Four strangers team up to travel 1,000 miles home on Christmas after a canceled flight
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A woman whose flight home on December 23 was canceled due to a cyclone recruited three strangers to escort her across the country in a desperate attempt to get home in time for Christmas Day.
Natalie Kulka, 23, wanted to return for the holidays, but her $400 flight to Cleveland, Ohio from Tampa, Florida, never took off, leaving her stranded 1,000 miles from home. After teasing the tail of the plane about driving home, she was surprised to find three other people wanting to join her.
Teaming up with Sarah, Kevin and Nick to fly to Nashville, Tennessee, the four rented a car to drive through lethal conditions to get to Ohio – and they weren’t the only group to turn to do so after another foursome revealed themselves. shortly after. after Christmas they had done exactly the same thing.
After posting a video to TikTok on Christmas Day about her mammoth effort to get home, it received thousands of likes, and a few weeks later she finally caught her breath to reflect on the whirlwind journey.
Planes, trains and cars! Natalie Kulka (front, left), 23, was left stranded after her return flight to Ohio was canceled on December 23, but after she made a joke to other passengers about needing people to drive with home, he recruited three fellow travelers, Sarah, Kevin, and Nick
Natalie, an expressive art therapist said: ‘You never know when you might need help from the people around you.
I hadn’t seen much of my family for over two years and I wanted to get home for the holidays and I wouldn’t have been able to.
Sarah, from Cleveland, Ohio, recruited four strangers to fly to Tennessee and then drive the remaining distance from Nashville to Ohio, their final destination.
The four became best friends after they met at the airport and made a plan to board a plane from Tampa, Florida to Nashville, Tennessee.
‘A stranger is just a friend you haven’t met yet.’
After her flight to Akron, Ohio, was canceled while she was on board, Natalie recalled how she joked with other passengers that anyone could join her on her mission to get home.
Sarah, 23, was the first to join the team, and as they headed back to the airport, they recruited two more members, Nick and Kevin, to join the road trip.
Kevin revealed that he had booked a trip to Nashville on a flight that would leave in 45 minutes, bringing them closer to Cleveland, Ohio.
The foursome boarded the flight and arrived in Nashville at 2:00 pm They then rented an SUV at the airport, but were given a small Toyota Corolla (costing $185), which wasn’t equipped to handle the heavy snow.
“We started driving, but the ice was horrible, we had to drive 5-10 miles per hour,” Natalie recalled.
The further north we went, the worse it got.
“We called the rental place to ask if we could change the car, but they were all booked.”
Eventually, in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, the four saw a rental car shop where they managed to secure an SUV (costing $400).
After driving the 4×4, they reached Cincinnatti, Ohio, 20 miles south of their final destination, but then the only route heading north was closed.
Natalie said: ‘The whole road was an ice rink, there were so many accidents.
“We had to go back the way we came and try another route.”
The group decided to go back the way they came, but got stuck at the end of a road in Kentucky.
Natalie (left) and Sarah were the first to team up after their flight was cancelled, before recruiting Kevin and Nick.
The team obtained a rental car, a Toyota Corolla, but had to switch to an SUV in Kentucky when the smaller car couldn’t get through the snow.
After a full day of traveling 10,000 miles, Natalie (center) finally made it home on Christmas Eve (pictured with her brother Ryan, sister Emily, godfather Michael, mother Donna, and father John)
‘We had to go out and push the car up the hill and help other people.
‘It was a relief when we finally got in the car.’
By this time it was 2 am on Christmas Day and the new friends were on the last leg of their long journey home.
They continued driving through the night to return to Cincinnati, before taking Highway 65 north to Indianapolis, Indiana.
Natalie said: ‘We had a driver and passenger system while the other two slept.
‘The adrenaline helped us and we met on the way
“We were very careful not to have proper snow gear and had a take it easy and steady approach.
“Many people crashed and many people froze to death in their cars, it was terrible.”
After what should have been an eight-hour car ride took 20 hours, they all made it home safely on December 24. They received a full refund for their canceled flight and were also reimbursed for the Toyota Corolla.
“We were so committed to getting there and we met along the way. It was a coincidence that we were all twenty years old and we hope to meet again.
The flights were about $400 each, but all were reimbursed, the first rental car was $175, which was also reimbursed, and the last SUV rental was $400.