Travel reprise

Some time ago I wrote about the confusion that came when, due to a computer foul up with Travelocity I ended up with two airline tickets to our family reunion in Idaho. 

Early this month I wrote a post about how redeeming the thousand plus coupon we got after canceling one of the flights ended up with me using the entire coupon plus four hundred dollars to buy two round trip tickets on U.S Airways to Boston for our cruise (that were listed at 288 each and I roared on the keyboard about the whole thing).  My big computer and its relationship with Windows Live Writer ate the whole thing so my vitriolic attack on Travelocity and US Air went into the great beyond.  It probably was for the best because our trip to Boston was one of the best air trips we have had in years.  We had ended up with seats that I thought we would hate, in the very back seats of both planes (one to Charlotte and one, Charlotte to Boston).  Seated in the rear took away much of the pressure two handicapped folks have to get on and out of the plane, and at both Savannah and Charlotte the US Airline people were so helpful.

Of course when we got to Boston we discovered that somehow our hotel reservations (made through Hotwire) had fallen through.  I called Hotwire and “calmly” expressed my dismay and the nice lady I talked to at Hotwire found us another reservation that actually was cheaper than the first one.  Unfortunately it was about five miles further away than the first one and the added taxi fare made up the difference.

This leads to the real essence of my current post.  We stayed the night at a lovely Fairfield Inn.  We checked out early the next morning but stayed there in the lobby for a while so that we wouldn’t end up standing around the dock until it was time to load the ship.  After awhile they called a cab for us, stating that this cab company was very prompt and our cab would be there in twelve minutes.  About forty minutes later I insisted that the clerk check to see what was holding up the cab, or to call another company.  She called, and in about twenty minutes later the cab arrived.  We were waiting on the walk at the entry with the bags stacked around us when the cab arrived.

I got a sense of what was coming when this guy who looked about eighteen looked at the bags and asked, “Which ones ought to go in first?”  i tried to help him load the baggage in the trunk, but that was complicated by some gardening equipment that was already there.  We finally got everything in, (some in the front passenger seat) and we started off.  I tried to be diplomatic in asking if it wasn’t traditional to start the meter when he started on the way.  He replied that  his meter was broken, but that his boss had set a flat fee of thirty dollars to the Black Falcon Dock which was our departure point.  That was only a couple of dollars more than it had cost us to come from Logan airport and the dock was (according to instructions from the cruise line) about five miles the other side of Logan so I said okay. 

He took off and got to Logan in about ten minutes less than our cab ride to the hotel  so things looked promising, even though he apologized four or five times for driving with the window open because the air conditioning in the cab was broken. (He noted in passing that the speedometer in his cab was also broken.)  He got into Boston proper and got hopelessly lost.  He had a GPS in his hand and his boss yelling directions at him on the intercom (His boss said loudly at one time “Fellows, let us pray.”

We passed several buildings and were on several streets four or five times.  Janet passed him the instructions that had been sent by the cruise line and he tried to follow them, but they were different than what his boss was yelling at him so he got more confused all the time.  He finally stopped at a hotel and asked directions from the doorman, who went inside and got someone else to come out and give directions.

Following those directions and finally finding road signs we finally got to the dock.  Our ten mile drive took us an hour and fifteen minutes (in addition to the time we had waited for his arrival at the Fairfield Inn.  I told him as we got out of the car that if he had had the meter running I would have called a cop.  He apologized and pointed out that this was his second week on the job.  He was really very sweet and I hope he didn’t get fired, but we discovered that we were so late that we almost missed the boat.    A great way to start a journey.