Clover Lampoon

We write this initial, travel blog from the illustrious Quality Inn, in beautiful Glouster City, NJ. We had a 90-minute delay, which US Airways says was caused by air traffic. However, we think it was caused by our first rain in the area in almost two months (go figure). Once we arrived in Philly for a connection, we waited on the tarmac for close to another hour. Although we sat in the plane from Charlotte at the gate in Philly, our friends at US Airways sent our flight without us. You'd think that they could wait 15 minutes and make that time up in the air. In addition to the seven of us, there were at least four others sitting around us on the flight from Charlotte who also missed the connection to Dublin. After two hours of trying to get re-routed, we finally got tickets for a departure on Saturday that connects in Germany. This should put us to Dublin 27 hours behind schedule. After having to argue with US Airways management (use that term loosely), they finally agreed to put us up in a hotel 30 minutes away in another state. We thought we'd get our luggage and head to the hotel around midnight. Wrong! We were told by the US Airways official that they couldn't get to our luggage, so we all have to travel in the same clothes for two days. If you ever get an overnight kit from US Airways, don't use the toothbrush. Get one at the airport.

We're about to get kicked out of the "Indian-themed" breakfast buffet at the Quality Inn, so we'll sign off for now. We can only hope and pray that today is not nearly as bad as yesterday!