Day 25
Tuesday July 16, 2013
We were up early today to finish packing and get ready. I hit the deli downstairs to get a couple of sandwiches for the flight home. I got turkey and cheese on rye and Dee went with her classic hoagie again. Both came with chips today and I also picked up a few packs of chocolate chip cookies.
We had everything finished and all that was left was to gas up the car and return it to the renal car facility. Everything went well here and we boarded the shuttle bus back to the airport.
Checking in was quick and there were only a few people here checking in. Then it was off to security. This always takes a little longer with Dee in the chair but we had plenty of time for them to search her. All was well and we were on our way to the tram in just a few minutes. A few attentive employees helped us scoot right through the line and made sure Dee was comfortable.
When it was time to board we took advantage of the pre-boarding process and got to our seats before the rest of the flight boarded. It was strange being the only ones on the plane for the first few minutes.
This is United flight 293 non-stop back to Newark. We were scheduled to depart at 2:03pm with a 4 hour and 52 minute flight time. The captain came on and told us we'd be flying at 37000 feet and for 4 hours and 34 minutes. We were also told we'd be flying around some thunder storms and it might get bumpy at times.
The flight offers food for purchase but that's all. They don't even give you a small snack anymore. That was OK with us though because Sam's Town provided lunch for us today!
The flight was uneventful and long but I was able to sleep through a good part of it. We eventually made our final approach into Newark. We waited until the end to get off the plane so we wouldn't hold up others. I requested the aisle chair to get Dee off the plane because she was exhausted and was told it would take about 20 minutes as they didn't have one at the jet way. I found this odd because every place we've been in the past 2 years had one right at the base of the jet way. Dee decided to tough it out and walked off the plane very slowly. Dee's chair was waiting for her and we were off to baggage claim. On the way up the jet way what do I see sitting there? A fucking aisle chair. The staff in Newark is so incompetent it's pathetic.
The next stop was baggage claim and even after the long wait to deplane and Dee taking a long time to walk off, the baggage still wasn't coming out when we got there. 20 minutes later I finally had our bag. Great service Newark.
Next up was the monorail to the rental car lot. When we got there the elevator was down and some airport employees said they'd help us. I thought they were going to get Dee in her chair onto the escalator and somehow secure her. Instead the guy told her to stand up, they walked her to the escalator and she went up the old fashioned way. Two other employees took our luggage and the wheelchair up. Then proceeded to ram the leg rest into Dee's leg putting a small gash into the back of it. I was dropping eff bombs one after the other and asked the guy what they would have done if she had no use of her legs and shrugged his shoulders and gave me a blank stare. What the fuck?
We finally got to Avis. I reserved a full sized car for $52 we'd drive back to Newburgh and return to the local airport Stewart – Newburgh tomorrow. I'm preferred with Avis and my name was on the board with “preferred counter” for my spot. WTF? We go outside to the preferred counter and the first thing the asshole clerk says to me is “Isn't your name on the board?”. No stupid, I just thought I'd stop by the counter to say hi you asshole. She punched up some shit on the computer and told me to take any car in spot 51 – 56. As I'm waking Dee across the sidewalk an Avis employee runs in front of us, goes into a door, and then comes flying back out, slamming right into Dee's leg. The same one that got hit earlier (and same one that she's had issues with this whole trip). He almost fell on his face and Dee let out a scream. The guy felt bad and I told him to get away, all while dropping eff bombs one after another about how incompetent people are these days.
I finally got Dee to the car we were going to choose. It was a GMC Terrain with almost 16, 000 miles on it.
I checked the car over and loaded our stuff into it and we were on our way. As I was doing that the employee came back out and apologized again and asked me for my contract and he was going to make an adjustment on it. When he came back out a few minutes later he said he took off the charges and I'd have a zero balance when I returned the car tomorrow. I looked over the paperwork and all that was on it was the one way taxes and airport fees.
For a quick meal I stopped off at a McDonald's drive through on Rt. 17 in Paramus. Here I experienced another case of an asshole employee. I ordered a large Sprite and he handed me a small one. WTF is wrong with people?
About 75 minutes later I pulled into our driveway and this trip, other than returning the car tomorrow, this trip was over.
Total win/loss for the day $0
Total Comps for the day $21
Final Thoughts
Eff Yous