 watt bulb. At this exasperated point, I did not care. I shut my eyes, turned my cheek, and said " just do this for 5 hours, until the traffic stops."
The clerk, was super nice, he asked if I wanted smoking, did I want the room hourly, and that there was free breakfast in the morning. It room was $69.00, not bad for a hotel 12 miles from NYC. The room was dismal, pea green chenille bedspreads and yellow shag carpet, with grayish lamp shades housing a 40 watt bulb. I took the dry cleaning bags off my recently cleaned uniforms, and laid them on the bed to prevent the bedbugs from biting the crap out of me. If these walls could talk!
I slept in my clothes and raincoat, complete with socks and shower cap. And I passed out for 4 hours until the neighbors next store decided to come back at 5 am, to hold a very liquored argument outside my door. I have a baseball bat in my truck and I wished I had brought that in as part of my survival gear. They eventually went away, passed out or died of bedbug poisoning. I had to check out, they did not have enough staff the put the bill under the door. The lobby with the free breakfast was booked with tired and hungry prostitutes. I looked too shitty to pass as one, I think.
I left, no bedbugs, and was really glad to get back into my car and speed home. This one was one for the books.