Thursday, December 09, 2021

2021 Army/Navy Game - Day #1

Two years ago, a group went to the Army/Navy game in Philadephia. We had tickets to go last year before the game was moved to West Point and the crowd was limited due to the pandemic.

We are heading back this year for the game at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Sharon dropped me at the airport. Larkin, Tomasin, Snipes and I were scheduled to catch a 9 am United flight from Sacramento to Denver.

Things quickly went wrong. They loaded the plane, but we sat at the gate. Finally, they announced that there was a security issue with a contractor. They had to take all of the luggage off the plane and rescan it. We had to exit the plane. While we were waiting to reboard, United automatically rebooked us on three separate later flights from Denver to Newark. Larkin and I were now scheduled to fly from Denver to Dulles and then on to Newark. We were scheduled to arrive at 11:56 pm rather than our original 7:12 pm arrival.

Eventually, United reboarded us on the plane. We left for Denver at 1130 am, 2 1/2 hours behind schedule.

As we were flying from Sacramento to Denver, I kept an eye on our original flight from Denver to Newark. It was delayed. Its departure time kept getting pushed back farther and farther. When we landed, I realized that the plane was still there and only two gates away. I headed forwards that gate repeatedly trying to call Larkin. Larkin had his phone off...

I was able to get on the plane, a middle seat in an extra leg room row [10B]. I was giddy. I called Snipes, but he said that he couldn't hear me and to call Tomasin. I finally connected with Tomasin and told him that I was getting on the original flight. Boarding the plane, I had to work my way all the way to back to find a spot for my carryon.

Thankfully, Tomasin, Snipes and Larkin made the flight. I would never have heard the end of it if they hadn't. I think that Larkin was the last person to board the plane. We had an uneventful flight to Newark and were on the ground about 8:15 pm, just an hour later than our original arrival time.

By the time, we collected Tomasin and Larkin's luggage, it was almost 9 pm. I was frankly surprised that Tomasin's checked bag made the connection.

The four of us caught a cab to the Envue Hotel at Port Imperial in Weehawken. We are spending three nights there.

Checking in and dropping our luggage in the room, we caught up with Nooter, Wallen, Wallen's brother, Vic, Max and Kathy in the restaurant.

I ended up having a late dinner of FARMERS PASTA [spaghetti, eggplant confit, kale] in the hotel restaurant.

After dinner, several of us retired to Nooter's room. By the time that Larkin and I crawled back to our room, it was after 3 am. In the forty plus years that I have known both Nooter and Larkin, this is the first time that they have met. More on that in a future post...

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