April 2019 – We spent Easter weekend with one of Anne’s many cousins, who was visiting from California. After hosting him for dinner on Holy Saturday and brunch on Easter Sunday, we left for San Antonio early on Easter Monday. We then spent a great week with dear friends in San Antonio, all four of whom we had met and bonded with on a Viking cruise a year earlier.
After an uneventful air trip from Philadelphia, the trip turned a little rocky at the rental car garage; we had reserved a Chevy Traverse but were upgraded to a (larger) Tahoe. But when we drove to the exit, the attendant told us the Tahoe had just been SOLD by Hertz. So back to the aisle, and we ended up with an (even larger) Suburban! That enabled us to drive all six of us around San Antonio and environs in spacious comfort.
It was only at the end of the week, when the weather shifted from mild to HOT, that we discovered the air conditioner didn’t work! Fortunately, a sympathetic attendant gave us a $25 discount on the rental price.
The day (Saturday) we were leaving San Antonio, a massive snowstorm closed Chicago O’Hare Airport (we were scheduled to return from San Antonio through Chicago to Philadelphia)! Fortunately, we found a United Club at the San Antonio airport, where we learned that our flight to Chicago was at first delayed, then canceled. The woman at the reception desk was able to re-book us on a flight to Houston that afternoon with a very early departure to Philadelphia on Sunday morning. We left for Houston at 4:30 pm and arrived a little after 5 pm. We were told our luggage would be sent to Houston. Well, it was, but with the re-route stickers on the label, the luggage did not arrive on the carousel where it was supposed to arrive. Thankfully, Jerry found it about an hour later in a secure United office for re-routed luggage.
Naturally, we missed the shuttle to the hotel where United had booked and paid for us, so we took a cab. Our driver didn’t know where the hotel was located until we gave him an address.
Another adventure… The cab had a credit card machine which indicated we should swipe our card; we did, and the card was accepted. Then our driver said the credit card machine did not work, and we should use his cell phone. Jerry was very suspicious, thinking we had been charged twice. Fortunately, we had not. United also paid for dinner, and we had delicious fajitas! (Love Mexican food and margaritas!)
At 4 am, we were up and in the lobby by 4:45 am to take the shuttle to the airport for the 7:45 am flight to Philadelphia. Fortunately, the flight departed on time and even arrived a little early. We thought we were doing great! Unfortunately, when we arrived in Philadelphia and called to retrieve our car from the parking service, we were told that Anne’s car had a flat tire and had to be filled with air. 30 or 40 minutes later, the car arrived for us to drive home.
We quickly unpacked, repacked and left for Washington, DC, where Anne was meeting three classmates for a book presentation and signing for the Penn Association of Alumnae. We took Jerry’s car which needed gas, so we stopped for gas. We had to eat, so we bought a hot dog at a Wawa near our home, and, finally, we were off to DC. Traffic was moving along fine, until an accident tied up Rt. 95 south of Baltimore. We arrived at the book presentation 5:55 pm, five minutes before the scheduled meeting!
Around 9pm, we had a burger and collapsed in bed so tired. It was cold in our room; Anne called the front desk to ask for blankets. The front desk advised us to turn up the heat, which worked. Of course, we had put the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door, so Anne could not figure out why the blankets had not arrived. Once we realized what happened, we took down the sign, called the front desk and the blankets arrived.
We slept until 9:30 on Monday morning, then dressed for breakfast, ate, picked up one of Anne’s classmates and drove her to Philadelphia. We stopped for lunch at Woody’s (a great spot for Maryland crabs we had found years ago in Northeast, Md.), relaxed for a while on the shore of the Northeast River, and finally arrived home around 6 pm.
Somehow, everything worked out and we squeezed in all our commitments.
We had a wonderful time in San Antonio and thank our dear friends Phil and Cindy so much for hosting the Viking “veterans.” It was fun to be with Bob and Maryann as well. And thanks also to Diana and Tom, whom we met on a different Viking cruise, for journeying to San Antonio to meet us for Anne’s birthday lunch. Even though the River Walk was crowded, Cindy had made lunch reservations; Anne cannot remember when she had so much fun on her birthday!
The week was perfect, filled with journeys to missions, old towns, vineyards and fabulous food, despite Anne’s ignorance of not knowing that Luckenbach, Texas, is a spot on the map with a handful of old wooden buildings, an enormous grass parking lot, and population of 3!!
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