Unglamorous Travel

When I tell someone that I travel for work, they immediately think, "cool, you get to go to the beach, play golf, etc..." Well, that is so far from the truth. I am currently in San Juan Puerto Rico stuck in my hotel room thanks to Hurricane Omar. This past week I was in St Lucia for work and thought it would be pretty cool. But from the day I arrived to the day I left, it rained like you couldn't imagine. It rained sideways half the time...nothing like I have seen in Atlanta.

The only good thing about the rain was that the vegetation of the island was a spectacular green. Everywhere you looked, nothing was dead...just a bright, luscious green color. But that only takes you so far when you think of an exotic island. But since I am there for work, you really don't get much time for sightseeing. Overall, it was ok...not sure I would go for a vacation there. But the worse part had not happened yet.

My flight back home was scheduled at 10:30am Thursday morning on a Liat Airlines. I know there are many of you going, "who airlines?" That's exactly my point. My options for getting to St Lucia were slim, thus I ended up on Liat airlines. Since they only fly in the Caribbean, all the planes are prop planes. I for one have never, ever been a fan of these planes. They feel like someone built them in the garage out back. Well, I knew that Hurricane Omar was reaking some havoc in the islands, and headed towards straight for San Juan. But the weather reports were optimistic about it skimming the very east coast of Puerto Rico, thus nothing had been cancelled or delayed.

But at the airport, the Liat rep said that the flight was delayed and might not even leave. What!?!?!? I had a connecting flight to Atlanta on Delta and they hadn't cancelled anything...and this was out of San Juan. 10:30am rolls around and the Liat rep tells us that we would leave at 12pm...giving me just enough time to make my flight in San Juan. Now the airport in St Lucia is the size of a shoebox with no air conditioning nor enough seats for everyone there. Did I mention that the humidity was 100% and around 95 degrees! By the time 12pm rolls around, my navy blue shirt is now a nice shade of DARK BLUE...I could feel the sweat rolling down my arms as I sat there in this tiny room with other sweaty tourists.

At 2:30pm we are told that we would leave at 3:30pm. By that time, my connecting flight is gone and I will have to spend a night in San Juan. At least in San Juan, they use air conditioning. We finally board the plane at 3:00pm. Another prop plane that holds 32 people. You would think that Liat had stock in Duck Tape cause it felt like the whole inside of the plane was held together by the stuff. I've been in some remote areas in Mexico and this had to be the nastiest aircraft I have ever been in. You didn't feel like touching anything...and I'm a guy. Oh, and the plane's a/c was not working 100% so the sweat fest continued.

We finally get in the air and the engines are so loud my ipod was useless. And you didn't want to fall asleep with you head against the side cause you might catch something bad. But we did get a snack on this flight, which caught me off guard. So the flight attendant rolls the drink cart through the aisle and asks me, "what would you like to drink?" Since I hadn't had a Coke all week long, I asked for one. Oh no, that was asking for too much. All they had were fruit juice boxes. Just like the ones I give Charlie at home. A fricking fruit juice box?!?! You got to be kidding me. But I was thirsty, so I took it and made the best of it.

Everything was going ok, even considering the fruit juice, until we hit some turbulence. Mild turbulence is one thing...the kind that makes you tighten your seat belt is not good...ever. I look over to a couple I had befriended in the airport (they cut their vacation short in St Lucia cause their resort was "horrible" with no TV. They had no idea that there was a hurricane in the area) and the look on her face said it all...after 8 hours waiting for this flight and we might not even make it to Puerto Rico. Throughout the whole flight, we'd hit some of this bad turbulence that made everyone grip the arm rests so hard that our knuckles turned white.

Finally the island of Puerto Rico came into view and I let out a "thank freaking God." It was that kind of day...should had stayed in bed and slept all day. But I am halfway home, closer to seeing Sarah and Charlie. I feel so bad cause I told Charlie on Wednesday night that I would be home tonight. I'm pretty sure he'll make me buy him a gift for "Lying" to him. It's a small price to pay to see the little guy.