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Another 72 Hours... CANCELED!
May. 28th, 2021 04:56 pmInland Empire Fail-log
Sitting at my desk - Fri, 28 May 2021. 4:30pm.
Right now I was supposed to be aboard a train on a journey of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (and shoes) to Spokane... for the second time this month. Yes, we enjoyed our trip to the Inland Northwest two weeks ago so much that we started planning a return trip before we even got home. I had everything planned, down to getting a discount coupon for parking at the airport. But trouble struck this afternoon. Our flight on Southwest Airlines was delayed 3 hours.
In many cases a flight delay isn't a huge problem. I mean, it's not desirable, but it's not necessarily the end of the world. Except here it set off a chain of dominoes falling over.
By arriving at Spokane 3 hours late tonight we'd arrive after all the rental car agencies are closed. That meant we wouldn't be able to drive 75 miles to the small town where our hotel reservation was. We'd have to book a new hotel near the airport, and book a new car in the morning, and spend additional time tomorrow driving to where we planned to go hiking. All this was possible— I checked— but still left us with the question of whether the salvage effort was worth it. We decided it wasn't.
We didn't cancel this trip without an alternative in mind. "Let's just stay home" was absolutely not a playable Plan C! Instead we're going to Los Angeles. To go shopping. Car shopping!
Update: It all seemed like a great plan until our car trip suffered delays, too! At least those were traffic related and not mechanical.
Sitting at my desk - Fri, 28 May 2021. 4:30pm.
Right now I was supposed to be aboard a train on a journey of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (and shoes) to Spokane... for the second time this month. Yes, we enjoyed our trip to the Inland Northwest two weeks ago so much that we started planning a return trip before we even got home. I had everything planned, down to getting a discount coupon for parking at the airport. But trouble struck this afternoon. Our flight on Southwest Airlines was delayed 3 hours.
In many cases a flight delay isn't a huge problem. I mean, it's not desirable, but it's not necessarily the end of the world. Except here it set off a chain of dominoes falling over.
By arriving at Spokane 3 hours late tonight we'd arrive after all the rental car agencies are closed. That meant we wouldn't be able to drive 75 miles to the small town where our hotel reservation was. We'd have to book a new hotel near the airport, and book a new car in the morning, and spend additional time tomorrow driving to where we planned to go hiking. All this was possible— I checked— but still left us with the question of whether the salvage effort was worth it. We decided it wasn't.
Let's Go Shopping!
I've canceled the flights, the rental car, and 2 of the hotel nights. Fortunately those were all refundable. One hotel night is not refundable (it's too late to cancel) and is a loss of $85. But that's tonight's hotel and it was going to be a loss regardless of what we chose at this point.We didn't cancel this trip without an alternative in mind. "Let's just stay home" was absolutely not a playable Plan C! Instead we're going to Los Angeles. To go shopping. Car shopping!
Update: It all seemed like a great plan until our car trip suffered delays, too! At least those were traffic related and not mechanical.
