Help The VAR Guy Get Home
The VAR Guy is in Nashville for an Ingram Micro event. Nice people, nice city … but he wants to get home to New York. Unfortunately for him, a snow storm is about to bury the Big Apple. Can you help him get home?
Remaining flights from Nashville to New York today are canceled. And there are no available flights Saturday. Surrounding airports like Philadelphia are iced in. Any advice? His current strategy is to fly from Nashville to Washington, D.C. as soon as possible. Then, he hopes to catch a flight or a train from DC to New York (Manhattan or Long Island area). The VAR Gal and The VAR Kids (all three of them) want him home in time to go skiing this weekend.
Any other reasonable suggestions? If so, The VAR Guy is all ears.
How fast do you run?
Cute reply. I just heard from The VAR Guy. He offers this piece of advice to all travelers dealing with today’s storm: If you’re delayed at your airport, see if you can find the flight captain. Then sit next to him. Let the flight captain overhear your cell conversations with Amtrak and various airlines. The captain will almost certainly jump into the conversation and offer alternatives. In fact, this very scenario just unfolded in the Nashville airport.
Another update from The VAR Guy: He is now flying from Nashville to Baltimore, rather than DC, because there’s a train from baltimore to NY tonight (fingers crossed).
-jp
Sorry to hear about the travails of TVG. Car rental in Baltimore sounds like a safe bet to get home in time for ski trip. I fear that if TVG doesn’t make it back for skiing The VAR Gal will be very displeased, indeed, perhaps not just with TVG, but with his bosses as well, not that they had anything to do with the weather, at least not as far as anyone can figure.
TVG is a world-class traveler; I understand he can be on different coasts simultaneously, visiting a printer vendor in the Northwest and then a distributor in the Southeast. Are you sure he’s not a clone?
I hear a rumor that TVG has made it to Delaware – proceeding 30 miles an hour behind a snowplow. I also hear that his rental car has a great stereo system. Go TVG – we’re all rooting for you.
1:45am, Saturday morning: The VAR Guy just pulled into his driveway. He made it home!
Some Trip Highlights:
– 12 hours door-to-door from Nashville to NY.
– He was one of the last people to get a seat on the Nashville flight to Baltimore. 50 people went standby on the flight
– Left Nashville 2pm (eastern) and landed in Baltimore at 4pm (eastern).
– Went to enterprise car rental and asked if he could rent a car and return it on Long Island. “Yes, Rhode Island” replied the person behind the counter. “No, Long Island” said The VAR Guy. “Yes, Rhode Island” said the counter person. “No thank you,” said the VAR Guy.
– Proceeded to Dollar Rent a Car and got a Chrysler that could be dropped off in NY. The VAR Guy’s first car purchase was a Chrysler that turned out to be a lemon. He doesn’t like Chryslers. At all. In this case, the Chrysler was one of the best cars he has ever driven in the snow. Yippie.
– Made it from Baltimore to NJ. Snow everywhere. 35MPH speedlimit.
Stopped at several rest stops looking for WiFi. None available. Pathetic. In one rest stop coffee shop, the VAR Guy inquired about WiFi. The counter person said, “we only have regular and decaf.” Wonderful. Hey New Jersey: GET SOME WIFI. Visit http://www.muniwireless.com for tips.
– Reached JFK airport around 11:30pm to return my rental and pick up my parked car.
– Most customers in rental line at JFK had been waiting six hours for a car. THEY CHEERED THE VAR GUY when he came in the rental drop-off area and presented the keys to Dollar rental.
– Questions fielded by The VAR Guy:
A. “How are the roads?”
B. “How’s the snow?”
C. “Where’s your coat?”
D. “Do you always wear short sleeves during a snow storm?”
Answers from The VAR Guy:
A. “Roads are bad”
B. “Snow is bad”
C. “Coats are for wimps”
D. “What are sleeves?”
I then took the airport shuttle to my parked car at JFK and drove home.
Oh, one key point I overlooked: I ripped the seat of my pants picking up the rental car in Baltimore. It was a huge rip. And I’m sure people at rest stops across the east coast noticed it.
Time for bed. Need to get up with The VAR Gal and The VAR Kids at 5am to get back in the car and drive to ski weekend.
Thank you to those who assisted The VAR Guy during this wonderful journey.
Bravo to TVG. Sounds like the only thing missing was John Candy.