So I, like many others, was fogged in as I tried to leave Monterey on Wednesday night. For me, the only thing United could offer was another attempt out 24 hours later. Not a single meal voucher, no help with a hotel, wouldn’t pay for me to get up to SFO where I could grab a flight home the next AM. Thanks for nothing United, you’ve lost a customer for life.
So I ended up renting one of the last cars available at the Monterey airport and driving up to SFO in order to catch a flight out the next AM. The woman at the counter was nice, but didn’t really seem to know much about the area and couldn’t tell me the best way to get to San Fran, and oddly they only had maps for the Monterey Bay area. It was now 9:30, 3.5 hours after my flight was supposed to leave, and I just wanted to get going, so I pointed the car north and followed the only sign I saw that said San Francisco, and that was up Highway 1.
The impression that I got was that it would probably be an incredibly scenic drive on a sunny day. On a foggy night, however, it wasn’t much fun. I’ll have to try it again someday. Here’s a Google Maps comparison of the route I should’ve taken vs the route I did take:
Comments
7 Responses to “The impression that I get”
I’m sorry you about your Wednesday. I made it out with a group packed into a car and luckily someone had an Internet-enabled phone/pda and was able to pull up directions. Given the number of times I suspect fog plagues the Monterey airport, I’m surprised that they didn’t have directions to hand you for nearby airports.
Oh no Paul! I’m so sorry to hear you had such a bad travel experience, but I’m glad you made it home in one piece. I always complain to Adam about how he always makes us fly into Oakland or San Jose, but I’d never considered the issue of fog before. We just got home this afternoon, so I’m exhausted, but not able to fall asleep due to the time difference. Boo. 🙁
It was absolutely wonderful to see you again! I wish there had been more time to spend together.
Thanks for the sympathy guys – maybe with a little luck I can convince the airline to pay for some of my extra expenses (bwaahahahahahahaaaaa! – I kill me 😉 Great to see you too again Meredith, hope your keynote later in the week rocked.
Oh goodness very bad. You went the worst possible way (that road through the mountains from the coast back to the 101 is scary) Wish I had been there to help (had to leave on Wed), could have even given people rides since I had a car. I always fly into SFO or San Jose because my first year at Internet Librarian a bunch of people got stuck. For future reference if you fly into either of those airports there is a shuttle to and from Monterey (http://www.montereyairbus.com/). Which also would have been helpful for you to know so you didn’t have to drive yourself to SFO.
BTW the drive is very pretty when there isn’t fog.
Boo fog. And Boo to the Monterey airport guy on Wednesday night — totally unhelpful with his “try again tomorrow” response. The morning crew was much more useful, and got us rebooked out of San Jose on a fewer-connections flight.
Of course, I still had to pay the extra night’s hotel, so if you get the airline to cough up, lemme know. 😉
Yeah, I think next time I’ll probably just stop the flight in SFO (and explore whether I can get a direct to San Jose – unlikely).
Using Google SMS to find the way