arrived safely

Promise me you won’t laugh, please?

I set off from Scottsdale with enough gas in the rental car to easily arrive at the airport. Mr Blonde and my sister were inside admiring the new fridge/freezer that had arrived in the last 30 minutes. Good delivery gentlemen that
they were – off the truck, hauled into the house, hooked up, turned on and all the packing removed. The reason I mention this is because the washer/dryer were what is called curbside dropped. Which, if you couldn’t guess – is exactly what it says.

Did you know that the Hertz rental cars even have a menu item on their GPS called “Hertz Car Returns”? Turn it on, hit the button and it gives you a list of rental returns. Heading the list is Airport. And here in begins my tale.
Getting on the Freeway, the directions didn’t seem to make sense to me. But hey – what do I know, I have only been to the airport once before and drove out of it a few days ago at night when I was totally wiped out. Night = totally dark. So I decide to trust the electronic box for a few miles. When it heads me off the freeway in a location where there isn’t an airport sign, I get worried.

Should I mention right about now that the Phoenix Metro area has more than 4 million?

Deciding to safe side it, I pull off at the first available safe location which happens to be a Greek Orthodox Church parking lot – totally empty on a Wednesday afternoon. Canceling the routing, I start the process over again from the beginning.

DestinationHertz Rental Car
Returns.
Top of the list is Phoenix Airport which is what I hit before.

Next is Sky Harbor…… Now, it makes total and complete sense that there would be more than one airport in the Phoenix area (see population comment above). Obviously Phoenix Airport is small, or private or something but it is not the main airport. I hit the for Sky Harbor. The GPS promptly tells me 23 miles to Sky Harbor in Tempe. Right. Correct distance, direction and about as far as I expected. So color me silly that I didn’t look past “Phoenix Airport.” I guess I should have known; obviously there is no Chicago Airport or New York City Airport…

Still took less than 30 minutes to get there and I discovered that the GPS didn’t take me through the airport but rather around via I-10 to the old terminal which has become Rental Car Central. Slick, easy and I head for the shuttle bus.

Checking in to Southwest Airlines is easy and I head toward C7. I don’t see my flight on the list as I wander past one of the monitors, but don’t think anything of it. A bit of dinner and I look at the monitor again – nope, no flight. Pulling out my boarding pass, the problem is obvious. I was looking for San Francisco on the list, but I am flying into Oakland. Happens to be about 1/2 the price in case you are wondering and also closer for late evening pickup. But then I can’t find my flight on the monitor either.

Of course, it probably helps to look under Departures rather than Arrivals.

What can I say? It must have been a longer day than what I thought!

San Francisco, CA

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5 Responses to arrived safely

  1. Cheryl says:

    Did you make your flight?

  2. Carmen says:

    I think it is Thursday and you have had enough stress for the week.

  3. Steven says:

    Mama said there’d be days like that.

  4. Mary says:

    Hope that you’ve managed to put your inner blonde back in its place!!

    Yikes, what an “adventure” you had!!

    Hope all is well and you are rested and relaxed!

  5. Mary says:

    In today’s NYT! Seems like you are not alone!!

    Right Day and Airline. The Airport? Um, No
    By SARAH MASLIN NIR
    With three major airports less than 20 miles from Midtown Manhattan, some New Yorkers have found themselves in the exasperating situation of taking a cab to where their planes were not.

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