Our cruise ended on Sunday and we were supposed to fly back Sunday night/Monday morning, but like so many other travelers over the last week, the ash cloud prevented our transatlantic return trip.
We were a lot luckier than most of the thousands upon thousands of stranded folks, since our flights to and from Florida took us through Philadelphia, which is roughly where my mom lives. So from Sunday through Tuesday, we were "stranded" at her house, which was much nicer than any airport or hotel. Our second stroke of luck came around 11 PM on Monday night, when the last-call-to-USAirways-before-bedtime yielded two seats on a flight out of Charlotte for the next day. It was a gamble - we could have arrived at Charlotte only to find our flight to Paris canceled - but we had to take it.
And our gamble paid off! Insert huge sigh of relief here. With only six weeks left until we return Stateside for good, every day counts!
PS - Several people asked us to try to take a picture of the volcanic ash as we flew by. I'm pretty sure that even if the plane were to fly anywhere near the ash (which it wouldn't), the stuff wouldn't be visible. But my understanding is that it does contribute to incredibly beautiful, extremely red sunrises and sunsets, and we did catch a sunrise just before landing in Paris, so I'll let you decide for yourself how much ash was in the air.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
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I just read this and thought of you, since Becky told me you guys were stranded! I guess there is an impromptu magazine being put together by creative types who are stranded by the ash.... http://kottke.org/10/04/volcano-magazine
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