Hello and welcome to episode 216 of Travel Stories from the Back Again and Gone. Being recorded in the beautiful Hilton Garden Inn RDU, Raleigh, NC. If you’re a new listener, welcome; and if you’re a returning listener, welcome back.
It’s a bit late, but it’s time for the December crazy travel roundup.
Tonight I am partaking in a HI-PITCH Mosaic IPA from Hi-Wire Brewing in Asheville, NC. Hi-Pitch comes in at 6.7 ABV and turned Dry January into Damp January.
This Hilton Garden Inn is one of my favorites. It’s located just outside the airport, and across the parking lot is one of the best food courts I’ve ever seen.
I saw something in the HGI parking lot I’ve never seen before. When I got in my rental this morning, I looked at the car in the slot next to mine, and what caught my eye was that all of their rental papers were on the dashboard, but what was extremely unique was that they had shoved what appeared to be a dry sheet into the air conditioning vent. With that ca,r stunk, or the driver was employed by Tide.
Let’s open with a Thank You, Florida story that is pure thank you, Florida.
A Beechcraft 55, which is an older 4-seater plane, took off from Merritt Island on an instructional flight, then reportedly lost power in both engines and went looking for the world’s longest runway, which was Interstate 95. During the emergency landing, the plane dropped right onto a southbound Toyota Camry in the middle lane, crushed it, bounced off, and slid down the highway, throwing sparks like a Fourth of July clearance sale at Kohls
Miraculously, the 57‑year‑old woman driving the Camry only had minor injuries, and the two 27‑year‑old men in the plane walked away without a scratch, making this the luckiest accidental carpool in Florida history.
Of course, this happened in Brevard County, where space launches are routine, so a bonus highway landing is basically just “local color” at this point. Witnesses described it as “scary” and “troubling,” which is polite Floridian for “I will be telling this story at every barbecue for the rest of my life.- The NTSB and FAA are investigating, which in comedic terms means: someone now has to explain on paperwork how they managed to use a Camry as a landing gear accessory and still count it as a successful emergency landing.
In summary, it’s the rare Florida story where a plane lands on a car, traffic still looks worse than the crash, and the only real casualty is the Camry’s resale value.
This came from View From the Wing - Frontier Locks Down Boarding, Telling Passengers To ‘Snitch On Your Neighbor’ Until Hidden Dog Is Found.
Frontier managed to turn routine boarding into a live‑action game of “Find That Felony Beagle,” with a flight attendant announcing that nobody was going anywhere until passengers snitched on whoever smuggled a mystery dog aboard.
During boarding, a Frontier flight attendant gets on the PA and declares there’s an undeclared dog on the plane, urging everyone to look around and rat out their neighbors like it’s jury duty for Scooby‑Doo.
The cabin turns into a low‑budget whodunit: people side‑eyeing seatmates, whispering, and pretending not to be the one whose backpack just whimpered.
TSA is okay with pets at the security lines; the problem is Frontier’s own rules, fees, and paperwork, which make this less of a “national security threat” and more “someone dodged a pet surcharge.”
Frontier is the same airline that once booted an emotional‑support squirrel. At the same time, its spiritual sibling Spirit famously got a student to flush her emotional‑support hamster, so the bar for weird pet drama is already somewhere under the cargo hold.
The author even recalls a Delta flight that turned back to the gate over service‑animal paperwork, proving airlines will happily burn fuel and time to chase down a dog that did absolutely nothing wrong.
With a post like this, you have to visit the comments, where by the time I got to the last one, people are debating Trump, Islam, Christianity, inflation, and book bans. At the same time, one exasperated reader begs the author to remember this is supposed to be a travel site, not a Thanksgiving argument at 35,000 feet.
On this flight, the dog wasn’t the problem; the real emotional‑support animal was the drama Frontier unleashed when it turned the cabin into “Neighborhood Watch: Canine Edition.”
Here in Thank You, Florida, we have the battle of the Sheriff’s. In Brevard County, we have Sheriff Wayne Ivey, who went viral when he issued a harsh warning to protesters who use violence in his county: “We will kill you graveyard dead.” Then there’s my favorite Grady Judd with his “I suspect the reason they were shot so many times is that that’s all the bullets we had.” – His most famous response when asked why deputies shot a suspect 68 times in 2006.
In Valousia County, we have Mike Chittwood, and Sheriff Mike enjoys waiting at the airport for extradited individuals returning to the state, and he recently did just that.
Sheriff Mike confronted Robert Goodwin at Daytona Beach International Airport, telling him, “I think it’s important you look the people you screwed over in the eyes.”
Students and families from Seabreeze High School shouted “You’re a scumbag!” as Goodwin descended the escalator after his extradition from California.
Goodwin responded briefly, saying he was “very sorry” but maintained he was “innocent until proven guilty,” offering no further explanation. Chitwood added that Goodwin had confessed to investigators, stating, “His fingerprints are all over it... He told the detectives exactly what he did.
A group of 104 high school students signed up with Stone & Compass Travel for a nine-day trip to Italy and Greece for summer 2024. Each family paid at least $3,550 for airfare, lodging, and activities. Goodwin allegedly stole over $180,000.00 from these High School students and then headed to California, until he was brought back here.
On a recent Nashville–Las Vegas Spirit flight, one guy decided the in‑flight entertainment would be “punch a flight attendant in the face,” and the Spirit pilot responded by auditioning for the NFL with a full‑body tackle in the aisle. Which begs the question, who is flying the plane?
A male passenger gets up, argues in the aisle, and then clocks a female flight attendant, instantly upgrading himself from “annoying” to “enjoy your lifetime Greyhound status, sir.” A pilot steps in, physically takes the guy down, and the whole thing is a textbook case of interfering with crew, which usually ends in restraints, an FBI investigation, and a permanent ban from the airline.
The story lands perfectly in Spirit’s running joke reputation: you buy the rock‑bottom fare, and sometimes you get bonus content in the form of a live‑action “don’t ever do this on a plane” training video. In addition to rock bottom fares, how about an IQ threshold before you're allowed to board the plane?
In case you didn’t know, travel isn’t cheap and usually requires staying within a budget. So what happens if you exhaust your budget before the end of your trip? What happens if you’re so broke you can’t pay to get your vehicle out of the airport parking garage?
Well, here’s one way to not address it. A 35‑year‑old guy at New Orleans Airport decided that instead of paying his parking fee, he’d try the “free exit via bomb threat” plan, and is now looking at up to 10 years in federal prison for what was essentially not having his card go through at the garage.
He blocked the short‑term exit when his card was declined, got moved to surface parking, then allegedly called the airport demanding they “page Hassan” and warning “we have the bomb” if they didn’t, followed by a second call where he threatened to cut the operator’s throat.
Deputies pinged the phone, found him still sitting in his Jeep in the lot like a villain who never watched CSI, and arrested him; now he faces a possible decade in prison and a six‑figure fine, all because he apparently thought terrorism was cheaper than parking.
You can’t fix stupid.
One Mile At A Time recently asked - Should Airlines Allow Video & Voice Calls Over Inflight Wi-Fi? The Starlink Curse…
Starlink Wi-Fi is turning airplanes into the world’s noisiest conference rooms, where free fast internet means nonstop pings, headphone-less Netflix marathons, and the occasional guy yelling “Can you hear me now?” at full volume on a Qatar Airways video call. If you can’t put the pieces together, it is a bad thing.
If you didn’t know it, most airlines ban voice and video calls. The reason is to avoid cabins sounding like a New York subway at rush hour, but Qatar says “go ahead,” unleashing speakerphone warriors who talk louder than if debating their seatmate.
Flyers report entire flights ruined by one oblivious dude on a marathon call or a symphony of notification dings, proving humanity’s golden rule: your device volume is always someone else’s problem.
You have to feel for the flight attendants trying to police every chime in a metal tube full of strangers, especially when premium cabin Karens might complaint-file them into oblivion. Remember, this is not a good thing.
Years ago, December was the month for mileage runs. If you’re not familiar, a mileage run is a flight (or series of flights) booked solely to rack up elite qualifying miles, segments, or spend toward airline loyalty status perks like upgrades, lounge access, and priority boarding, even if you have zero interest in the destination. Twenty years ago, I made several mileage runs to maintain airline status.
Now get this, mattress runs are the hotel world’s version of mileage running: you check into a cheap room just to rack up loyalty points or elite nights for perks like suite upgrades and free breakfasts, even if you sleep at home afterward.
A decade ago, savvy hackers would weekend-check into a $80/night Grand Hyatt Tampa twice for free global Hyatt nights, 11,000 points, and Diamond status on their own dime, which was enough to redeem Park Hyatt Tokyo for peanuts.
This isn’t the great deal it once was, as room rates have skyrocketed (hello, $170.00 at the Hampton Inn). Redeeming award nights costs more points, and promos aren’t as stupidly generous, so you’re basically paying for the privilege of a lobby selfie and some status confetti or a brag tag
When does a mattress run make sense? Only if you’re one night shy of Globalist or Platinum perks, or a promo hits like double elite nights at a dirt-cheap spot—otherwise.
Take this with a grain of salt for someone who has nothing to gain from elite hotel status
If you know, or are a frequent flyer, you more than likely have a seat strategy or preference when selecting your seat.
Recently, Southern Living, which now must be covering travel, asked flight attendants what the best seat on a plane is.
Flight attendants swear by the exit row window seat (think 21A or 6A on many jets) as the plane’s undisputed MVP for its endless legroom, whisper-quiet vibes, and built-in turbulence buffer from sitting over the wing.
Why, the extra space lets you stretch like a VIP without knee-knockers, plus you’re out of the drink cart’s danger zone and snag early boarding perks. Plus window means naptime against a wall (no recliner invasions), and the wing smooths bumps better than the economy’s wild ride.
Pro tips: the front half of the plane’s window seats rule for quick ins/outs; skip galley or lavatory aisles unless you love traffic jams.
My seat strategy is as follows: When I flew Southwest, and they offered open seating, I had enough status to be one of the first 40 passengers to board, and my seat row of choice was row 9, a window seat on either side of the plane. This was for two reasons: the windows on row 9 are positioned perfectly so that I got an extra inch or two of shoulder room, and they began serving snacks on rows 1, 9, and 17.
Since I’m now flying Delta, they offer the worst seat selection for their passengers, that is, unless you want to pay an extra $45.00 or $60.00 for a preferred seat. I still shoot for a window seat, and if I can’t get it I will check back every few days to see if there’s an open window seat that suddenly appears.
Well, there you have it, Episode 216, the December crazy travel roundup
For long-time listeners, thank you for your comments and emails. For new listeners, I hope you return.
If you want detailed show notes, links, and pictures, head over to Substack at travelstories.substack.com/
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As I always say, travel safe, stay safe, and thanks for listening.
