Nope, you are on your own! Seriously?? Well, the Alaska adventure continues - and it turned out ok but it's the stuff great stories are made of!
So... our flight into Petersburg (an island in SE Alaska) got fogged out. I wasn't paying any attention as we were coming into land and all at once the airplane hit the gas and started UP again! Dave goes "they aborted" and I'm like what???? I'm beginning to sound like a valley girl right? LOL Anyway, after 3 fly bys they headed to ANOTHER island and landed there. I'm thinking they have to find a way for you to get back to where you were SUPPOSED to be, or put you up for the night. But nnnooo, it's an act of God - Nature - so they have no responsibility other than to offer you a seat on the plane going BACK to Juneau or SEATTLE or the next morning back to Petersburg (IF they can land ) So after quite a bit of TALK among the staff, other customers in the same boat, and standing around for a while it was decided that some of us would take a shuttle (old van with a hitch in it's get along) down to the dock (load and unload the luggage 6 times total!!) and take a boat ( ran by the same "van" driver) BACK to the TIP of Petersburg! Mind you they call this spot the "banana Point", not because it's warm I'm sure. SO, drag the bags from the van DOWN the Dock, schlep them all onto the boat - over the side, through the small back door, stacked on top of themselves and any open seat! The ride was about 39-40 minutes, not a bad ride, interesting I guess, makes for a great story BUT when we get to the "dock" it's just the concrete boat ramp going down into the water so he pushes the boat up onto the cement, has one of the passengers drop a small metal ladder off the front and we started the process of UNLOADING all the luggage, this time from the BACK of the boat, up through the seat section and out the FRONT door, across the bow and down the ladder. Mind you there's still about 6 inches of water at the bottom of the ladder area where you need to stand to grab your bags.
As we come close to the ramp and parking area I can only see TWO sets of headlights - and I knew they belonged to two of the other groups of passengers who had people picking them up. I'm thinking GGRREEAATT we are going to abandoned out here in the snow and the dark at this deserted spot on the end of the Island - just great!! But like a good little helper I just kept grabbing bags and putting them up out of the water, hoping and praying that we weren't going to have to recreate some scene from Naked and Afraid - LOL Finally another set of lights showed up and a SUV was there to give us a ride - up in the parking lot - about a mile (well maybe not) from where the bags were sitting. So, we drug the 50 pound bags up the ramp, through the snow and to the van - finally. The ride back to town was at least warm, entertaining, and he never pulled over to kill us all and dump us in the woods. Actually he knew our neighbor so that was comforting. A flight that should have landed us in Petersburg by 2:30 turned into an adventure that finally got us home at 6:30. A little More than a "3 hour tour" . All is well, another Alaska adventure to remember!!