Home for the Holidays – USA

Home for the Holidays
USA

It’s good to be home again, here, in what I’m told, is the richest nation in the world. But, why, when it comes to traveling, especially during the holidays, does it seem that the richest nation in the world has surprisingly third-world quality infrastructure?

Any of you who had to fly over the holidays know what I’m talking about. Here are two cases:

Chris’ daughter Kate flew in from Singapore to New York. The flight time was approximately 18 hours. Her subsequent trip, New York City to Louisville, Kentucky took 35 hours. To get to Louisville from New York, she flew to Memphis, Tennessee. Her connecting flight to Louisville was cancelled. She was unable to reclaim her luggage. She had to spend the night in Memphis. Rather than risk a second flight cancellation, she decided to take a Greyhound bus to Louisville. She could not find a taxi. She walked three miles to the Greyhound bus station. When she arrived in Louisville, the city was immobilized by a snow storm – even after Louisville’s past experience with snowstorms, apparently only UPS has sufficient access to snow plows.

Last time I spoke to Kate, she still hadn’t received her luggage.

Other family members traveling with Northwest Airlines received a message as they were preparing for a red-eye flight LA to Detroit with a connection for Rochester, NY to arrive on the morning of December 24th. The message from Northwest told them that their connecting flight had been canceled for ‘mechanical reasons’. They now would be obliged to take a flight the following day from LA to Minneapolis with a connecting flight to Rochester, arriving at 11 p.m. Christmas Eve rather than their original arrival time of 8:30 a.m. Unlike Kate, this couple chose NOT to check any luggage for the obvious reasons.

So, Chris and I thought we’d be smart this year and DRIVE to Louisville, Kentucky from Rochester two weeks before Christmas. Back in mid-December without a speck of snow on the ground, this seemed like a pretty good idea. Snowfall had been light – and so what if it’s a ten hour drive? If you have never heard the word ‘lake effect’, go to Erie, Pennsylvania. Although the first snowflakes hit the windshield when we crossed the Ohio River on our return trip from Louisville, the real white out began when we picked up Route 90 outside of Cleveland. The blizzard intensified as we approached Erie, Pennsylvania. No sign of snow plows on Route 90 and worse yet, amid all the Talk Radio discussing such burning issues as – well, you can fill in the blanks here – not one word, not one radio station, AM or FM that told us about road conditions. After an hour driving at 40 mph, finally, a brief radio report about weather conditons, but no mention of I-90. Then I spotted a snow plow heading east and followed him. East of Buffalo, there wasn’t a hint of snow. In the old days this used to be the real snow belt area – climate is changing. It took us 13 hours to drive from Louisville to New York. Five more hours, and we could’ve been in Singapore.

If I could sum up the total impression of the holiday season, it would be: God bless this mess! Be it ever so humbling. Home. Here’s my Santa’s wish list for next year:

• Airlines that can run planes on time, making allowances for bad weather – which is bound to happen in December.
• Required flu shots and Vitamin C for airline employees so they don’t get sick on the day before Christmas.
• More snow plows in Louisville and Pennsylvania. 24-hour local weather reports on AM Radio (especially along Interstate 90 in Erie, PA – picking up the French-Canadian stations just didn’t really help very much!)
• And last but not least, a commercial-free New Year’s Eve broadcast at Times Square – at least for the last five minutes of the year. Or better yet, how about a total BAN on all ALL holiday advertising from December ^1st to the 25^th?

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