8 / matters magazine / spring 2026
heart of the matter
Featuring Local People, Places and 
Things that Matter Since 1990
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Matters
PUBLISHER 
& EDITOR IN CHIEF
Ellen Donker
ASSOCIATE EDITOR & 
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER
Anne Mandell
ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS
Rene Conlon
H. Leslie Gilman
Alex Koenig
Amy Power 
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Ellen Donker
COPY EDITORS
Charles Hammer
Jayson Rodriguez
CONTRIBUTORS
Ashton Asay
Kristen di Gennaro
Adrianna Donat
Alex Koenig
Amy Lynn-Cramer
Savannah Martin
Cindy Perman
Ilysse Rimalovski
Julia Maloof Verderosa
W
hen it comes to air travel, I 
have one rule: fly nonstop 
whenever possible. Split­
ting up a flight leaves you 
open to delays on top of 
other typical travel woes: 
weather problems, TSA 
workers not getting paid, airline staffing shortages and 
more. The less time I spend in an airport the better.
Unfortunately, I broke my rule a few weeks ago. I 
dragged my heels getting 
tickets to Fort Myers, Florida 
for spring break. By the time 
I started looking at flights, 
nonstops were more than 
$1,200 round trip. To Flor­
ida? There had to be cheaper 
flights. Of course there were, 
but they all involved a stop. 
After evaluating the options 
with my daughter, Mad­
eline, who would be joining my husband, Rob, and me, 
we booked round-trip flights via Spirit Air that were 
routed through Detroit with fairly short layovers. 
The outbound flights went off without a hitch. Spirit 
Air is no frills to the extreme, but we made it to Fort 
Myers in good time. When it was time to go home, we 
had a flight that landed in Detroit around 7:15 p.m. 
With a 2.5-hour layover, we headed to a restaurant for 
dinner. As we were deciding on our order, Madeline saw 
a text that Spirit had canceled the flight. The worst part 
was that there were no more flights out that night. 
While we waited to get our dinner, we contemplated 
our options, wondering whether Spirit would pay for 
our hotel or whether there was another carrier that had 
a flight to Newark that night. So many questions and so 
many Google searches. Then I thought about how long 
it would take to drive home. I had driven to Michigan in 
the past. It was shorter than I anticipated and not nearly 
as far as the 15-hour drives I had taken to Chicago over 
the years. Apple Maps estimated nine hours. We could 
be home by 6:30 a.m. the next day.
I asked Rob and Madeline, What if? Was a nine-hour 
drive in the middle of the night ridiculous? I even put 
the question to our waitress. She confirmed our feeling 
that the drive sounded doable. 
Our next stop was the Spirit Air desk to get some 
sort of refund or to confirm our options. The long, snak­
ing line looked like it would take at least an hour to get 
through. I couldn’t do it. Instead, we headed to a rental 
car shuttle. By 9:30 p.m. we 
were on the road. 
So started a long, dark 
and tedious trip in which 
Madeline and I split the 
driving. To pass the time, 
we chose an audiobook: 
Ain’t Nobody’s Fool: The Life 
and Times of Dolly Parton 
by Martha Ackmann. We 
have listened to audiobooks 
about Barbra Streisand, Paul Simon and Steve Martin, 
so we figured one about Dolly Parton would keep us 
entertained. Our food for the road was whatever we had 
in our backpacks: peanut M&Ms and potato chips.
Thankfully, our drive was uneventful, just monoto­
nous with our eyes trained on the lane markings and the 
tractor-trailer ahead of us. We finally entered New Jersey 
as the sun was coming up and pulled into our driveway 
at about 7 a.m. I was just happy to be home and knew 
that driving had been the right decision. I went straight 
to the kitchen and made some eggs – after all, it was 
breakfast time – and then took a two-hour nap.
I can’t say I’ll never take a flight with a layover. Some­
times, you can’t avoid it. But perhaps the lesson learned 
is to start out early so your final connection isn’t the last 
flight out. Although the long drive was tolerable, I don’t 
want to do it again anytime soon. Still, I gained a family 
memory and now have a new story to tell. 
I Took an 
Unexpected 
Road Trip
Sometimes you just want to get home
BY ELLEN DONKER

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