December 13- The flight from here to Rome was great! Friendly service, good food and I got to sleep some on the flight. Rome was a nightmare. Our passports were flaged with a RED ALERT on them when we went to check in on UNITED for our flight to Washington DC! They couldn't find our luggage in the system but finally said oh, yes it's here. Then some miserable bitch United person had to "complete" our check in details so we could get on the flight. She started asking the SAME questions over and over, just wording them differently and would NOT listen to the answers DH gave her! She insisted that we stayed in a hotel here and demanded a payment reciept for our stay, wanted to know where we were going, how long we were staying, WHY we were going to the USA, WHO we were going to see, etc, etc. Did we have checked bags? How many, where were they? She then said something in Italian to the check in clerks at the desk, next thing they were on the phone. Needless to say our luggage was NOT on the plane when we got off in Washington DC. The flight left 45 mintues late so we would miss our connection to New Hampshire since we had the bare minimum amount of time to make it The flight was booked full, the flight attendants were miserable and snotty and we had to pay for drinks! Now I remember why we fly international air carriers and NOT American air carriers.
We get to DC an hour late, our luggage is NOT there, there is NO airline personel around to talk to about our connecting flight nor is there a tote board with flights listed. So we go through security to find out where we are supposed to be and there is NO help anywhere. We find a bank of tv screens but NO flight listed for our destination but see other small commuter flights listed so we go to that terminal. We find the gate where our flight was supposed to leave from to find out the flight was CANCELLED due to a BLIZZARD in New England! GREATTTTT, welcome home, LOL. After several hours, phone calls etc. we did get on a flight on stand by and land in Manchester NH (in a snowstorm) around 11:30PM, well over 24 hours since we left. Got a rental car, drove to a hotel and went to sleep.
December 14-Wake up on Friday to more snow, this is the first time in 7 years we have seen this much snow in one place, LOL and been in this cold.
We hit the mall and shop a bit, got some Christmas presents since our LUGGAGE IS LOST! We went up to see our son, grandson and son's girlfriend. We tried to surprise him by being there when he got home but he came in the patio door so he could see us. WEnt out for dinner and headed HOME!
So we get home a day later than planned but our house was all decorated for Christmas, our son did the decorating and it looked so nice!
December 15-On Saturday we woke up at 5AM, got up at 6, went out at 7 to do grocery shopping and other shopping and were back home by 11! Our daughter and her family came up for the day so we could celebrate our grandson's 8th birthday with him. It was so nice to be able to do that. She brought my stash with her too, LOL. Our son in law was actually in a decent mood too!
December 16-Sunday it started to snow and we started calling about our luggage. We talked to someone named Sean in India, yeah right. All this person does is read back what is on the computer screen, which is our flight itinerary and the fact that our luggage was delivered to our house sometime Friday. Umm, I don't think so, that is why I am CALLING YOU, we DONT' have our luggage. Ok, they will look into it and please to call back in 4 hour. CAll back and they read what we can see on our computer screen too. I don't think they work for United at all but it's some central call center in India where all phone calls go to.
Snow, snow, ice and more snow all week, our plow guy came at least 5 or 6 times in 3 weeks and our contract is for 12 storms between November and the end of March. It's pretty and it covers the trees very nice but enough was enough!
This is a tree in our back yard. I wish I could show up just how pretty the snow was on the tree. Note the propane take in the lower left corner? These tanks are 4 feet tall, notice how buried in the snow they are?
Our car needed more major repairs that we didn't plan on so we had to rent a car for 3 weeks which was an expense we didn't really plan on. At least it works for awhile now. They started working on our garage, and have the foundation laid but it's covered with snow so we can't see it. The yard looks so different with the extra trees down but at least we can see that we have a yard.
Someone has rented the house next door, not sure if it has been sold but there are people living there.
We've called EVERY single day to India to find our luggage, we get the same story every time, they read word for word the exact same page every time we call. We have had to describe our luggage, what is in our luggage, our address, our flight itinerary, "what is NY Yankez? how to spell that?" that is my luggage tag, I'm sorry BUT IF I WAS CALLING ANYWHERE IN THE USA YOU WOULD KNOW WHAT NY YANKEES IS! This is now Wednesday night, they never offered to compensate us for no shampoo, deoderant, clothes etc. NOW they tell us we need to download and fill out MORE forms and FAX them to United. Complete description of luggage, contents and PRICE of contents. They should have told us this 3 days ago when they told DH he needed to send copies of the tickets, baggage claim tickets, boarding passes, and passports. It's a different story every time we call!
Friday Dec 21-we brave the snow, rain and crowds and go to Dover to the mall shopping. School got out early that day, traffic was bumper to bumper, backed up for an hour, almost every parking space was full, it was cold and NOT fun. 9PM the phone rings, it's for DH, United found our luggage and it will be delivered BEFORE Saturday morining! Wahoo. So we decide we have to sleep in the recliner & couch in the living room so we can hear the guy when he comes. Another phone call at 12:45AM, yep, we have your luggage right here, it will be delivered by 5AM, is there someplace safe we can leave it so we don't have to wake you up? I told him the sunporch/mudroom, how many pieces do you have? He has all 3. 4:50AM another phone call, do you live in a big red house? Yes I said, ok thank you, they werent' sure when I asked where the house was. DH gets up, dressed, walks out to the living room and the luggage is sitting in the sunporch, all 3 pieces. The guy must have been in the driveway when he called. YAY YAY We FINALLY got our luggage, over a week after we got here!
Sat. Dec. 22. Checked the luggage, it's really mangled and beat up. That bitch in Rome must have had the gorillas throw it around a bit. The locks were broken off, my NY Yankees luggage tag is missing. It had been opened by the TSA and they even left a note inside saying so, LOL. Not a thing was taken from inside but you could tell it was pawed over, we were just glad to have it. Even the candy was still there! So the kids will get their Christmas presents.
So to make a long story short, the rest of the vacation went fine and too fast. It kept snowing. BOTH our kids and grandsons were with us for Christmas and it felt so good to have my family together! I cooked almost all day on Christmas but we had HAM and not stinky turkey, LOL.
I got a Garmin GPS so I don't get lost now, a plug in coffee cup that plugs into my USB port on my computer, a digital picture frame, a couple of cute camel plant holders, a wall fountain (I love water fountains) a hat/scarf/glove set from my mother that came in REAL handy. I think we all had a very good Christmas.
New Year's Eve was quiet, just the two of us and we both did stay awake until midnight, which was amazing, LOL. We got to watch New Year's Eve from Times Square, I would LOVE to be there someday! I did say Happy New Year when it was midnight in this country too.
That is all for this part of the trip.
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