Chicago to Philadelphia

I had it all mapped out, flights, taxis, rooms, itinerary. All it took was a mechanical issue with the plane in Philadelphia that turned into a 3 hour delay to throw all our plans out the window and took me right back to the drawing board. I should’ve saw it coming. When we left the hotel in Seattle there was a fire alarm going off and a lady in the hallway saying “It was only one toke, I swear”. Smelled like she hot boxed in her room, the hallway smelled like a skunk. From Sea Tac we flew to Chicago, and waited a couple hours to board the next leg. We were boarded and after sitting on the tarmac for an hour, we had to deplane. That plane was a bucket of bolts, it was so old there was a plug for the old phones in the armrest, I was surprised there wasn’t an ashtray too!! No one offering solutions, many passengers stranded and frantically rebooking. I felt for the customer service agents, I don’t know how they deal with so many people with so many reroutes who are all frustrated. We had a choice, stick it out with our flight and follow our luggage to Philly or rebook and hope our luggage follows. We stuck with our flight and luggage. We caught a shuttle to a hotel the airline paid for around 10pm. The driver missed an exit and proceeded to do a U-turn on the highway with traffic coming. I hid my head behind Holly as he maneuvered the big shuttle bus back on track. After we not so safely made it to the hotel, we were starving and delirious. Only thing open for food was a Dennys. If you know Holly, you know she is gluten free/dairy free, so Dennys isn’t the best option, but at this time of night in the area we are in, that was the only option. We sat there and picked at our food and decided how we were going to travel to San Sebastián from Madrid because we were now going to miss that little flight that was booked separately from our main ticket. We got on the phone, rebooked our flight, paid way more than anticipated, but that was really our only option unless we wanted to spend 6 hours on a train. I had previously booked a taxi from San Sebastián to Irun, our starting point, which we were going to miss, but woke up to WhatsApp message from Felix, the taxi driver, confirming our pick up in San Sebastián. I was so happy he WhatsApp’d me because I didn’t know how to contact him. I had already chalked it up as more money lost. However, he changed our reservation, with no penalty, and will be at baggage claim holding a sign for us when we get there. I was so grateful for Felix and his flexibility. Thank you Flexible Felix. Now, it’s all sorted. Hopefully there are no more mishaps..or maybe those were just the beginning of our adventures?
Luckily we have our backpacks and our hiking shoes with us, along with minimal toiletries like toothbrush/toothpaste, eyeliner, lotion, and my sunscreen-tinted moisturizer. Holly, on the other hand, didn’t have the glue for her eyelashes, so her Camino adventure began sooner than she anticipated! I have no hair products, not even a brush, so I look really homeless and out of place. On the Camino, we would look completely normal and fit right in! But we aren’t there yet, so it’s super awkward.
We just want to start walking. Done with the weed smelling hotel, endless time in airports, mechanical issues on our plane, flights, the crazy shuttle driver, and muggy Philly. We leave the hotel in a couple hours to catch an evening flight across the pond and won’t get to our final destination until about 6pm, 8/31 (they are a day ahead of us). We have many more hours in airports and planes, but we aren’t alone and we have managed to figure it all out. Before long we will be walking 15-20 miles a day, and air travel will once again seem like a quick and easy way to get from point A to point B! But, not yet.Read more