9-2-13 Monday (GPS vs Mapquest)

Saturday and Sunday with Mom and Aunt Donna was pretty laid back.  We really didn’t do much.  It’s tough because they both can’t do too much walking which eliminates many an activity.  Mom has a leg brace she’s been wearing plus her tooth has been hurting her during her visit here.  She was to a dentist prior to her visit and even during. They didn’t seem to mind just hanging out so that’s pretty much what we did.

Labor Day was their return flight home.  Allegiant had such a great deal but it was from Greenville-Spartanburg Airport rather than Charlotte. $450 round-trip total for 2 people is an awesome deal.  $46 of that was Trip Flex which was a fee to have the ability to change the flight. $20 my Dad paid for seat assignments.

airfare

The night before their flight, we were figuring out what time we’d need to leave by.  I couldn’t remember how long it took to get to the airport (yet I just went 2.5 weeks ago prior) so I used my phone’s GPS.  1:23 to get there.  So we calculated based on that.  We agreed we needed to leave by 7:30am.  Nighty night.

The next morning, my Aunt thought we agreed for 8am so she was a little late getting ready; we left at 7:45am.  The flight was at 10am.  Later in the driver I glanced down at the clock, it was 9am and we still had 25 minutes per the GPS.  That would put us at 9:25am for a 10am flight.  They still need to check in and go through security!  I couldn’t believe it, I checked Mapquest and it said it would take 1:45 to get there.  Where’d I come up with 1:23 via GPS?  Maybe the GPS thought I was somewhere else when I checked?  Damn!  I was so stressed it was unbelievable.  We arrived at the curb, they were directing traffic, it was congested due to airport construction.  Another delay!  Jim dropped us off, I accompanied hurried them through the airport as far as I could take them.  No one was in front of us for the ticket counter.  Their gate was A7, at the other end of the airport… of course.  We hurried to security and was told it would take about 15 minutes to make it through.  I had to leave them at that point.

Mom called me while on the plane, they had just made it.  They had to run.  They were the last ones on the plane.  Sheesh!

They almost missed the flight.  It’s happened on a previous visit December 2010.  On their next visit, extra time will be utilized! 

4 comments:

  1. I really sympathize with this post. I never completely trust our GPS, so we always add additional time just to make sure. Glad your parents made it to their flight. :-)

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    1. I guess when it comes to timing, I suppose I won't either!

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  2. Stupid technology. When I sat down before leaving on my trip to Delaware, I discovered that the navigation app I'd been using on my phone for over a year had just *poof* disappeared, as if it had never existed! Luckily I also had Google Maps on there, but when it quit working in the middle of Norfolk, VA, I lost my last vestige of naive trust in the damn things.

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    1. The same thing happened to me. The navigation app disappeared but I Googled about it and found that they deleted the app and it's not incorporated into Google Maps.

      https://community.verizonwireless.com/thread/801889

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