Trip to Hell and Back.

Ok let me start by saying this is not a diss to the whole state of New Jersey....

...On Tuesday Me, Quinn, Caitlin and her boyfriend Brandon all headed to the airport in Portland to head home from Maine. They were flying US Airways and we were flying Continental. I will not fly that airline again. From Portland we were to fly to Newark then to Richmond and since we would be getting in so late, we were going to stay the night in Richmond and head home Wednesday morning. Sounds like a great plan....

Well of course our flight to Newark gets delayed because of the air traffic and that delay now makes us miss our flight to Richmond so we have the choice to stay in Portland or to fly on to Newark and stay there. Option 2 worked out better for me because I had to work at 4 in Duck. So we fly to Newark and we make an attempt to catch our original flight to Richmond and by the time we got from Terminal A to Terminal C we made it just in time to see the plane pulling away.

I was so pissed, you just don't understand.

The airline did not comp anything. No food, no hotel, no nothing and they were all rude. So on our way to the other side of the airport to where all the hotel shuttles are we encountered an older Asian couple also flying Continental saying that they were rude to them and didn't help them out at all either but that there was an African American passenger from their flight that received food vouchers. The Asian lady proceeded to ask the lady at the desk what was up with that and she said it was at the agents discretion to give out vouchers which then shows me that Newark airport was also a little racist cause there were only black airline agents that night and no one got any help.

So we finally ask if we can just get our luggage and go on to a hotel. Oh no, our luggage is in a "secured area" they said and that it was fine and that it would definitely make it to Richmond with us the following morning. Ok, whatever. Almost every hotel was completed booked except four, which was a price range of about $104 to $299 and then I found one for $82. Hell yeah I thought!! We are only staying for one night, it can't be that bad.

Oh it was THAT bad. We kept going to the straight up GHETTO. I mean, liquor stores on the corners with homies standing outside and strip clubs with what looks like drug dealers at the door and to top it all off I spotted my first real life HOOKER and she was NOT cute. We asked the shuttle driver to take us back to the airport. Now by this time it is midnight, me and Quinn are cranky and irritable and we finally find a hotel for $100 something but my AAA saved the day with a major discount. I had to take a shower and Quinn went to go get food--a turkey sandwich and a chicken salad one--they gave him turkey with chips and then a tiny little ketchup cup size thing of chicken salad and a six pack of bud for almost $50 (apparently they don't sell beer in gas stations....yankees are so wack, dude).

We wake up and go straight to the airport and everything is going smoothly. We get to Richmond and go to baggage claim. Yay, here comes Quinn's bag.....and that's it. They lost 3 of our 4 bags, one of which contains mine and Quinn's brand new North Face jackets (which if you know about North Face, were not cheap), my new stuffed animal made of Alpaca fur (which also was not cheap) and my anniversary ring. They said they would have our bags to us last night, then today by 2:30 and now we are at between 6PM and 12AM today. I swear, nothing better be missing cause they don't want to piss me off.

All in all, New Jersey, it's airport and mostly it's people did not impress me and I could live the rest of my life without returning.