Just have to share my story.
Girlfriend and I were on Vacation in Mexico all last week, and first heard about this storm when we went to check in for our flight back to Philly, cancelled because they didn't want to leave planes in Philly overnight (It wasn't snowing yet). Next flight available Sunday, **** staying in Mexico where I dont speak Spanish and my credit card wont work because I told the bank I was only staying until Friday.
So we caught a flight to the closest airport to Philadelphia taking flights at the time, Chicago O Hare. We got re-booked on a flight from Chicago to Philly Sunday afternoon, and we were just gonna ride it out in a hotel in Chicago. To add insult to injury, we were coming back from a tropical vacation and had NO WARM CLOTHES. So Saturday morning we went out to buy some, and on the way back to the hotel, we got an email that our Sunday flight out of Chicago was gonna be cancelled. Great
At that point we didn't know what to do. My GF called her parents who live in Pittsburgh, and they said they would drive us home if we could make it there somehow. we called the airline and they said they could get us to Pittsburgh through Charlotte. we jumped on it, checked out immediately and started our trek home.
By 10pm Saturday, 2 flights and a layover later we finally got to Pittsburgh. From there we started our trek across Pennsylvania through the night. had to take ~100 miles of side roads to avoid a closed section of the PA turnpike in Western PA. Finally arrived home at 5:30 am Sunday Morning, just to sleep for about 3 hours and wake up to shovel snow all day. (missed the Ranger game, thank God)
In about a 40 hour time frame, I was in Cancun, Chicago, Charlotte, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia.
It was a harrowing journey. But I'm glad we made it home Sunday and didn't have to burn yet another vacation day in January.