a balloontwister’s aliya saga

Wow. What a weekend… the chapter has officially been written and closed. The longest weekend of my life. The ALMOST purim in Israel. The ALMOST Purim in Detroit. The ALMOST being in the Zurich airport for shabbos. The Almost being stuck at Laguardia for shabbos…
Alot of Close calls…
On the PLUS side I got to see my Son Yoni in New York and I got to spend an hour at my Nephew’s Bar Mitzvah and see my folks, brother, sister and their families….
but the BIGGEST plus was being able to have a shabbos. Let me start from the beginning…
Trying to be smart I had a flight from detroit to Toronto to Israel. This was done in the oft chance I couldn’t get to the airport in detroit. Its only a 4 hour drive from detroit to Toronto. SO far so good…
The hour flight to toronto took almost 3 as the flight was delayed due to the rough weather…
As I landed in Toronto I noticed there was a huge snow storm in Toronto and the airport almost closed down. Roads were icy and the winds were fierce.
I checked into the airport and was told the flight was an hour delayed, due to the plane coming in from Chicago was not yet at the airport. I was told not to worry and chill out at the KLM lounge (being a GOld Matmid gets me into the lounge) Unfortunately all I could break my fast on was pretzels and Tomato juice. Not exactly a danish and coffee. In the lounge I met David Shamah who is a frequent flyer as well, heading to Israel after spending a week in Toronto. As we were waiting for updates we called down to El AL in New YOrk and was assured despite the delay.. we would get to Israel 2 hours before shabbos.
Whew…
Despite the delay and the snow.. I was confident I'’d be hoem for purim.
Around 8pm, an hour after the scheduled time, we were told we would be boarding.
It was not the first time we were given bad information.
We boarded around 9pm.
We moved approx 50 feet over the next hour..as we went to get de-iced.
Then we sat… for another hour… until the next de-icing.
Every few minutes we’d hear the pilot sayign how we’d take off in a few minutes, the engines roar, then the announcement “The wind is too strong to take off”…..
This happenned over the next hour or so.
At around 11pm we were told we have an option:
Get off the plane, without your luggage or
when the plan lands in Europe, you can get off and then after shabbos get back on the plane to go to israel.
Now, I now some people in ENgland but no one in france, switzerland, etc.
Doing the math in my head I determined that if the plane left asap it would get to england with 2 hours to spare for shabbos. SO I stayed on the plane until they announced that they could no longer guarantee that they would make it to Europe for shabbos.
I’m out!
I got off the plane as did David Shamah. The other frum people reasoned that they would make it to England and be ok. They were not.
We found out later that England was not the stop. It was Zurich. And they landed after shabbos. More about that later.
After getting off the plane we were escorted back to El Al offices and they gave us a voucher to stay at the hotel downtown. They also told us there was room on flights to either NY or Detroit. Turns out there was plenty of room because the planes were NOT flying. THe storm practically grounded all flights. As we walked to get a rental car so we could at least drive, the place looked like a bomb shelter. Sleeping people all over the place.
We walked over and aroudn them and made out way to Hertz car rental.
At this time we thought we would drive to Detroit and either stay there for shabbos or fly to NY as the detroit flights were still scheduled. We found out way to hertz… but they were closed until 6am…
Well, at 4am in toronto you dont have alot places to go touring, so we plopped down on some chairs and took a nap at the sheraton, where approx 50 people were also there …laying on the floor, chairs….etc.
We were woken up by hotel staff an hour later as we were sleeping on chairs meant for the restaurant. So we got in a 40 minute nap..Just enough time to drive 4 hours through the slush and ice.
We got a car from Hertz and hit the road.
Thelman and Louise style….without the kerchiefs and lipstick.
From the road we called Northwest in Detroit and got ourselves flights to NY on the 12pm flight. We would have just enough time to drive the 4 hours and get to the airport… whew…so, no ISrael but at least NY.
After 3 hours and after a quick stop for gas and coffee. (the Fuel, not the other gas stop) I got a call from Northwest that the noon flight was cancelled and we were scheduled for the 1:45 flight.
Oy.
If it takes off on time, we would have a few hours to get to our respective places for shabbos. Me in Staten Island. David in Fancy Flatbush.
Er…david…. slow down… theres…a….

WWWHHHHIIRRRRRRRRR…………
Cop car flashing…. pull over…
20 minutes and over3oo dollars canadian lighter we were back on the road….
Weird thing was we were 100 feet from the US boarder..
We did NOT pull a thelma and louise and drive through (or over a cliff).
Well, we had a few hours to kill so we stopped at my hotel suite in Troy, MI to shower and get my suit on. I figured if I get to NY late, at least I’d be ready for shabbos.
I guess it was not meant to be.
The flight was delayed… 1:45 to 2:15..

I’m thinking.. ok , I still have time to make it to Staten Island…
when they announced a Weather Hold due to the weather in NY …
I walked off the plane.
My second walk off in 12 hours.
Knowing NY traffic it was going to be impossible to make it from laguardia to Staten island in an hour. Without traffic its an hour….. so….Detroit it was.
Thankfully, I have met some great people here and after a call, I had an invite for each meal.
I also had a shabbos meal at a shochet’s house. Let me tell you, if you want to curb your appetite, talk to a shochet. just hearing about how they keep and raise veal…. will do wonders for you.
“…and then they tear the stomach..and..”
Um, I’m not that hungry….
SO NO Israel and no NY. A normal person would just take a hint…
Not us.
After shabbos I barely made it to the airport on time for my 9:30 flight to NY..
Let me rephrase that.
Deapite being at the airport 2 times in the part 2 days, I still got lost and I DID get to the airport too late. It was the first class ticket that I bought that got my on. my friday flight had no coach seats left, so I bought a first class ticket out of desperation.
Not cheap.
For a bigger seat and a few fruits the price was comperable to my Israel ticket. but it was too late… I already invested sleep, time, ….I was now on a mission to get to NY for Purim… to see Yoni and go to the bar mitzvah…

My friend was going to fly to NY and take the flight to israel midnight, as he is from Jerusalem, so he had until sunday night..
Yup… you guessed it.
another delay.
I could feel him cringe when they announced the flight was going to be delayed. Instead of getting to NY at 11…
it took OFF at 11. We got at LGA after midnight and had to rent a car to get to Brooklyn.
At 1:30 I layned for him at my parents house and I finally got to bed at 2:30.
Tired. But happy I could have purim with my son and folks.
We actually made a day of it as we got to see my brothers in law and sisters in law and their kids. We also got to see the other cousins at the bar mitzvah later.
So while I couldnt be with my Israeli family , I got to see my american family and had a joyous purim after all.
At 8pm I was back on the plane heading back to Detroit. SO I got to be in NY for 15 hours, just enough to have a nice (albeit dry) purim. At least my luggage got to israel, Costumes, food, shalach manos supplies, mazonos rolls…. We actually had to get someone to pull the strings to have them release the luggage.. they were going to send them back to Toronto.
Hopefully, THIS shabbos I’ll be able to head back.
Well, its been a wild ride…. thankfully the kids and Penina were able to have a good purim and my costume got some usage.
Thanks doovid.

Im out.
J