Traveling started Saturday, December 19 (Macau time), when Matt and I wrestled our bags downstairs and caught a taxi to the airport. There was only a slight delay at the bridge, when a police-escorted convoy was passing through, apparently going to pick up PRC President Hu Jintao at the airport for the tenth anniversary of Macau's handover celebrations. Still, we got to the airport in plenty of time to get through security and all, only to wait an extra 20 minutes at the gate because EVA hadn't finished boarding their previous flight! We also picked up lunch for Matt at the airport cafe, since we weren't sure how the "diabetic meal" on the plane would be (it was just as well - they asked Matt if he wanted orange, apple, or tomato juice, none of which are exactly good for diabetics unless they need the sugar boost!)
Taipei airport was relatively easy to navigate once we picked up a luggage cart, though I have yet to find those massage chairs (maybe when I go in January). Matt picked up a t-shirt (since he's never been to Taiwan and is not likely to come back anytime soon) and we sent status update emails home, then just hung out at the food court for a while, where "authentic Taiwanese snacks" (more like appetizers) and Diet Coke were both conveniently nearby =P Thanks to the free wireless, I was even able to check-in for my Delta flight from SFO to JFK. Again, being unsure of the EVA "diabetic meal" quality, we picked up dumplings-to-go for Matt's dinner, then headed for the plane so we could board early and get settled in for the 11-hour flight to SFO. Besides a short stretch of turbulence (which will probably hit CA as a big storm in the next few days), it was an uneventful flight...I got a couple hours of sleep between watching the kung-fu parody In His Majesty's Secret Service and most of the Disney guinea pig movie G-Force, both of which were pretty funny.
Things started going downhill once we touched down in SF and I called home only to find out that my flight had already been canceled because of the massive blizzard bearing down on the tri-state area. Matt and I got through customs surprisingly quickly (30 minutes has got to be some sort of record), then he met up with Marlyann, so I was free to head for the domestic terminal to see what I could salvage to get home. Unfortunately, Delta informed me that all of their flights to anywhere on the northeast coast (aka anything between Maine and Maryland) had been canceled for at least the next 12 hours, so I couldn't even get into Boston or DC and Amtrak it home from there. The best they could do was put me on the standby list for the 1:45 PM flight Sunday afternoon and confirm a seat on a Tuesday two-part flight, connecting through Minneapolis.
It seemed like a good time to switch to Plan B, so to speak, so I called my aunt/uncle and they graciously came to save me from spending a night in the airport. Instead, I shared a comfy sofabed with the family cat =P Sunday morning I checked the standby list and was #3 of 3, but the website said 6 seats were available in coach, so we decided to give it a try. As I found out when I got to the airport, however, the flight had already been overbooked, so they even had to ask for additional volunteers to change their travel plans in order to get all the ticketed passengers on the plane. No one got off the standby list.
Fast-forward a couple hours, and I was still in the airport hoping to see if I could get on the Sunday red-eye flight, which would get me to JFK 24 hours after I was supposed to get there. I had also changed my confirmed seat to a direct flight 9 AM Tuesday morning because I didn't think 40 minutes was enough time to make a connection, and I definitely didn't want to get stuck in Minneapolis. Around 6 PM, I was #8 on the standby list, so things were not looking good...I went back to the Delta counter to ask if there was anything else available. The guy looked at me and asked kindly, "Didn't I talk to you yesterday?" (It was true - he had helped me Saturday night.) Consequently, he was noticeably more persistent than the other agents I had talked to: after about 10 minutes of searching, someone's cancellation opened up a seat on the 9 AM flight Monday morning, and I grabbed it.
Thus, after one more night with the cat, I got on the BART around 5:30 AM to get to the airport by 7:00, got through security, and was finally in the air by 9:15 AM. By 6 PM EST, I was back in snowy, icy NJ...cold, but glad to be home =)
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