When planes stop; family drives U-Haul truck home

Wendy Helfrich was visiting New York when she received a text message at 2 a.m. on Dec. 27, reporting her family’s flight home to Hebron on Southwest Airlines had been canceled. The flight was one of thousands of flights interrupted by Winter Storm Elliot. Before the flight mess was cleared up, nearly 12,000 flights had been disrupted by the storm.

Wendy and three other family members, Todd, Logan and Laken, headed to the airport hoping to catch another flight.

Logan told a Hebron Journal-Register reporter, “We went to all the terminals and no airline had a flight. Technically, we could fly home on Jan. 2.”

“I’ve flown quite a few times and never saw that,” Logan said about the long lines at the airport.

The Thayer County travellers began to explore other options. There were no rental cars available. The family ended up taking a Greyhound bus to Philadelphia with the plan to catch another bus west. They checked and found all buses going west from Philadelphia were sold out. They tried Amtrack but the cost was $1,500 per person. Then Logan remembered the movie, “Home Alone.” In that story the mother hitches a ride with a polka band traveling in a U-Haul.

They called the U-Haul rental store and learned two trucks were available. They rented a 10-foot truck. Laken and his mother shared a bucket seat. His brother sat on the floor. With his stepdad driving, the family headed west.

Along the way, they would take turns driving during the 17-hour trip across nine states. It was a trip they will never forget.