The Shuttle Shuffle

The boys and I flew into Anchorage on Friday, and stayed at the Crown Plaza Hotel Friday and Saturday night. Great hotel! Very comfortable beds and friendly staff. I highly recommend them.

Anyway, we checked out Sunday, but our flight didn’t leave until just after midnight; so after we checked out, we hung around the hotel. (They said it was fine.) We had our bags piled on a luggage carrier, which we parked in the lounge—a large room off of the foyer. There were tables and chairs, comfortable couches, a big TV, and a bunch of books. We played cards, read, and basically just lounged around until about 10:30 that night.

The hotel has a free shuttle service to the airport—one of those white vans with a logo on the side. When we rode it to the hotel, the driver was very helpful, loading up our luggage and he was really friendly and chatty. I was headed to the front desk to see when the shuttle would be there, and I saw it pull up in front. So I ran and got the boys. “Hurry!” I said. “It just pulled up!” We grabbed our jackets, my computer, two backpacks, and the luggage carrier that our other bags were piled on, and headed for the door. We were really loaded down.

I waved to the driver as we headed to the back of the van. I was a little surprised that he didn’t come help us load the luggage, but figured he was a “do-it-yourself” type of driver. But the back door wouldn’t open, and he didn’t unlock it when we knocked on the back of the van. I figured he didn’t realize we were going with him, so I walked to the front and opened the passenger door. I said, “Can you open the back? We need to put our luggage in.” He was looking at me like I was nuts. So was the guy who had just climbed in the back. The driver said, “Uh…” and kept looking at me weird. I asked, “Aren’t you going to the airport?” He said, “Uh…no.” That’s when I took a good look at the logo on the side of the van. It said “Salvation Army.” How embarrassing.