Getting There

The Bailey's are off to New York City!  My goal was to land at Teterboro, NJ before it got dark and we just barely made it.  I was hoping to avoid the evening rush hour as well, but that didn’t work out so well.

Michele did a great job getting the kids all packed up.  I almost forgot our ice skates (again) and had to pack those at the last minute.  We left the house around 7am, had breakfast at Firrst Watch downtown, and then headed to Peter O Knight airport for departure.  We took off around 8:45am. The good news is that the weather was great –sunshine and clear skies.  The bad news:  We fought a very strong headwind all the way up the east coast, which added over an hour to our total flight time. 

We stopped in Fayetteville, NC to get fuel.  It was COLD outside!  Michele & her parents hustled the kids into the FBO to relax while I cleaned out the potty and the line crew fueled up the plane.   After we were finished, we grabbed the catering and were soon on our way North again. 

The temperatures dropped and the headwind strengthened as we worked our way North.  I had the heater on in the plane and there were ice crystals forming on the cabin windows in the back.  It was just above 0F outside (-20C).  As we approached Philly (still over an hour from our destination), ATC asked us descend to 5,000 feet.  Despite my protests, they wouldn't allow us to remain higher any longer.  We were in & out of the clouds and it was very bumpy for the last hour of the flight.  We touched down in strong, gusty winds just in time to avoid a cabin full of airsick passengers.

It was REALLY cold (about 30 degrees F) & windy (15-20mph) outside and it was starting to get dark as we unloaded the plane.  The line crew was great and helped me get the plane secured while everyone waited in the nice, warm bus.  There were two vehicles waiting to take us into the city:  Brandon, Justin, & I rode in the mini-van with all the luggage and everyone else rode in an SUV.

It took a little over an hour in bumper to bumper traffic to get through the Lincoln tunnel and to our hotel, the Intercontinental Barclay.  I made the mistake of checking my e-mail on my iPhone enroute and was soon feeling carsick.  We pulled up to the hotel around 6:30pm.  Michele’s driver was stopped by the police on the way over, so they were delayed a few minutes (warning, no ticket).  Meanwhile, I got us checked in and had all the luggage brought up to the rooms.

Michele & crew soon arrived and we decided to freshen up in the rooms a few minutes before heading down to the hotel restaurant for dinner.  However, we soon discovered that one of Roland & Sandy’s bags was missing.  And, worse:  It was the bag containing his medicine (11 RX’s) and his breathing machine which helps him sleep.  Sandy went down & double-checked with the bellman, Roland called the car company, but they had no luck.

We were happy to be in NYC, but we didn’t feel very festive at dinner, because we were all worried about Roland’s case.  We finally decided that we must have left it on the plane and decided to follow up on it in the morning.  We’ve done all we can do for tonight.