Now, there is an element of Costello’s story that I’ve been ignoring. And in case you have forgotten, it is now time for a reminder: throughout his entire trip, Costello has been carting around our new stroller.
He was bringing it to us in London because the box was too large to ship through our diplomatic mail service, and in addition, Costello had done a fancy two-step in Atlanta to get the stroller on the plane for free, without actually traveling with a child justifying the need for the stroller. This is a very important distinction because I was once charged for checking a car seat when I wasn’t traveling with Grayson.
So… imagine if you will… a man in his early thirties… carrying a knapsack… looking like your average American backpacker… getting off an airplane and wandering around the Manchester airport for a couple hours pushing an empty stroller.
Well… let’s just say… it rose more than a couple eyebrows. Nothing major… nothing particularly blog worthy… however he was asked where his child was so many times by airport security that he decided fold up the stroller and carry over his shoulder rather than have to explain how he’s the world greatest friend one more time.
Anyway, once the British Transportation Authority gave their ‘all clear’ for the passengers of Costello’s flight to clear customers and take possession of their checked baggage… it caused… well… it caused a few more issues. Most importantly… it caused a significant space issue on the busses.
You see, prior to the release of their checked baggage, when American Airline thought they would be forced to transport everything to London before folks would be allowed to clear customs, they hired a separate box truck to take the luggage. A truck they no longer needed once the passengers got their hot little hands on their luggage!
So, American Airlines canceled the box truck and instructed the passengers to take their luggage on the busses.
Well… this is all fine and dandy… except they had only hired two busses with just enough seats for all the passengers. And if you are familiar with bus travel you will know that busses have far less cargo space than airplanes AND considerably less overhead and under-seat space as well.
So… rather than describing in great detail how they quickly ran out of space for luggage… let me just throw out the word ‘sardines’ and move on.
Honestly, the only reason they were able to get all of their luggage on the busses at all is because a handful of the passengers, who were actually headed to Manchester anyway, changed their rental car pick-up location and departed immediately after clearing customs.
However… gaining those few seats weren’t enough to save Costello from his fate… to ride in a bus from Manchester to London with a stroller on his lap.
But then again… it’s only a three and a half hour drive, right?
You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you?
1 comment:
Your friend is awesome.
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