The Rowe Family Blog

I don’t want to waste our vacation complaining but I must share the bad luck we had while traveling yesterday.

1. Our first flight from ROC to JFK was delayed by about 2 hours. 
2. We had to get a new connecting flight to Orlando (well, we might have been able to make it they said but with the little one we opted to have a slight lay-over at JFK).
3. We entered that dump of an airport named JFK and rushed through a mass of sweating people (does that place even have AC?  it was at least 80 in there) to our next gate only to find a flight to Tampa.
4. We went back to the gate we started at.
5. We would have easily made our first connection and now our second connection was delayed.
6. Jet Blue provided almost no status updates while we waited in 80 degrees temps in that dump.
7. Shortly after boarding the pilot told us there was a 1 hour expected wait to get on the runway.
8. The first kiosk we tried for our rental care was broken.
9. There was no AC at the car rental booth.
10. Alamo charges $10 per DAY for a second driver.  They MUST be kidding.  There’s no way I’m going to pay $100 just so that both of us can drive the car.
11. After finishing at the kiosk I wait in line for a long time (again, no AC and I’m wearing jeans).  Cassie is now crying as it’s after midnight, very hot, and we’re all tired and luging around an insane amount of luggage.
12. The guy at the Alamo desk said there’s no way he could change the driver from me to Mary.  That’s bad.  Mary’s a better driver.  And give me a break, why can’t he change the stuff?  He said he’d have to make a brand new reservation.  BS.  I flipped out on him a bit sort of apologized and then took the rental as it was.
13. There were no mini-suvs as per our rental agreement.  They offered an upgrade to a gas guzzling car.  I wasn’t happy.  They offered a Prius.  I accepted.
14. We dug through a pile of car seats to find one the right size for Cassie.
15. The car seat was complicated, had poor instructions, it was hot and humid and we were outside (no AC appears to be a theme on this trip).  I struggled with that thing for more time than I will admit.  I finally got it in and…couldn’t start the car.
16. Alamo tried to start the car and couldn’t.  So we started moving all of our stuff to the next Prius on the lot.
17. I’d lost control by this point and Mary asked me to try to start the other car (even though Alamo had and showed me how to).  When I finally tried I couldn’t start it.  There’s no way they had two broken cars.  After choking bak my urges to completely destroy their entire fleet of vehicles I figured it out — YOU MUST HAVE THE BRAKE DEPRESSED TO START THE CAR.  Why of why do they do that?  No other car works like that (well, maybe if you consider clutch pedals in cars in the states).
18. By this point Cassie was screaming like I’d never heard her scream.  I had upset her, it was nearing two AM, it was HOT (there was AC in the car!).  We couldn’t find the correct way to leave the rental lot because they gave us a car that wasn’t exactly on their lot.
19. When we found our way out the exit booth person asked for the rental agreement.  We couldn’t find it.  I lost it again.  The nice woman took pity on me and reprinted the agreement using my drivers license.
20. After being awake for 22 hours I finally went to bed and Cassie had calmed down while we drove the rental to Donna’s.

I realize things could have been a lot worse.  We could have been stuck at an airport overnight.  We could have not had a rental car at all  Cassie could have been miserable on the plane.  By the way, Cassie was AWESOME in the plane.  When she wasn’t sleeping she was happy and peaceful.  She didn’t even let out a whine let alone a cry on the plane.  Still that was the worst 14 hours of travelling in my life so far, probably because I was so tired.