Traveling for Fun and Profit

We just got home from a 60 hour whirlwind trip to Providence, Rhode Island to see Drew's new home and to celebrate our grandson Jack's first birthday. We had a great time there - but the devil is in the details of the trip.

We left Tallahassee at 7 AM Friday - it was an uneventful flight. But when we got to Charlotte - the second leg of our flight was overbooked. They offered us $700 of travel vouchers - and I was really beside myself. Our entire flight cost $650 - so now we were $50 ahead of the game. We had a free weekend flight and a little profit.

We had to sit around Charlotte Airport for a couple of hours. The neatest feature of the Charlotte Airport is the white rocking chair all over for us to relax. Add on top of that there was free internet service - so the hours flew by quickly. Lulu had plenty of paperwork to catch up on - and there wasn't a better place to do it.

Just before our next plane was to takeoff - they asked for more volunteers to give up their seats. I was eager to do it again - but it would have delayed our arrival at Drew's new condo to about 10 PM. Lulu said no. I could have done this all night long. We got to our destination at about 5 PM.

The entire family made the trip for the big first birthday bash. Nancy found a bargain on Priceline of $49 a night in the Renaissance Hotel right next to the Capitol a short walk from Drew's pad. Our family ended up booking 7 rooms in this restored Masonic Temple.

Saturday was the big party. Everyone had a ball especially Jack. Later that night we all had dinner at a nice restaurant downtown - just as the gay rights parade was going by. The dinner took over 2 hours and not a peep out of Jack. Soon it was bedtime - but many of us stayed around to watch the parade action.

While Keith was still in bed at 5 AM this morning - Lulu and I caught a cab to the airport. The security line was very long but we got to our gate in time to hear them asking for volunteers to give up seats. We were on a roll. To our surprise they offered us $800 - $400 per person - to go on a later flight. Our total of free flight coupons had reached $1500 - and we had set and Everhart record. Up until now - the previous record was $1400 on 2 previous trips to Hawaii. Each time we sold those tickets on ebay because they had to be used within one year.

Before we could sit down to enjoy our Starbucks drinks and muffins - the ticket agent offered us a first class flight to Philadelphia. They were holding the gate open for us and as soon as our butts were in our seats - the plane pushed back. We were sitting in first class - seats 1A and 1B. It was around 7 AM and they were chasing us down with bottles of wine. We were hoping for a few hours of layover time back in our old Pennsylvania Homeland.

The flight to Philadelphia was short and a waste of first class tickets. As we passed over the old Spectrum in Philly on our approach - the stewardess said there was a quick plane to Charlotte. We got off one plane and right onto another at the next gate. On to Charlotte. We felt like fighter pilots doing touch and go landings.

Our adventures toned down a bit - we even got a bit of sleep as we approached the Carolina hub. As I dreamed - I had visions of airline hostesses and agents throwing travel vouchers at us. Alas - when we got to Charlotte - someone must have screwed up the wifi system because we had no free internet. I had nothing to do for 4 hours but to talk to Lulu.

Our plane to Tallahassee was small but they did not need any volunteers to give up seats. Lulu agreed that if we had a chance - we would take the vouchers to break the $2000 mark and have a legendary story to tell. It wasn't meant to be - we ended up with the score - Everhart $1500 - US Airways - $0 - and no story.