Our Spring Break Travel Contingency Plan!

     Many of you might remember that week’s leading up to our family’s Spring Break trip to Ohio, I was getting the kids ready for flying.  I wanted to do whatever I could to get them ready.  I posted on my Facebook page for tips and followed each tip, except for the alcohol tip, but that was ready to go just in case.
 
     On travel day, we were still a little nervous about their ears and the pressure that flying has on them.  Even that morning, my wife, was a little nervous about flying herself.  But, after getting everyone up and ready, we were certain we could do it.
 
     Parking at the Fast, Park & Relax and taking the bus to the airport was a ton of fun.  We even drove past the Airport Park that I take the girls to and as we did my 3-year-old let everyone in the bus know by saying, “Good-bye airport park!”  She was so excited to be on a plane.
 
That was the easiest part of our travel.
 
     After checking in, my wife almost didn’t get her boarding pass.  They saw that I had mine and assumed that she had hers.  She had to go back to get it.
 
     The flight went smooth… on take-off.  On our landing, my wife’s ears began to hurt and feel like they were going to rupture.  This has happened to her before and she vowed to never let it happen again.

​     So, we got off the flight and instead of getting ready for the next flight, decided to rent a car to drive it in.  First, we needed to try to get our bags, even though we were told we probably would need to just get them in Columbus.  Yep, they were right, they would meet us there in Columbus.
 
     Then, we waited for the car rental company car to pick us up.  They told us that there weren’t any cars available.  My wife had to show them that she could reserve one online, so there should be some available.
 
     The rental car we got was average, only problem was its inability to charge a phone quickly.  We entered in directions to Columbus airport and got onto the Pennsylvania turnpike. 
 
     In my opinion, this turnpike is terrible for many reasons.  The 1st being that it cost us $36.  Also, each travel stop is exactly the same and they aren’t equal distance away from each other, instead they are a random distance from each other.  Finally, once you get off the turnpike, for a decent lunch, it takes you at least 30 minutes roundtrip to get back onto the turnpike.   
 
     Quick recommendation though.  If you do get stuck on the turnpike and have to eat lunch.  Riverhouse Bar & Grill in Middletown, PA, was excellent  riverhouseonline.net.

     Last piece of news was that when you miss Part of a flight, they Cancel your whole flight.  Unless you tell them otherwise, then you Might be able to stop them from canceling it.  After numerous attempts to call and waiting for at least an hour on the phone, they told us that since we used points to book our flight, they wouldn’t cancel our return trip for us.
 
     Needless to say, we were happy to get to Columbus.  Nothing like flying for 2 hours and then having to drive another 10 to get somewhere you could have driven to faster.  Good news, finally, was that my kids were troopers the whole time.  So much so, that we’ve decided to always drive to Ohio now when we visit, since we know that we can do it.

​     Point being.  I’m a travel agent, but that day would have been a travel agent’s nightmare.  I could have used someone like myself to call if I would have had someone like that available.