Escape From New York!

I always loved that Kurt Russell movie, "Escape From New York". But Sunday we really WERE trying to escape the Big Apple. Our flight was to leave at 4:20, and we were told to get to JFK about 2 hours early. We got this great limo/cab from our hotel, and took a nice, leisurely ride to the airport. The driver, an older gentleman from the Dominican Republic, was dressed in a white shirt and tie, was polite, and even spoke English (although with a heavy accent). His "cab" was a big black new Expedition SUV with cold air, leather seats, and was clean as a whistle. NOT your average NYC cab, that's for sure! He even managed to have DVDs of "Ratatouille" and "Surf's Up" for Brady to watch on the DVD player in the car. I didn't ask how he managed to have DVDs of MOVIES THAT ARE STILL IN THE THEATER. It was such a great cab ride, I found myself wanting it not to end, if you can believe it. Two hours later, I would bemoan the end of the cab ride even more.
We got to the airport almost exactly two hours before our takeoff time. As we caught a bite to eat at the "Chili's" there, we could hear the thunder rolling in. Yep, huge bands of storms were coming into the area. Storms were coming everywhere that day, I guess. We heard Orlando's airport, which we were flying into of course, even had it's power knocked out at one point. JFK was beginning to become a mess. I knew we were in trouble when I overheard two flight attendants talking. One said "Yeah, THIS is gonna be a rough day. They're canceling flights all over".

Terrific.

The photo above is where my girls and I spent the last SEVEN hours of our stay in NYC. It was a small sliver of space I found below a stairwell, behind a lighted NYC sign. But it was all ours, and it had an electrical box that we could hook our laptop up to. So, Barbie and I watched "24" on DVD while Brady played Nintendo. All day. But, you know what? We were fine with it. WE always pray that God puts us on the right flights, with the right attendants, the right pilot, the right passengers, in the right air. So, when we kept getting delayed, I just figured it wasn't time for us to fly yet. HE knows best. We had our little area, with plenty of stuff to eat and drink at the Food Court by us, and we were safe and sound. And together. It wasn't a bad setup at all.

Finally, at 10:20 they let us on our plane, a full six hours later than we should've been on. We sat on the runway for another hour (UGH), and finally left NYC at about 11:30. We got home around 2 am. Our VERY long day finally ended. We're now safe and sound back at home.