Thursday, March 27, 2008

Three and a half hours

Ok, so today was supposed to be all about my kids and their big solo flight to see grandma and grandpa in Florida but that turned out to be the mellow uneventful part of my day. You see, after I left the airport, proud to have not shed any tears mind you, I got stuck on a bridge. For 3:30 hours. Why, because of a hostage situation! I shit you not, a hostage situation. Some guy had a woman and a kid in an SUV and after being chased by the NJ cops he finally stopped on the Walt Whitman bridge, halting both directions of traffic. It honestly took me a few minutes to realize something was going on. At first I assumed traffic was just heavy on the bridge and then I realized there were no cars at all on the other side..... and then there were police officers walking on the bridge! Holy crap! I called Dan immediately to find out wtf was going on!!!! Helicopters were circling over head, Homeland security even showed up! As Tiff put it, it's like something out of a movie. Except in movies, they don't have the reality of needing to pee and being hungry!

Nothing but cars in front of me.

And nothing but cars behind me.

The white SUV is what's causing all this mess. I hope he likes jail.

Nosy people and many, many policeman.

After a long, long, long time it was over. The mom and kid were safe and the man was arrested, The best part was we all got to go home! Ok, first I had to hit a Service Center off the Turn Pike and grab a bite to eat and pee.

Unbelievable.

How often does one get to say, "Sorry, I was late, I got held up by a hostage situation."

Well, my wonderful kids made it safe and sound to Florida before I even left the bridge. They were calling me to see if I was ok. :) Here are a couple pictures from the airport.

Waiting for the plane to arrive.

Off they go!

4 comments:

Amy Y said...

Oh, Good grief!! What are the odds you'd be on that bridge when that happened!?! I'd be so mad! I might have beat up that man myself :)

Glad to hear you handled the kids' departure and that they made it safe and sound!! :)

Samantha said...

Whoa. Crazy. Rich got stuck on I-25 for over an hour when they shut the thing down so George Bush could drive *under* it for 3 seconds, but, nothing as exciting as that!

Paula Ebert said...

The people at the office gave me tips on better ways to get to and from Philly airport that don't involve any of the bridges ... call me before you go fetch the kids. You have the right attitude. But it is a bit funny that the kids got to Florida before you got off the bridge :)

Woman with a Hatchet said...

I think it's insane that the kids made it to FL and you were still on the bridge! Why would it take THAT long? Was it a really low speed chase?

Glad it turned out well, though.