Kilroy From The Road - Quick Tour of West Point Military Academy (KFTR)
17Planes, Trains and Automobiles
The journey to attend my son’s Summer Leadership Experience (SLE) at West Point was straight out of the Steve Martin/John Candy comedy. We started the trip to KCI to drop me off for the flight with a flat tire (which the tire shop was amazed did not blow-out on the highway) a mere 41 miles from the airport, with a less than 2 hours to takeoff. My Mom/Dad (who luckily live 12 miles from our mishap) sprung to rescue and picked me up leaving the girls for the tow truck.
While I hurried to the airport, my wife had to wait 3 hours as our insurance tried to sent a tow from our home city (132 miles away), then she called local (who took forever) and finally got the service to put on the donut and she drove to a tire shop, who had to replace 3 tires, which had mangle metal protruding through the rubber. Odd given we just took the van earlier that week to a tire shop to fix the tire which eventually blew.
Meanwhile, I get on the plane, make it safely to Chicago (actually 30 mins early) only to be delayed by missing flight attendants. Adding to my fear is that I may miss my rental car pickup with only 2 rental companies “confirming” (I was still hesitate with their response to my calls) they are open past midnight. Once on the plane, the pilot alleviated my fears that event though we are late, he could make up the time.
And we did. However, immediately after landing we parked well outside the gates and waited. And waited. And waited. Eventually the pilot explained that we did not have a gate. And so we waited. And waited. After 90 minutes or so, the pilot explained that it was a manpower issue — not enough ground/ramp crews, not enough equipment and more missing flight attendants, which backed up all the United Gates. So, we waited. And waited. 3 hours later . . .
Walking off the plane in Newark, I was overcome with the smell of dank institutionalized stained walls from 25 years prior of constant smoking and, well urine. That is the closest smell — urine. Now for the trains. For some reason Newark decided to camouflage any references to the Airtrain and bolstered that effort with instructing its employees to provide contradictory directions at every opportunity.
Once off the train I was pleasantly surprised to find the Avis check-in open. I was not pleased to find 20+ people in line. I waited my turn, checked in, got my papers and walked to B06 to find my . . . no car! Exactly like the movie! Luckily an attendant was there parking other cars. He looked at my papers, looked at the empty spot, and then responded: “Yeah, no car.” I “convinced” him to come with me back to check-in and “we” explained the situation without going back through the line (which had grown in my brief absence).
Walking to D32 just before 2am would have been uneventful if it wasn’t for the fact it was at the other end of the lot, long past the covered lot and it was raining. But there was a car THIS time. I have heard the Hudson Valley is amazing (especially in the fall); but all I saw was rain and fog — a lot of fog. And not the brief patchy stuff; but thick pea soup fog. After obsessively following my google map instructions, which by the way caused me to blow right through a toll pay booth (yes, it was the instructions, along with the rain and fog -- that's my story and I'm sticky to it -- well at least they got a nice selfie), I finally made it to the historic Thayer Hotel, which is inside West Point at 3:55 am.
“We cancelled your reservation at 3 am,” explained the night clerk. “We do an audit and that’s the start of a new day.” After a “pleasant” yet tired exchange she was “convinced” to find me a room even though mine was booked (for that day … today … what day is it?); however, “you may be charged extra as it is an upgrade.” At that point I just wanted to get to my room and try to sleep before needing to wake up at 6:15 am to get ready for the ceremony.
After only hitting snooze once, I was up showered, a few sips of coffee, packed, checked out and waking. As the check-in for the SLE is a 1/4 mile outside the gate and since I was already parked closest to the shuttle to the ceremony, I decided to walk. Mother Nature decided to rain. Nothing like a little PT at West Point early in the morning.
The check-in was a bit “disorganized” — even though we filled out all the necessary paperwork online/emailed. Most people “on the list” (pre-vetted) still needed to go to yet another station to have the actual pass printed out. I, of course, was one of those people. In fact, the process was so confused that after a very nice procession of SLE cadets, complete with drums and horns, they announced that the ceremony needed to be delayed by 30 minutes due to the backlog at the check-in.
After check-in, I had a leisurely stroll back through the gate, past the hotel, past my rental car, and to another check-in booth — in a now pouring rain. Nothing like being hot, wet and sweaty all before 7:30 am.