Boston TV ‘hostage’ situation: my weekend

What a catastrophe! I can only imagene the heat and the heteche!

OH MY! I have never had anything this bad–just 4 hours on tarmac being de-iced. You are a trooper!!

Oh my goodness. How awful! I’m so sorry you had to go through that.

That takes the cake. Good thing your young and vibrant!

Hey,
I found your site through Biscuet’s blog. I love your worship.
That’s some serious travel problems. Delta buys me a hotel almost every time I fly through ATL.
I had a guy spill a small bottle of wine in my lap about 30 minutes into a flight from Germany to ATL then two of the flight attendants got in a fight and started yelling at each other over the food service cart and towards the end of the flight a girl passed out in the isle and doctors had to help her.
Delta gets two thumbs down.

WOW!!! That is ridiculous. I can’t believe they haven’t given you free tickets or anything.

my friend, after hearing your story I can’t share any of my stories… Oddly enough, one of mine was right before Kingdom Bound a few years back.

Cheers.

I got stuck in a plane on the tarmac for 5 hours. We sat in Philly waiting for a storm to pass, headed towards Chicago. Similar situation. Service was poor, and no answers.

Not fun, glad everything got settled out.

this same thing just happened to me. it took me and my wife almost 24 hours straight including an overnight stay on the floor of a freezing cold atrium in atlanta airport for 1.5 hours of sleep to make it from arkansas to new york. Your story is much worse though.

Wow!!! I don’t think anyone could compare their story to that! I certainly can’t!! Wow!!!

this is the worst story from a travel incident i’ve ever heard.

my only weird travel story has a good ending. i had planned a trip for over a year to the So of France & Italy for the spring of 2007. Everything was detailed down to what to do morning noon & night. I was also leaving my twins for the first time ever for 2 wks. It was chaos planning it and making it happen. But I did. Except when I got to the airport, the agent informed me my passport had expired 2 mo. before. Tears! She let us get on the plane headed to JFK in an effort to get the passport updated at the ?passport? place in NY. We had a 3 hour layover, got to the place as it was closing their doors. People had been waiting for hours in line. I cut the line to try to talk to an agent about my options (flight was leaving in less than 2 hrs), security dragged me out, i sat down inside the lobby and cryed, refusing to leave. My husband talked to security as I had my break down amid strangers who thought I should be committed. The officer apparently took pity on my husband and told him what we needed to do to get inside in the line. So off we went to get a passport photo taken with me & my puffy red face. We ended up in line, I was the last one who made it in that day. We went through the crying routine 3 more times, because every window we went to told us no at first. Ashamedly I admit it became a Abbott & Costello routine. We were told no, I’d pour on the tears, he’d beg, it worked. 4 hours later I had a new passport, when we were originally told we could not get a new one til the following Tuesday. (it was Thurs) We had to spend the night in NY, but stayed with friends, caught the next flight out the next day, spent the rest of the vacation in Provence & Tuscany. It was worth all the tears!

ps. Delta needs to be giving you a lot of free tickets or miles or something for their massive blunder of execution.

Well… no bad travel stories yet. But I can tell you that GMA will treat you like a queen while you were here. The one day I got to masquerade as an artist they were awesome… and their cook is AMAZING! So… bring lots of water to Estes Park and be ready to take in some amazing creation.

Wow, Vicky! That’s an incredible story; what a bizarre and awful experience! Sorry you had to go through all that and I’m glad we can be part of the “healing” process for you by listening!

I can’t believe you spent the time to write this huge post when you’re in that condition!!! You’ve got my respect (as if you didn’t have it already) for simply surviving the experience. …and you’ve got a smile on your face!

As to your questions, I’ve had mostly good travel experiences. You really want to hear my bad travel story? This was a couple of years ago toward the end of a few weeks of travel around Europe. I’d been riding the trains with a Eurail pass and was headed into Budapest, Hungary – due to arrive about midnight. (By the way, when we crossed the Hungarian border, a shouting swarm of armed guards came on board and checked out everybody’s passports. A couple of people must not have had their paperwork in order because they were forced off the train with the guards and not allowed to cross the border. Definitely a huge difference between that border crossing – into a former communist country – and most of the other European ones where they don’t even stamp your passport anymore.)

Anyway, back to what happened to me. Once we made it to the train station in Budapest, it was the middle of the night and the others bound for Budapest deserted the station quickly. So far, I’d been paying for everything along the way with cash Euros and credit card. I was down to my last couple of Euros, and they don’t accept those in Hungary anyway, so I went to the ATM in the station to get some local currency. Long story short, it turned out that I didn’t know my PIN for my VISA credit card, and after trying a few combinations, the machine took my card and wouldn’t give it back.

There I was in a cold deserted train station in a foreign country without any type of money or any plans for a place to stay (I was winging it the whole trip, which for the most part is a lot of fun – at least when you’re a guy traveling alone). There was one other person in the train station, a huge man dressed all in black with a long strait black ponytail, long black leather boots, and a long black canvass trench coat. (He looked quite a bit like some kinda villain out of a comic book.) I went over to talk with him and it turned out that he knew of a hostel that would probably be willing to take me in for the night without any payment. He directed me there, and once I arrived I promised the person at the front desk that I’d find some way to pay once I got things sorted out with the bank.

The next day was a fiasco on the phone with VISA corporate. To protect themselves, they had immediately marked my card as lost or stolen – in such a way that it could not be undone (and so left me stranded without my only remaining means of payment). After that, they dawdled and delayed and finally completely failed to get me the emergency cash they’d promised to wire to the bank in Budapest. I’ll spare you the blow-by-blow details. Needless to say, it was a somewhat similar situation in that there were several errors and very poor service, neglect, bad choices, etc all strung together that added up to a major mess-up on the part of VISA.

Fortunately, I’d met a music student on the train ride into Budapest who was studying there in the city, and she’d given me her mobile number. I contacted her later that day, explained the situation, and she and her boyfriend were unbelievably kind and helpful. They insisted I stay at their apartment with them, fed me home-made Hungarian dishes, showed me around the town, and took me to hear some really great music at their school, and when it was time to leave Budapest, they gave me some cash to ensure I’d be able to eat and make it all the way back to my flight from Paris. What could have been an awful end to an otherwise great trip ended up being one of the biggest highlights of the whole thing. Crazy, huh? :o)

Oh Vicky this is just awful! Just one trauma after another. I just stopped by to say thank you for your leading at New Wine. …. most of our stuff has dryed out following the down pour as we all packed up our goodies…. It was truly amazing to be part of this year. Thank you so much for leading so beautifully, sensitively, creatively, joyously and and with such energy….. we appreciate your gifts so much.
Hope travels are alot smoother now and there is no jet lag!! Thank you again.

Seriously? That’s unbelievable. I’m gonna go read some news sites to see what the media is saying about that. As Christians, do we stand up for what’s right or do we back down and let them walk all over us? I mean, should you demand some sort of compensation for their mistake or just let it go? I’m truly impressed by your positive attitude.

Yo Vicky

That was nearly as bad as my journey back from New Wine on Sunday. I went 20 mins in the wrong direction on the A303!!

OK – fair enough, weighing it up, your journey home was worse [only just though] :)

Hope you get some good rest after last week and the flight fiasco!!

Greg

Awww poor vicky and people. Ah well, thats life as usual LoL. Ps, when are you going to record a new album? And you seriously need more radio play over here in England. Ive only heard you once on UCB radio in the last 2 months. Much love, Gemma x

Hey Girl… I wish I could have been there with you. I’m leaving London tomorrow. Andrew has drawn me a map on how to get to the Heathrow airport… could be interesting…. Hopefully I don’t have all the sagas you did…. blessings friend… I’ll put more photos up of London sometime… had an awesome day today… dead tired and still have to pack now! Blessings wherever you are now…
Love Joy

My friends and I came to see you at Kingdom Bound. What a blessing that you made it there! Your set in the worship tent was wonderful. Thanks for going through all your travel problems to get to the festival. Leeland and Third Day were great too!

i would stop your complaining it is Biblical. Philippians 2:14. it does not say do most things. ll things. Also, you get to go to a job that you love everyday. not many of us are that fortunate. so you run into a little bump now and again. big deal. i would o through all of that if it meant that I get to go on a 3 day trip back home. it would make it well worth it.

Vicky- Saw you at Kingdom Bound last night… AMAZING!!! I met you at the Christian Musicians Summit there in Buffalo a couple months ago- first time I saw you… LOVED IT!
So, going yesterday to KB… I was WAY psyched about hearing you and possibly chattin with ya! Not all worked out as well as I had wanted… I did meet your bass player while he tore down the table right before Third Day ended- great guy! I tried to pleed with him about seeing you, but he said “Vicky has left the building” :-) I’m way bummed! My husband is a youth pastor, so we had some of our youth with us who made a HUGE deal out me wanting to see you. They told me that they were going to get a picture of us together and that would be hung on the wall in the new “youth room”! So, after hearing about us not meeting, they were quite funny… even symphetic!
All this to say. I’m so happy that you are using the crazy amazing talent God gave you to further His kingdom! I heard “Wonder of the Cross” and it seriously changed my heart. You have made an incredible dent in many lives and so many people are so blessed to hear or see you sing your heart out! Girl, you are BLESSED!
So, even though I didn’t get to meet up with you and get my pic and autograph :-(, I still think you’re amazing!
(I’m sure your bass player would remeber me… You’ll have to ask. I was the crazy fan who waited for 3+ hours at your table after your 2nd set and STILL missed out! Hope he didn’t think I was TOO crazy- it was late at that point I was a little “strung out”)
Blessings,
Mandy Mae

Vicki.. sorry about all the travel troubles. Really looking forward to seeing you here in Estes Park tonight though!

Here is my little story from Denmark -and yes its true.

Went to Norway from Denmark back in High-school. It was winter and we were going skiing.

Took the ferry after 200 km of driving in a new bus – that -by the way sounded – well like something was wrong somewhere. Well we had to wait 4 hours before the ferry took of. So we were late already at that time. After 3 hours of sailing everyone got seasick in like half an hour or so – we are talking 1000 people and to few places to go when youre (all) sick at sea. Do I need to say anything more ? The ferry could not get to the shore because of a storm so there we were….8 hours of nightmare and – well I dont know how to spell that in English (cause I´m Danish)- but the walls and the flors were litteraly covered in puke (is that the word ?) Sorry – but it was disgusting so I went outside with some friends and we found some “sun-chairs” and fell asleep for 2 hours or so – ohh.. it was night and minus -10 degress C and storm by the way so we catched a cold of course.

Still with me ? Ok so we came ashore and the bus rolled of – still sounding strange somewhere – was it in the middle – was it up front – where was it ?
Well we found out after 75 kms of driving in the the snowy mountains – because we all woke up all of sudden (it was 5 a.m and very dark outside) and the bus trembled. It stopped all of a sudden and we all went out.

“Has anyone seen the 2 wheels at the back of the bus” ??? They were gone – down the side of the mountain. BOTH of them at the same time!! There were no longer any wheels at the back of the bus – they simply fell off just like that !!. We were lucky to still be on the road and not on our way down the side of the mountain along with the 2 wheels.

Stil – minus 10 degress C and tired. Been traveling for 15-20 hours at that time I think.

Well – lucky for us we where 2 busses traveling togehter :-) – but unlucky for us who were born as “strong boys” all the girls from our bus where “exchanged with the boys from the warm bus. Modern Equality ??? No of cource we where gentlemenn…… hmmmm….

Anyway after 1 hour or so came a norwegien bus and we continued our tour/traveling. The guy driving the bus was a local and he was driving FAST! And I mean FAST!!!! Maybee it was because he was called to this emergency just as he´s wife were gonna give birth… I dont know..

After another hour or so we came to the final moutain we had to drive through. But but but – there was a roadwork and only one side of the road was left.. and what was that ???? The bus the girls went with was parked there in front of us – dark – cold – and empty. But where were all the girls and teachers from that other bus ? There where still 10 km to our destination. It was now morning but still dark and cold. Our bus driver stopped because of a stop light – only one car/bus at a time through the tunnel – but everytime he tried to “move the bus” the road was smooth because of ice on the road. So at last he had to force the bus into the tunnel at a red light ! – and then we found out why the other bus had given up. The tunnel was a little bit to small………
But he could not reverse – only go forward -or else we where stuck and so he did !! FULL SPEED – The noice of the mountain craching with the side of the bus was LOUD! You hear me ? Loud Loud Loud ! Oh…. my ears… and down to the left i could see pikes – that if the bus tipped over – would impale us through the windows. We were scared to dead – but somehow (and by Gods help) we came through – with a bus that did not look like a bus on the right side…… but it could stil be driven.

We drove the last 10 kms came to our destination at the same time as the girls who where forced to WALK the 10 kms (is it like 5 miles?) on their feets in the dark cold.

Yeah… that was a nightmare trip in 24 hours but at great vacation afterwards. Gods angels where working overtime that day and night to keep us all safe – and no one suffered anything.

Praise God :-)

goodness girl!

i have had some travel woes, but they don’t even begin to compare with that. so i am keeping my mouth shut! :)

glad you are back safely.

well… My dad is a pilot (dont eat me!) so i he has had lots of these stupid things and regually gets stranded in silly place… like scotland… only joking… i love the scottish.. but anyway… the worst thing is when it snows… again scotland :P my dad often finds himself trapped in weird places of the world not knowing the language very well and having to use some weird form of sign language to tell the hotel people that his room doesnt have any shampoo… imagine that… or don’t…

but yeh…

he makes it back safe and sound in the end…

SOMEHOW>>>>>>

wait… if you had met my dad you wouldnt be so sure on the sound thing… and yes he’s a pilot… just a tad bit scary…

hehehe

i love you dad… hehe

Wow…read your story!
Really, how fustrated did you get?

I was stuck on a 13 hour flight to singapore one time. The bad thing was that beside me was a crying child that almost cried the entire 13 hours. I almost jumped off the plain.

Hey Vicky my greatest experiences are a trip to the US and to London, to bad we dindn’t meet I was there from june 27th through July 15th

unbelievable.

i had a friend fly in this weekend, and i’m so thankful that she didn’t get stuck in all the flying problems around here.

i’m sorry my city wasn’t nice to you! i can’t imagine how crazy that was

that’s crazy!! wow

Vicky,

Ohmigosh. Of course, I glanced at the Twitter updates, but just reading this now I find it unbelievable! A nine hour, back alley, Boston-illegal delay! You WERE hostages! So sorry you had to go through this. I must admit, I thought my six hours on the floor in Mumbai was pretty rough, but this tops any travel nightmare I’ve gone through.

Bless you for keeping your smile, then getting up the next day to give yourself away!

If I were you, I’d take the rail from now on. Wink wink.

Bill

Vicky
only 8 hour delay in Sydney and broken plane in Sydney but hey its better to be alive in Christ than dead in a plane

Vicky,

I heard you share this story at Kingdom Bound, and let me tell you, all of my stories paled in comparison when I heard of all you had to go through the get to New York. My goodness! What an adventure!

My worst travel time was when I was flying to visit my best friend at the age of 16. I was all alone and it was only the second time I had flown. My flights all got delayed or canceled on Friday because of a snow storm as it was right before Christmas. They wanted to put me on later flights but could not because if we had any more delays I would not be allowed to get a hotel room or anything since I was not 18. I had to wait until the following morning.

I went to the airport quite early and everything seemed fine. I sent my mom off and got to my gate to wait. About twenty minutes before boarding, an airline worker came out to say the flight was cancelled because the crew did not show up. I was devastated. I went up to the counter and explained that I had tried to fly yesterday but couldn’t and I couldn’t deal with my flights being cancelled another day and I just wanted to get to my best friend. They put me on a new flight with a new airline and gave me two food coupons for my struggles. (What a compensation!)

Since I changed airlines, I had to go back out to the front, check in again with the new airline, have my bag switched, and go through security all over again.

I went over to my next gate and proceeded to wait until 3 in the afternoon to leave New York. I then flew to Chicago, where I missed my connecting flight. They put me on another new flight which was supposed to leave at 7. I waited… it was only 4:30 ish.

Well, I kept waiting. I spent five hours sitting in a little cramped space with hundreds of other passengers whose flights were delayed and cancelled. I sat on the floor just reading my Bible and trying to keep in touch with my parents and best friend and her family telling them how things were going.

I finally left Chicago at 9:30. I flew to Springfield, Missouri and arrived at 10:30 PM-and was heartbroken to discover that my best friend and her family weren’t even able to pick me up from the airport because an ice storm in Missouri kept them from being able to get out of their driveway.

They sent friends with a 4-wheel drive truck to pick me up-people I had never even met. So, I got in their truck and proceeded to be driven an hour to my friend’s house… the whole time worrying that we would slip off the road or get killed or something.

At 11:30 PM, after two days of struggles and 16 hours of travel, I arrived at my best friend’s house, called my parents, and fell into bed!

And I probably looked just as exhausted as you do in that photo! =)