Well, what was to be my “2nd annual” trip to Mt. Washington, NH with a group of friends turned out to be a wasted vacation day spent in Greater Pittsburgh International Airport.

We were supposed to fly out of Pittsburgh bound for Boston on Friday morning around 9 AM.  We were to have arrived in Boston around 11 and then were scheduled to rent a van to drive the rest of the way to New Hampshire (about 3 - 4 hours to our final destination).

We arrived at the airport around 7:00 AM, did the shoeless security screening dance, then went to the gate.  Before long, we were being told that the plane was still in Boston due to a mechanical issue, and JetBlue hoped to have it repaired and en route quickly.  It never happened, and the flight was ultimately canceled.

After a lot of web surfing on Scott’s new iPod Touch, calls to friends who had Internet access, and talking with other travelers, we determined our only other option was to fly to JFK (depart Pittsburgh at 5:20 PM), then catch a connection to Boston, which would have arrived there at 11:16 PM.  Of course, we still would have had the long drive (which would result in very little sleep for the ascent the next day), but we were going to hang on and do it anyhow.  After not making the summit last year, we were a determined and eager bunch.

Long story short:  due to weather delays, the flight to JFK would not leave Pittsburgh until 9:00 PM at the earliest, so we basically were faced with not being able to get to where we wanted to go.  We left the airport defeated around 6:00 PM.

I just love burning a vacation day to sit around in an airport for an entire day.  Weeeeeee…

Posted on August 11th, 2008 by Scott
Filed under: Personal