New Port,Rhode Island or a Brush with Death

I'm playing catch-up with my posts this trip was actually 3 or 4 weeks ago....

Let me start this off by saying I fly because there is no other way to get someplace faster or in our case cheaper.

Newspaper write up... sugar coated appropriately

Its a bit hard to see but the emergency crews are outside my window inspecting the underside of our broken plane

I was supposed to have been on a flight that got me into Providence at like 3:30 pm on Friday afternoon. Instead it was 11 pm and I was on the runway in Baltimore. Honestly, I was just quietly glad to be on the ground in one piece. I called my one of my friends in Baltimore to just in case I couldn't get on another flight (not a thrilling idea) and I needed a crash pad. I then called the hostel I was staying in to let them know I would be even later than expected. I then called the rental car agents who told me if got there by 1am I might have a chance at getting a car. Otherwise I'd be paying a $70 dollar cab fare into Newport from Providence.

Flying standby is never a guarantee. You never know if your flight will have empty seats, if it will be on time, if you'll make your connection, if... if....if... So what ends up happening for us is 25% of our trips go smooth as butter. We show up to a flight an hour early, we usually only check a bag if the kids are with us. We cruise thru security, wait for the standby list to clear. The flight has a short list of people on standby and we are near the top which doesn't matter because there are plenty of available seats. Occasionally we get upgraded. We board and make a smooth connection and arrive at our destination on time.

BUT 73% it goes like this. Arrive an hour early, cruise thru security. Sit anxiously watching the standby list. Refreshing it every 30 seconds to see if we have fallen lower or if we got bumped. There 40 people on the list and 10 seats available. The four of us are traveling and we are 11, 12, 13, and 14 on the list. Hoping some poor soul misses a connection or oversleeps so we can get to our connection on time. Nope, everyone shows up and the flight is oversold adding 6 more people to an already growing standby list. We miss the next flight out too and end up catching the third or fourth thus barely catching a connection to get to our destination at the latest possible hour. Which inevitably pisses off the people who were picking us up, and thereby creating a dreary precursor to our trip.


This is a 1% trip. I missed my first two flights out of New Orleans ended up with a 6 hour layover in Atlanta (which really isn't the worst thing See: One Flew South). I did catch the last flight to Providence, only for it to nearly be my last flight. I'm not so sure how close disaster we were but I will say that plane did loose hydraulic pressure in  the right engine which meant the pilots couldn't close the the doors over the landing gear. The flaps were also not functioning the way they should have been and when we came in to land the emergency crews were waiting for us on the runway. The door over the gear hit the ground and flaps stopped working altogether. I don't know the cause of the problem but I know that hydraulic pressure is extremely important in modern flight. I was just glad to be on the ground in one piece.

Now I bet you did the math....there's 1% missing.

1% of our flights go like this. We arrive 30 minutes before our flight, breeze thru empty security lines, walk right on to the flight because we've been cleared for seats in business class and get to board first. We are wined and dined sleep well. We make a seamless connection. Arrive slightly early so we can get our bearings and stretch our legs before we explore a new place.

Now then, like I had said. I did eventually get in to Providence and had another fiasco at the car rental booth. That's another post altogether. I finally got a car and drove down to Newport. Checked into my little hostel and slept for and couple hours. I was in town to check out a boat for the New Orleans Maritime Heritage Foundation. Just a favor for some friends with the added bonus that it was in Newport. I might do a full write up on that but for now here's some pictures.