Trip Canceled

It was described as the largest worldwide disruption of air travel ever. It exceeded the disruption after 9/11 and eventually of World War II. An entire 6 days of no air travel anywhere over Europe and the UK.

All week we listened to the news about the impossible-to-pronounce Icelandic Volcano that was spewing ash and had caused airspace over Europe and the UK to be closed. Reportedly, volcanic ash is nearly invisible on airplane radar, and when inhaled by jet engines, causes working parts to fuse into glass and stalls engines. We figured, surely, by the time we were to fly about 6 days later, the cloud would have blown over and with it the concerns about air travel.

We were wrong.

We sweated it out, hanging on news reports, wondering if our trip would go or not. We decided on Monday night, April 19th, that we had better go ahead and pack, as it looked like things might start opening back up by our scheduled departure time on Tuesday afternoon, the 20th. Just in case.

Jim searched the internet all day Tuesday for any news of canceled flights or opening airports. Some airports were starting to open by Tuesday morning, and there was a general consensus in the media that perhaps the closures were an overreaction. About 4 pm, he finally got word, from a website called FlightStats, that our flight out of Chicago to London that evening was canceled.
About 10 minutes before I heard from him, the British announced they were re-opening their airspace and would begin gradually restoring flights. What lousy, rotten timing.

After checking various websites for possible rebookings and determining it would be 1) impossible to get a seat and 2) ridiculously expensive even if we could, I sadly admitted to myself that we would not be making the trip we had so looked forward to. Shortly after that admission, a very nice lady from Orbitz called to make sure we had received notice of the canceled flight, and to find out from us whether the airline would be refunding our money (they will be). She explained that the airlines would take awhile to get all sorted out and that even though the airspace was open, planes and crews were displaced and airlines couldn't make their usual runs. Besides the airline disorganization, there were nearly half a million people waiting to make it home, people who had been sitting in airports or hotels for 6 days waiting for flights. Ground transportation was chaotic as well, trying to move people from place to place in lieu of air travel.

A canceled trip is a colossal disappointment. Ever since the day we were to have left, I have been thinking what we should have been doing instead.

A synopsis: Our 17 year old daughter, Jessica, left on April 11 for London to spend two weeks rehearsing with her music group Moda. On April 20, we were to fly to London to be there in time to see the group showcase their music for three record companies in hopes of getting a contract offer. Our 20 year old daughter, Jenny, who is studying at Leiden University, the Netherlands for the semester, was scheduled to take the Eurostar train to London in time for the performances. After Jessica was done with her singing obligations, we were all to travel together back to Leiden to spend time with Jenny in her temporary home. I was looking forward to celebrating my 50th birthday on April 21 in London. A wonderful time to be had by all, enjoying some quality family time together, celebrating with our daughters.

In anticipation of our absence on the actual birthday, my sister and husband, and my parents had gone to great lengths to travel to our house ahead of time to be here for a pre-birthday celebration. We had a lovely time with cake, presents and time together, then everyone left by the Tuesday of our scheduled departure.

Jenny made it to London, on a very crowded train, in time to be the family support for Jessica. Jim and I tried to get an idea of the show on a poor Skype connection. On my actual birthday, I went to work in the morning as usual, took Panera home for lunch, then went out with Jim for dinner at my favorite restaurant Mojo's. The girls made it safely via train from London to Leiden on the 24th, and are now having some quality sister time, sans parents, jaunting about the Netherlands. Jessica will return alone to Des Moines via a complicated cobbling of train and plane connections, sans parents again, on Wednesday the 28th.

Meanwhile, Jim and I are inventing things to do in our unexpected calendar emptiness. It's hard to be entertained by the usually fun things we find to do when we would rather be somewhere else.

Since the airspace has opened, the volcano has continued spewing, but it's hardly making the news. The panic over the volcanic ash cloud is over, a freakish coincidence of geological time and our tiny plans. Many other peoples' lives were much more disrupted than ours. I tell myself that at least we weren't stuck in an airport somewhere and missing the shows, spending money on airport food, missing work and fun at the same time.

Since I'm basically an optimistic person, I must find some sort of silver lining in the volcanic ash cloud.

But it has been difficult this time.