Katie, Sarah and Cheryl home . . . finally!

Katie Byard, Sarah Vradenburg and Cheryl Miller slept in their own beds Monday night after surviving three days in a Paris airport after their plane turned back with engine trouble.

Posted Katie:

“Home!”

Alfie welcomed her, then the family dog resumed staring at squirrels.

Retired BJ reporter Jim Carney, Katie’s husband, welcomed her, too, then headed for his week’s talk show gig on WAKR 1590 radio.

Katie Byard

BJ reporter Katie Byard, former Editorial Board retiree Sarah Vradenburg and Firestone High grad Cheryl Miller, once at Akron Children’s Hospital, who lives in Canal Fulton were flying from Paris to America, but engine trouble east of Iceland caused the plane to turn back to Paris, which by that time was three to four hours away. 

Then came three days of waiting in Paris airports for flights in an already overloaded  situation.

Sacre bleu!

Sarah wrote that they made it to Atlanta (Monday, Oct. 13) and then . . . Well, let Sarah tell it:

Sarah Vradenburg

Sitting in Atlanta airport after being held hostage by Air France/Delta for three days being told we cannot have the flight home we were promised because it was full. But not with us.

Good news is we get home tonight. Bad news is Delta has made me lose my good sense of humor. It's not a pretty sight.

Then Sarah posts a photo that “is a dark shot of about 400 people in line trying to get someplace after an Air France pilot turned around mid-flight and dumped us all into a system that's already overloaded.”

Quips Katie:

Is it a canceled flight if it begins and then turns around? Sounds like a one-hand clapping joke, but it wasn't funny if you were caught in the quagmire of confusion.

Very kind, hard-working Air France employee Stephanie was trying to figure out how to get us to Cleveland (from Paris) today. She couldn't -- hence the second overnight stay in an airport. hotel. Note the little felt garlic in the right-hand corner of this shot of the computer terminal. Margaret - one of our traveling crew - brought him -- Garleeky -- along on the trip as our travel mascot!
There's me waiting in line. That's Nico from the Netherlands in the background. He and his wife were on their way to visit a daughter who lives in Denver. They were fun line companions! I think his lively wife is sitting on a luggage cart or a suitcase.
People would stand, sit on suit cases etc., inching up every ten minutes or so, remark how long it was taking for Air France to find alternative flights, do weird stretches. show each other pictures in their cell phones or tablets. Read books, kindles, and that's pretty much how the day went.
After the eight-hour wait on line at the airport - with only breaks to go to the bathroom, make quick purchases from the nearby gift shop, and to get weak Nescafé from the coffee machine -- whine, whine -- we were too exhausted to do anything but eat the buffet supper provided to us weary travelers in the hotel lobby this evening.
I pretty much had choc mousse, some creamy cauliflower thing and wine for dinner.
We have to be back at the airport -- about a 15-minute shuttle drive through a Montrosey area with French signs -- at 6:30 a.m. tomorrow --Monday -- so no touring!
Watching a piece on over-timbering in Alaska on The Weekly world news. It is a small world.
Met a woman here at the hotel from New Zealand. She just got done walking the El Camino trail in Spain all by herself, took her 40 days. She said it was an amazing experience. Hmmmmm. Not too sorry Jamesy! Glad to be heading home -- finally !!! -- tomorrow!

Katie, Sarah and Cheryl were enjoying Lucca, Italy Friday on a whirlwind tour of Italy. They left Lucca for Paris and a Saturday flight to Ohio.

Getting from Siena to Pisa to Lucca to Paris was fairly uneventful.

Ah, but they’ll always have Paris – in their nightmares!

Look at the bright side, K, S and C: You could collaborate on a book that would be a best-seller made into a movie that would rival National Lampoon’s “Vacation” film series.

To see the earlier story on their misadventures, click on http://bjretirees.blogspot.com/search?q=Katie+%26+Sarah%27s+plane+returned+to+Paris