From the City of Brotherly Love

            Listening and watching the news about the Vulcan Snowstorm being predicted for Wednesday beginning at 4 AM, our group knew it needed to make alternative arrangements to get to Philadelphia for our Wednesday night flight.  The amount of frantic e-mails and phone calls on Monday evening and Tuesday hardly ceased to flow.  Our original plans were to fly out of Rochester on Wednesday afternoon and get on our different Israel flights (USAIR and Delta) in Philadelphia and JFK respectively.  All the weather forecasts were a prediction that our Rochester flights would be cancelled.  Thus, some from the group flew or traveled by train to the next city while 11 of us rented 2 vans and drove to Philadelphia, starting out after 10:30 PM.  We didn’t delay getting out of Rochester in order to beat the predicted weather.  We Rochesterians are resourceful and tough.

            We were not informed by USAIR until 6 AM that our 5:00 pm flight that afternoon was cancelled.  It was only then that switching our initial departure city from Rochester to Philadelphia would not cost a change fee of a few hundred dollars per person.  At a rest stop before we arrived in Philadelphia Ralph Ellis researched a breakfast spot upon our arrival in the big city.  We drove to The Melrose Diner.  This was a classic diner in South Philly with a lot of chrome trim and a hearty breakfast menu. 

            At this point all but 2 of our group have arrived at their departure cities of NY and Philadelphia and should be in Israel on Thursday afternoon as originally planned.  Hoping for a smooth and easy overseas journey! 

 

            Thank you to all our fellow travelers for your perseverance and mutual support!!