I had a very good time and will definitely attend again-although not next year as I'm toastmaster at Conquest the same weekend.
I seem to have missed the virus that spread around the con like wildfire but I guess I could still come down with it. Keeping fingers crossed.
The flight back started so-so --with a 25 minute delay. I knew that Madison skies were windy but not too windy, and that NYC was having thunderstorms. Well, after 2 hours of flying it turned out that NYC had closed its airports and so we circled high up and far away for awhile....and awhile...and longer. Finally, it was announced that we were running out of fuel, ground control didn't know when the airports around NYC would reopen (supposedly even the trains were stopped) and so we were diverted to Hartford, Ct to refuel and wait. It was about 7pm by then (we were supposed to have gotten in around 5:30.) I had lots of cheese curds and a very good bread I'd picked up at the market Saturday so at least had food to keep me from getting overly grumpy.
We were allowed into the small Hartford terminal to wait but there was NOTHING open --not even drink machines. Everyone from the plane (crew and passengers) were remarkably congenial and calm about the whole thing. So we waited there about 45 minutes waiting to hear the news about whether the airports were reopened.
They were, we reboarded, sat on the plane for about half an hour and then came an announcement...the crew told us that they were informed that they were legally not allowed to fly any longer--they'd all hit their limit (well, it was 8 ours from our original departure, who knows how long they were working before that). They wanted to go to NYC as much as we did and it was only 25 minutes away but no-go.....so we disembarked again and this time were told that the airline would give us vouchers for taxis to LaGuardia.
The passengers started getting together into groups of three whose destination were nearby so we could have the cabs take us to the city rather than the airport where we'd just have to cab in into the city. So....we got vouchers (of $295 --if you want to know the cost of a cab from Hartford to Manhattan) and I found two other women going into Manhattan-and downtown. So we piled into the cab at around 10:45 pm and got to Manhattan about 12:45 or so , with a stop at a gas station enroute so we could use the bathroom and get some food.
Boy was it good to be home after that.
I seem to have missed the virus that spread around the con like wildfire but I guess I could still come down with it. Keeping fingers crossed.
The flight back started so-so --with a 25 minute delay. I knew that Madison skies were windy but not too windy, and that NYC was having thunderstorms. Well, after 2 hours of flying it turned out that NYC had closed its airports and so we circled high up and far away for awhile....and awhile...and longer. Finally, it was announced that we were running out of fuel, ground control didn't know when the airports around NYC would reopen (supposedly even the trains were stopped) and so we were diverted to Hartford, Ct to refuel and wait. It was about 7pm by then (we were supposed to have gotten in around 5:30.) I had lots of cheese curds and a very good bread I'd picked up at the market Saturday so at least had food to keep me from getting overly grumpy.
We were allowed into the small Hartford terminal to wait but there was NOTHING open --not even drink machines. Everyone from the plane (crew and passengers) were remarkably congenial and calm about the whole thing. So we waited there about 45 minutes waiting to hear the news about whether the airports were reopened.
They were, we reboarded, sat on the plane for about half an hour and then came an announcement...the crew told us that they were informed that they were legally not allowed to fly any longer--they'd all hit their limit (well, it was 8 ours from our original departure, who knows how long they were working before that). They wanted to go to NYC as much as we did and it was only 25 minutes away but no-go.....so we disembarked again and this time were told that the airline would give us vouchers for taxis to LaGuardia.
The passengers started getting together into groups of three whose destination were nearby so we could have the cabs take us to the city rather than the airport where we'd just have to cab in into the city. So....we got vouchers (of $295 --if you want to know the cost of a cab from Hartford to Manhattan) and I found two other women going into Manhattan-and downtown. So we piled into the cab at around 10:45 pm and got to Manhattan about 12:45 or so , with a stop at a gas station enroute so we could use the bathroom and get some food.
Boy was it good to be home after that.
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