The journey to Raleigh part 2

So now that I have recovered from a traumatic and very delayed flight I feel I can share the journey without breaking into a cold sweat!


Our journey was fine up until Newark.  We left the safety and comfort of the lounge and strolled to the gate, only to find the gate had changed and the flight was now about 1.5 hours late.  So we wandered, ate some oysters and waited some more.

Down the hatch

Not all my oysters - we did share

They changed the gate again as the flight was now more delayed, so again we waited.  Finally we boarded the plane, took our seats and waited. 


Cue - screaming baby
Cue - smelly man with a hacking cough with bottle that he kept spitting into
Cue - Announcement from the Captain - the flight was too full so some people would have to get off
Cue - MORE WAITING!!!


I finally managed to snooze, woke up and was very relieved to find that we were about 30 mins from Raleigh.  The plane circled the airport for ages while finding every bit of turbulence on the way down.


After landing we managed to recover our bags, then the hunt for the hire car began.  We stood at the hire car bus shelter for a bit to find we were at the wrong stop.  We found the right stop and hopped on the bus relieved to be almost at the end of the journey.


The story could have happily ended there if we could have got the hire car and driven home. Unfortunately, there had been some mistake with the car hire and to put both of us on as drivers, they wanted us to pay an extra $10 a day.  My maths can sometimes be a bit rusty but even after almost 24hours of traveling I could figure out that was almost an extra $900.  An hour of negotiating and we gave in.  Pace, Pace, Lead did NOT work. We took the car for 1 day in the hope that some sleep and a few phone calls might be able to find something cheaper the next day.


In we hopped to a car with no central locking (David we can never tease you about your matchbox car again) and a decidedly funny smell and drove to our new apartment.  Only problem Claire had programmed the address into the SatNav and I had stupidly pressed 'home' instead of the address.  


So we drove.


Past the turn off to our apartment.


Onto a big road moving very fast heading vaguely north.


About 8 miles into the journey I finally figured out that we were heading to our 'home' address in Boston. DOH!!


Claire was very nice. She didn't yell, she just turned the car around and headed to the correct address.  We did not need a 16mile detour :(. That sat nav and I have a very rocky relationship.


Pleased to report that the apartment is fine (phew).


So there is a happy ending to the story.  We found a cheaper car, which magically turned from a compact car into a large SUV when we picked it up - for no extra charge! Yay to my credit card company travel service who fixed everything up for us.