Misadventures In Travel

What a hoot. I´m in Spain right now, on my annual visit to my son for his birthday.

So far, every flight has been a mishap. It started with the initial flight from Indianapolis to Newark, which was delayed due to weather. This delay set off a chain reaction whereby I missed my flight from Newark to Madrid, and from Madrid to Jerez de la Frontera. Continental Airlines tried to get me to Madrid via Paris, but that flight was delayed, and in Paris, they failed to put my luggage on the plane.

Fortunately, we caught that before I boarded, so I took the next Paris-Madrid flight, but that delay caused me to miss the last flight out of Madrid for Jerez.

On the upside, I picked up a souvineer for Val Swift- an Air France barf bag. He´ll put the hidden meaning together, I´m sure.

I had no choice but to stay overnight in Madrid. I called everybody, from Alex to the rental car company to let them all know about the changes. I´m definitely not happy about losing a day with my son, but you have to make the best of things and try to keep a sense of humor.

All of this is ironic, for as I type this, there is a young American couple playing the ugly American tourists, swearing at the hotel desk clerk because their reservation got crossed up. The desk clerk was very helpful to me, willing to speak English when I fumbled on the Espanol. It´s amazing how much further you get with a sense of humor and a smile.

Anyway, I´ll pick up the first flight from Madrid to Jerez in the morning, and go from there. alex and I will have a great week together. Look for pictures!