Lesson 101 – Flying on Friday the 13th

Whoooo boy, this one’s going to be a blog and a half!

After my last instalment of the adventures of Amy in America I heaved my carry on bag onto Flight 96 to Seattle, eagerly anticipated the much awaited reunion with Christine in New York.  I should have checked the date….

A leisurely 90 minutes into the flight and barely one hour from Seattle Flight 96 is greeted by our pilot informing us we have a slight electrical problem and we need to make an emergency landing in Juneau (capital of Alaska) and will be touching down in 45 minutes.  The crew were calm, a little too calm and we all felt like something wasn’t quite right.  Perhaps it was the fact that they too were buckled and prepared for landing 30 minutes before we even descended.  As will approach the tarmac, I admire the pretty lights of Jeneau, flashing red, blue….wait……one fire engine, no make that two!  And a police car….and there’s an ambulance.  There was much clapping and cheering after we safely touched down.  We later found out that they were losing lights all over the cockpit and weren’t sure if the landing gear would work.  Ah, the thrill of flying.

It was now 7pm, and my flight to New York was departing in another state in two hours, there was no way I was going to make it but I comforted myself with the knowledge that I would have a free hotel in Seattle and possible a little time to see some sights which would be a bonus.  If the plane wasn’t able to be fixed they would try and get us on a new flight that left at 9pm to Seattle, but there were only 50 seats.  I was person 51.  I kid you not, I was at the front of the queue when they closed the doors.  I was being allocated a seat on the 10:30pm flight which the remaining 150 odd passengers would also be catching.  I’ll have a 7am flight out to NY and arrive at 3pm, just enough time to make it to the broadway show with my friends.  So I tucked my Aussie sense of adventure under my arm and plonked myself at the one and only bar in the airport (actually, for miles around!) and proceeded to get to know my fellow stranded travellers.  There were so many of us we just nicknamed each other so I promptly got labelled Miss Australia and spent the next hour swapping travel tales with fellow Budweiser drinkers.  10:30pm FINALLY rolled around and just as we are about to board there is one last announcement…..flight cancelled due to crew rest.  After waiting another 90 minutes to be found a hotel and have my flight rebooked, in between frantic texting to Christine letting her know all the changes going on, I finally get to the front of the queue and talk to the booking agent.  My new flight goes something like this…
Depart 10:30am from Juneau to Seattle.  What should be a straight 2 hour flight becomes an epic journey stopping at Sitka and Ketchikan and arriving in Seattle at 4:15pm.  Flight to NY leaves at 11pm, arriving SUNDAY morning at 7am, missing my broadway show.  So yeah, stayed the night at a hotel in Juneau (picture random fishing town on a snowy mountainside).

I had 6 hours to kill in Seattle so I jumped on a bus downtown and checked out the sights, I LOVED it!  Buskers everywhere, cool buildings, funky shops and I even went up the space needle and got random tourists to take my photo.

Finally landed in New York this morning and met up with Christine.  We had quite the loud happy reunion in our hotel foyer, it was kind of funny, I think we scared some people.  We did a tour of the NBC studios this morning at Rockefellar Plaza, the highlight of my trip so far.  I went right into the studio where Saturday Night Live was filmed, soooooooo much fun!  Much smaller than it looks on tv.  My friend Christine got to be a newsreader in a test studio too which was hiliarious, she totally dove into the role.  I still managed to see my broadway show, I got new tickets for half price today and saw The Producers.  I LOVED it, our hotel is right around the corner from Times Square and the broadway district, its kind of like living in a movie, a little surreal.

The weather here is crazy at the moment, NY had a record 6 inches of rain today, we were all like drowned rats.  We’re probably going to skip our trip to Maine and stay in New York another day or two to make up for my lost time.  Then we may catch a train to Boston for a couple of days before flying to Detroit.    Anyway, it’s nearly 10pm, and I have blueberry pie waiting for me back at our room (unless the girls have already eaten it….)

Miss you all!
Love Amnesty