Today started out much like a regular day. I love when they end pleasantly different. This picture is large for a reason - I needed it for effect.
I started in St. Louis MO heading to Chicago - late arrival to Chicago began the unraveling of a travellers journey. I could wait 4 hrs for the next flight directly to White Plains, NY or fly into Laguardia instead in 1 hr. I voted for LGA instead in an hour. She booked me, though it was "completely completely full". I nodded to confirm and didn't ask any questions on that one.
At the departure gate for Laguardia, there were dozens of people waiting to try to get on the Laguardia flight. It was declared by all as the ONLY flight getting out of Chicago to New York for the day. Everything else was cancelled coming in and out of LGA for the remainder of the day in anticipation of snow. Ouch. Double Ouch. I indeed held a golden ticket. I had slipped through to get confirmed a seat on the only flight leaving for NY amidst a crowd of standby hopefuls. I wanted to hug someone.
The boards in this photo represent arrivals and departures to/from New York today. The part I captured was just the A-C cities, nevermind the rest of the alphabet looked the same. Green is good, red and yellow are bad.
I arrived in NY just as the snow started to fall. I was humbly reminded -- by long gas lines off the freeway and many downed trees along the way -- that many people are still displaced and without power in the cold. Many drive an hour north just to fill up in order to return back, and even as far as 40 minutes north stations are marked by a telltale sign of yellow caution tape across the entrance to indicate they are out of fuel, knowing they are also 114th on the list for their next fuel delivery. Bless those that work tirelessly to ease the discomfort and help resume normal life in all of nature's mess. I will remain here tonight thinking about all those people still struggling and wishing there was more that I could physically do in my brief time here.
Though the snow won't last more than a day, it is like a winter wonderland at my hotel window tonight. I hope you too have days that start and end in pleasantly unexpected ways every now and then.
Cheers.
