Most Unexpected Flight Delays

Anyone who flies, even if it's infrequently, has experienced flight delays for one reason or another. It could be weather related at the airport where you are or perhaps at the airport where your plane is coming from which prevents the aircraft from arriving at your airport. It could be mechanical problems with the plane. Or simply more flights taking off and landing than your airport can handle. Or a myriad of other minor inconveniences that delay your departure.

It's very frustrating when you've arrived at the airport the requisite two hours before departure, waited in the long line to get through security, had a personal possession confiscated by the TSA agent even though it was not on their list of disallowed items. And you finally arrive at your gate only to find that your flight has been delayed. Maybe for half an hour maybe for three hours.

But what about those truly unexpected flight delays? Those strange occurrences so far out of the realm of normal that they defy description. I recently saw a list of ten wackiest—and scariest—flight delays that I'd like to share with you.

10) Bug Bungle: Florida has the reputation for being a state that's home to many different type of creepy, crawly things. An American Airlines flight from Miami to Washington, D.C., in March 2010 was delayed due to a cockroach infestation in the cabin. Specifically on the curtain between first class and the cockpit.

9) Turtle Love: In July 2009, something far less predictable than flight congestion at JFK airport caused a delay. Seventy-eight amorous diamondback terrapins from nearby Jamaica Bay made their way across the runway looking for a place to breed. They were rounded up and trucked by to Jamaica Bay.

8) Toilet Trouble: Some passengers aboard a Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight scheduled from Dhaka to London in August 2009 decided to test the toilet system on the plane by flushing all kinds of things including bottles and cups in the five toilets. The clogged toilets were cleared in two hours, but more than two hundred passengers had to wait an additional eight hours for takeoff due to a night flight ban at London's Heathrow airport.

7) Catfish Conundrum: Catfish, it seems, are able to use their pectoral fins to go for a temporary stroll on land. In August 2008, a Delta Airlines flight was denied landing permission in Florida due to the presence of four walking catfish on the runway, along with two gopher tortoises, a blue indigo snake and an alligator. The plane had to circle until the herd was rounded up and relocated to a nearby pond.

6) Flight Attendants: In February 2010, Two female flight attendants on a Delta Connection flight from Rochester to Atlanta were removed from duty after a fight between them resulted in a flight delay. The passengers had to deplane and take other flights to reach their destination.

5) Over-Ambitious Employee: Bomb threats are a scary reality, but in December 2009 American Airlines received a very unusual phoned bomb threat. A secretary in Miami was concerned that her boss, who was running late, would miss his flight to Honduras. So, rather than booking him on a later flight, she emailed the airport saying a bomb had been planted. While the aircraft and the luggage was being searched, she was traced via her IP address to her office where she was arrested.

4) Rabbits Doing Their Thing: In June 2007, passengers at the airport in Milan, Italy, weren't prepared for the problems caused by an excessive number of mating rabbits. Problems so severe that they halted takeoffs and landings for a few hours until they were rounded up and taken to a wildlife preserve.

3) Forgetful Passenger: At JFK airport in September 2008, an American Airlines flight returned to the gate after it had taxied about forty-five minutes and was just about to take off. It seems that one of the passengers realized he had left his laptop computer in the terminal. He was freaking out, wouldn't listen to the flight attendants, and refused to sit down. He was taken off the plane and the flight was delayed even longer so his luggage could be located and removed from the plane.

2) Gold Fever: In Canada, hockey is a very serious endeavor. During the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, passengers were watching Canada and the U.S. play for the gold medal on airport televisions. They ignored repeated announcements and pleas from gate agents to board their flight t Montreal thus causing a flight delay.

1) MIA Baby Pythons: It sounds like something from a horror movie. In April 2009, a Quantas airplane missed two scheduled flights after it was discovered that four baby pythons were unaccounted for following a flight from Alice Springs to Melbourne. The plane was fumigated and returned to service, but that didn't necessarily ease the minds of many passengers since the snakes were never found.

What's the longest you've ever been stuck on a delayed flight? I was on an American Airlines flight scheduled to depart at 6:30am from Burbank, California, for Dallas where I had a connection departing Dallas at 12:30 that afternoon. We sat on the tarmac at Burbank more than four hours due to mechanical problems which caused me to miss my connection in Dallas and also the next available connection in Dallas three hours later (missed that one by five minutes) and then the last connection of the day was grounded in Dallas because of fog at my destination so I had to stay overnight in Dallas and catch the first flight at 9:30 the next morning. Not a fun travel day.

America's Greatest Train Rides

Train travel in Europe is very commonplace. Whenever I travel to the UK, I always buy a Brit Rail pass before I go and use it for traveling all over Britain—day trips out of London and longer trips such as to Scotland and Wales.

And here in the U.S., with more and more restrictions and inconveniences put on airplane passengers and airlines constantly adding fees and surcharges on top of the ticket price, train travel has had quite a resurgence. Warren Buffett recently made a $44 billion investment in a railroad company. And with gasoline prices on the rise again (just in time for summer vacation), not surprisingly, the last two years have been the best in Amtrak's history. With the increased amount of time you need to arrive at the airport prior to departure, the reduced number of flights which creates longer wait time when you need to change planes for a connection, even a short flight takes a lot longer than it used to.

The Travel Channel on cable television has a couple of episodes about scenic train travel in America.  One show is about a luxury train tour of several of our National Parks.

One of the nation's best rides is Amtrak's Southwest Chief that goes from Chicago to Los Angeles and gives the traveler a way to relive America's expansion west from the 1800s. The train trip lasts a little over forty hours, traveling through Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and the famous wild west town of Dodge City. From there it continues into Colorado and New Mexico. Then across northern Arizona with the availability of a side trip to the Grand Canyon. And finally into downtown Los Angeles' Union Station.

With only a few exceptions, this ride is on the same tracks that were once the Santa Fe Railway which was built along the old Santa Fe wagon train trail, a route that also inspired the famous highway of the days before Interstates criss-crossed the country—Route 66.

Here are five more great rail journeys.  Many of the stops along the route offer the availability of getting off the train to check out local tourist attractions.

The West Coast's Coast Starlight is considered by most travelers to be Amtrak's most scenic route. It runs along the Pacific Ocean between Los Angeles, California, and Seattle, Washington, traveling through some truly spectacular scenery.

From California, the classic route east is the California Zephyr, following the path of the first transcontinental railway between San Francisco to Chicago. It visits such places as Sacramento, Reno, Salt Lake City, across the Rockies to Denver, through Nebraska and Iowa to Chicago.

By taking the Southwest Chief in one direction and returning on the California Zephyr, you are traveling what the Gilded Age tourists in the 1880s and 1890s called the Grand Tour of America.

If you want a ride that goes through the heart of the country, try the Texas Eagle starting in Chicago. It crosses the Mississippi River at St. Louis, travels down through the Ozarks, across Arkansas into eastern Texas, and continues through Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, and to San Antonio where it connects with the Sunset Limited to Los Angeles.

Because of daily commuter traffic, the East Coast relies much more on rail service than the rest of the country, especially the heavily used tracks between Boston and Washington, D.C.

One of the country's first scenic rail routes is the Empire Service from New York City up through the Hudson River Valley where Washington Irving's Ichabod Crane encountered the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hallow.

And if you're on the East Coast and are heading to Florida, you can take the Auto Train where your car travels with you. Passengers board just south of Washington, D.C. and their vehicles are loaded on the train. The trip terminates just outside Orlando, Florida.

But maybe you're not planning a vacation by train, but would like the train experience. There are lots of day trips and even two or three hour tours in various parts of the country, including vintage steam and narrow gauge railroads. My personal favorite is the Napa Valley Wine Train in California, which includes winery stops. And Alaska Railway's White Pass & Yukon Route offers a three hour tour through some truly dramatic scenery.

Have any of you taken a train vacation? A day trip train tour?

Over the last few decades, train travel in the United States went into serious decline while air travel increased its dominance.  But with the dramatic resurgence of train travel in the last two years, you might want to check with your travel agency or on the internet and see what type of vacation railroad travel packages are available.

Next Sunday, May 23, is one week before Memorial Day weekend which is the traditional start of the summer vacation season. That will be my last post in this series of Getting Ready For Summer Vacation blogs. I'll be talking about flying.

Quirky Questions Tourists Ask

At one time or another when we were in school, we've probably all heard a teacher say that there are no stupid questions in an attempt to get us to express our curiosity about something without being embarrassed.

However, as an adult that old adage doesn't apply to all situations. The travel industry is filled with weird, quirky, and in some cases just plain stupid questions asked by tourists. Here's a sampling of quirky questions  from various sources.

***

Actual Questions Asked On Cruise Ships:

Does the crew sleep on board?

Is the island surrounded by water?

What happens to the ice sculptures after they melt?

What time is the 2 o'clock tour?

Can you see the equator from the deck?

I know that ships often serve smoked salmon, but I am a non-smoker.

Can the iced tea be served hot?

Will I get wet if I go snorkeling?

Should I put my luggage outside the cabin before or after I go to sleep?

Does the outside cabin mean it's outside the ship?

Where is the good shopping in Antarctica?

***

And cruise ships aren't the only place that tourists seem to have absurd questions. Here are some actual questions received by Australians from foreigners, along with some well-deserved replies given to the questioner.

Q: Does it ever get windy in Australia? I have never seen it rain on TV, how do the plants grow? (question from the UK)
A: We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around watching them die.

Q: Will I be able to see kangaroos in the street? (question from USA)
A: Depends how much you've been drinking.

Q: I want to walk from Perth to Sydney—can I follow the railroad tracks? (question from Sweden)
A: Sure, it's only 3000 miles, take lots of water.

Q: Are there any ATMs (cash machines) in Australia? Can you send me a list of them in Brisbane, Cairns, Townsville and Hervey Bay? (question from the UK)
A: What did your last slave die of?

Q: Can you give me some information about hippo racing in Australia? (question from USA)
A: A-fri-ca is the big triangle shaped continent south of Europe. Aus-tra-lia is the big island in the middle of the Pacific which does not…oh forget it. Sure, the hippo racing is every Tuesday night at Kings Cross. Come naked.

Q: Which direction is north in Australia? (question from USA)
A: Face south and then turn 180 degrees. Contact us when you get here and we'll send the rest of the directions.

Q: Can I wear high heels in Australia? (question from the UK)
A: You're a British politician, right?

Q: Are there supermarkets in Sydney and is milk available all year round? (question from Germany)
A: No, we are a peaceful civilization of vegan hunter/gatherers. Milk is illegal.

Q: Can you tell me the regions in Tasmania where the female population is smaller than the male population? (question from Italy)
A: Yes, gay nightclubs.

Q: Do you celebrate Christmas in Australia? (question from France)
A: Only at Christmas.

***

The Daily Telegraph in the United Kingdom put together an international list "of the most inexplicably simple queries fielded by tourism officials."

Are there any lakes in the Lake District?

Why on earth did they build Windsor Castle on the flight path for Heathrow?

Is Wales closed during the winter?

Why did they build so many ruined castles and abbeys in England?

Do you know of any undiscovered ruins?

***

And here are some tourist questions asked at Niagara Falls:

What time do the falls shut off?

How far into Canada do I have to go before we have to drive on the other side of the road?

How much does it cost to get into Canada and are children a different price?

***

And here are some goodies from Minnesota:

I'm coming in July and I want snowmobile rental information.

We want to tour the Edmund Fitzgerald. (the ship sank in a storm in Lake Superior in 1975)

One traveler asked to see the bridge in Minnesota with the arches. She was shown various photos, none of which were the bridge she was looking for. She finally identified a picture of the St. Louis Gateway Arch as the bridge she wanted to see. She was given directions to Missouri.

***

And finally …these tidbits.

One tourist to Scotland asked what time they fed the Loch Ness Monster. Another visitor to New York City thought they would end up in Holland if they drove through the Holland Tunnel. A traveler in Miami asked a tourism official which beach was closest to the ocean.


So…I guess the bottom line is to maybe think about that question a second time before you actually ask it. :)

Is A Guided Tour Vacation Right For You?

For the second week of my getting ready for summer vacation blogs, I'm exploring things to think about when considering a guided tour. I'm referring to vacation tours of several days rather than the two hour city tour.

Some travelers find the sight of those large tour buses spewing out hoards of vacationers at tourist attractions enough to make them cringe. Others love getting on the tour bus and not having to worry about planning an itinerary, making hotel reservations, or booking transportation.

How do you know if a tour is right for you? Finding a tour that meets your travel needs might be easier than you think. You just have to ask a few pertinent questions.

Do you know anyone who recommends this tour? Just because a particular tour got a good review, or rave comments on one of the travel websites, doesn't mean that your taste agrees with those who left comments. But you know your friends and family, know their taste and whether it agrees with yours.

Will the tour help with a language barrier? Possibly you can get by with a guide book and a foreign language phrase book, but not being able to communicate in the local language can prevent you from seeing some place you really wanted to visit. And a tour guide can definitely expedite border crossings. Finding a good tour operator can be the difference between an enjoyable trip and a disappointing one.

Does the tour solve transportation problems? In the developed world, most tourists feel comfortable renting a car and going out on their own. But in the developing nations transportation can be the biggest challenge you'll face on your travels. With dangerous and in some cases even non-existent roads, driving yourself can be quite impractical. Other times, a car is not even an option with alternate transportation being very expensive.

Does the tour operator share your ideals? Even though travel expands our minds and challenges our beliefs, a tour operator who runs their business in a way that truly offends your sensibilities can totally ruin the experience. This is particularly important if you're seeking out cultural tour experiences.

Does the tour offer more than your guidebook? Sometimes a guidebook is all you need to experience what a location has to offer. But for other locations a tour guide can often give you a deeper understanding than you can get from a guide book or pamphlet.

Who is the guide? Taking a tour where the owners of the tour company are your guides can provide a far better experience for the traveler than one of the massive tour operators. The small operators can't afford to develop a bad reputation while the large companies often have transient, part-time help that doesn't care as much as the small business owner does.

How big is the tour group? When it comes to tours…size matters. Small groups allow you to have a more personalized experience while large groups keep the costs lower and allow you to meet more people. Know your preferences before you pay out that non-refundable deposit.

How much free time will you have? Even those travelers who always prefer guided tours to independent travel want some free time while on the tour. Before booking your tour, find out how much free time is included in the schedule.

Where will you be staying? Make sure the level of accommodations matches what you're looking for from the tour. If you're wanting a back to nature roughing it experience, you don't want to find yourself in a chain hotel every night. If you want a pampered experience, then a mediocre motel each night won't give that to you.

Even if you are one of those travelers who don't want to have anything to do with a guided tour, there are some parks and historical sites that only allow people to visit if they are part of a licensed tour group.

Have you ever taken a guided tour vacation on a large tour bus? What did you like or dislike about the experience?

Weird Tours That Make You Scratch Your Head And Say…Huh?

The month of May is just a few days away and with that, at least here in the Northern Hemisphere, people are thinking about summer vacation. Where to go. What to do. Travel far from home. Stay close by. Fly. Go by train. Drive. Take a cruise. So many decisions.

I came across a series of articles geared toward vacation activities and travel that I'd like to share with you over the next few weeks.

And first in the series...it seems that any place of even minimal interest to the average tourist offers a tour. All major travel destinations have a variety of tours from which to choose. However, there are a few tours out there that are really out there as far as their subject matter. Here are a few legitimate tours of the unusual, weird, and even bizarre.

In The Ghetto—Los Angeles, California: This bus tour goes through what is locally known as South Central, an area of Los Angeles that has become synonymous with gang warfare and poverty. The tour guides are former gang members. Passengers must sign a release waiver before embarking on the tour. And with the sight seeing comes some education. Reformed gang members recall their lives on the streets. All proceeds go toward helping gang members find jobs. The sights include LA County Jail and a graffiti lab. The price, at the time I read about this tour, was $65 per person which includes lunch.
http://www.lagangtours.com/

Tour de Sewer—Paris, France: If your fantasy is to live underground, indulge in a little Phantom Of The Opera role playing, then you'll be happy to know that there are several tour companies that offer the experience of exploring the underground sewers of Paris. There is even a museum dedicated to the below street environs where you can see videos and displays showing the evolution of sewer technology. The tour sights include drain pipes and underground tunnels. The price, at the time I read about this tour, was 4.2 Euros per person (less than $6 at that time).
http://www.egouts.tenebres.eu/

A Paranormal Activity—Edinburgh, United Kingdom: If you're afraid of the dark, you might want to think twice before embarking on this tour. High levels of paranormal activity have been reported in the cramped passageways below Edinburgh's South Street bridge, a space once used as storage vaults for merchants in the 1700s. Then the spaces were used as living quarters for the city's poor. Rumors have long circulated that the underground lairs were used as dumping sites for murder victims. In order to help detect ghostly presences, tour members are issued hand held Electro Magnetic Field recorders to carry with them as they tour the vaults. The price, at the time I read about this tour, was 8.50 pounds per adult (about $13.50 at that time).
http://www.mercaltours.com/

Love For The Slums—Mumbai, India: With the success of 8 time Oscar winning film Slumdog Millionaire, what has been termed "poverty tourism" has become popular. Over a million people live in the 550 acre area known as Dharavi, one of the largest slums in Asia. Whether the tour is considered exploitation or educational is up to you, but 80% of the profits are donated to help Mumbai's poor. Similar tours are offered in the slums of Jakarta, Indonesia, as well as Kenya. The price, at the time I read about this tour, was $10-$20 per person, depending on the length of the tour.
http://www.realitytoursandtravel.com/

Dead Celebrities—Hollywood, California: The "Deadly Departed Tour" explores nearly 100 sites of celebrity scandal and death, a feast for pop culture lovers. The tabloid tour lasts over three hours and is usually offered Wednesday through Sunday. The price, at the time I read about this tour, was $40 per person.
http://www.dearlydepartedtours.com/

Hunt Or Be Hunted—Port Hardy, British Columbia, Canada: For over ten years Great Bear Nature Tours has been taking visitors into the wilderness in search of grizzlies. For anywhere from two to seven nights you go into the wilderness searching for bears with a biologist as your guide. Binoculars and rain gear is provided. Also included is a private room at the Great Bear Lodge with meals. This is an ecotour in a remote wilderness with breathtaking scenery. The only shooting is done with a camera. The price varies according to length of tour.
www.greatbeartours.com

Scandal Sightseeing—Washington, D.C.: There are an abundance of tours available in and around Washington, D.C., but this one is done with wit and irreverence by the comedy troupe "Gross National Product." On this tour you'll visit the familiar such as the Jefferson Memorial and the White House, but the guides let you in on the juicy details other tour operators tend to leave out. The price, at the time I read about this tour, was $30 per person.
http://www.gnpcomeda.com/


Have any of you ever taken a weird, off beat type of tour?

For the next few weeks my blogs will be about vacation type stuff. This blog is tours from the unusual to the bizarre. Next week (Sunday, May 2) I'll be talking about how to determine if a tour is right for you or if you're better off traveling to a vacation destination and sight seeing on your own.

Ten Secrets You CAN Keep From Your Mate

Last week I blogged about five secrets you should NOT keep from your mate. This week it's the opposite side of the coin—ten secrets you CAN keep from your mate.

You usually think of keeping secrets from your mate as things that can come back to bite you in the ass, so to speak. Today's headlines about people in the spotlight and their no longer secret activities certainly attest to that. But like most rules, there are exceptions. Here's a list I read recently of ten secrets that might be best kept to yourself rather than shared with your mate.

1) The sacrifices you've made: This includes things like skipping dinner with friends to attend your mate's office party. Or, to take a page from O. Henry's The Gift Of The Magi, selling one of your possessions so you can afford to buy something special for your mate as a birthday present. Don't spoil your good deed by acting like a martyr and making sure your mate knows of your sacrifice. It should come from your heart, not from your ego.

2) Your partner makes the bed wrong: Or maybe it's the dishwasher that's loaded wrong, or washing the cars, or trimming the bushes. Whatever it is, unless you want to do all those chores by yourself, be thankful your mate willingly shares the load.

3) You hate the gift: Especially if it's some sort of a clothing item that's not your style. Instead of exchanging it like you want to, give it a try…wear it to work or to a function you're attending. You might be surprised at the compliments you receive and your mate will be pleased to see you using the gift. And keep in mind that if you complain it could be the end of the surprise gifts! :)

4) You can't stand your mate's mother/best friend/favorite sweatshirt: Tread lightly, especially if it's a new relationship. If you issue an ultimatum, you might find that you are the one left out in the cold all by yourself.

5) How often you get hit on: Telling your loved one about every incident where someone has tried to hit on you will only make him or her jealous and could lead to low self-esteem. As long as you're not returning the advances, keep it to yourself. Again, there's no purpose in boosting your ego at your mate's expense.

6) Your clothes are uncomfortable: He gives her his jacket because she's cold, but now he's cold. She's wearing new high heels and her feet hurt. The collar of his dress shirt is starched too heavily and it's rubbing against his neck. Don't ruin the evening by complaining about being uncomfortable. Sometimes it's best to suffer in silence.

7) The details of your romantic history: You can go through a rundown of exes, but keep those sordid details to yourself.

8) You're bored: There are times when you will be dragged to your mate's favorite activity, find yourself watching TV shows you don't like, or going to movies that aren't your taste. But you do it—you suffer in silence—because you love your mate. If the relationship is healthy, your mate will return the favor and suffer in silence while doing something you enjoy. And who knows, you might both find a new activity that you can enjoy together.

9) I told you so: You can think those words all day, but resist the urge to say them out loud. There will be a situation where you are wrong and you don't want your mate throwing it in your face.

10) You're thinking about sex: Chances are, so is your mate. Stop thinking about it and make the first move!

Do any of you have secrets you think are better kept to yourself rather than bringing them out into the open?


Summer vacation time is almost here. My blogs the next few weeks will deal with vacation and travel topics. Come back and check out the weird tours that will make you scratch your head, how to figure out if a tour is right for you, the quirky questions tourists ask, great American train trips, and the obstacles incurred when flying.

Five Secrets You Should NEVER Keep From Your Mate

We all have secrets, some bigger than others. Some more important than others. Even in the healthiest of relationships, there can be secrets. These are usually the little white lie type of secrets such as not being as enamored of his favorite sport as you've led him to believe.

According to a recent news article I read, some secrets you keep from your mate and some should never be withheld. What secrets should never be kept?

1) Addictions: This is information your mate needs to know, whether your addiction is shopping, alcohol, drugs, or even one that has certainly been in the headlines lately—sex addiction. Your mate can help you deal with whatever your addiction might be which is certainly better than you sneaking around and hiding things.

2) Unhappy Workplace: Use your common sense on this one. Little misunderstandings with a co-worker don't need to be brought home and turned into something they aren't. But if you have a boss or co-worker who continually tries to force his attentions on you (sexual harassment), sabotages your work efforts, or otherwise makes your work life impossible, it's a sign you need to talk to someone. If there's someone at work you trust, talk to them. But almost make it a point of talking to your mate so he or she won't be blindsided when you've finally had all you can take and explode.

3) An Undermining In-Law: In-laws traditionally and notoriously get a bad rap. But there are some in-laws who intentionally undermine your self-confidence and purposely set out to hurt your relationship. Your mate needs to know what's going on. Talk to him or her about what's been happening before it gets out of hand to the point where the relationship is permanently damaged. If your mate is more concerned with his or her relative than with you, better to know it earlier than later so that an informed decision can be make about the true viability of the relationship.

4) How His Or Her Treatment Makes You Feel: Don't whine to your mate about every little mistake. However, those small mistreatments can build up over time and if you never say anything your mate will never realize you've been hurt by certain things he or she says or does. Instead of fixating on specific individual things, talk to your mate about patterns of behavior that bother you and come to an agreement about what is and isn't appropriate for your relationship.

5) A Past Marriage/Engagement/Serious Relationship: It's difficult to keep a prior marriage a secret, but it has been done. The reality, however, is that it shouldn't be kept a secret. There's no need to go into long drawn out detail about what was good and what was bad in the previous marriage. And it's definitely a bad idea to continually bring up your past marriage, especially if you're making a comparison between what might have been good with the previous marriage and problems you're having with your current mate. But you do want to be honest with your current mate so that something from the past doesn't sneak up and kill your new relationship.

Do you think it's okay to keep some secrets from your mate or should there be no secrets at all?