CLEVELAND — It’s not the plot of a movie, yet, but it is trending with audiences on TikTok: four strangers in Tampa, Florida had their flight to Cleveland canceled, so they banded together to make the 16-hour drive there instead.
“We were all hanging in the ticket line waiting to talk to the Frontier people – the line was so long,” said Bridget, one of the stranded strangers, in an interview with News 5. “When the flight got canceled, we all kind of shared that moment of like, ‘dang, this sucks,’ and we’re all like, ‘What are you guys going to do?’”
The earliest flight they could have gotten on was Saturday night, so they decided the cost of renting a car split between four people wouldn’t be too bad.
@bridgeteschuster The earliest flight they could get us on was Christmas Eve at 6pm so here we are #tampaairport #cleveland #tampa ♬ Holly Jolly Christmas - Michael Bublé
News 5 caught up with Bridget, Abby, Greg and Shobi as they crossed into Ohio at about 4:30 a.m. Friday morning for one of our most unusual Zoom interviews yet.
They told us they might have started out as strangers, but they’re feeling more like friends after 13 hours (and counting) in the car together, documenting the whole trip on TikTok.
It's a plot you have seen before from Planes, Trains and Automobiles to a horror movie TikTok viewers pointed out.
“Three hours and twenty minutes out so I feel like we’re in the clear," Bridget said.
@bridgeteschuster Replying to @thefreckledrat ♬ Full House - The Hollywood Prime Time Orchestra
“We were like jamming out to music the whole time,” Bridget told us.
“When we crossed over into West Virginia, we all started singing Country Roads,” Greg said.
@bridgeteschuster Replying to @kaleb1110 ♬ GASLIGHT - INJI
“I’ve been reading the TikToks and it’s hilarious,” Bridget said. “People are like, ‘We’re rooting for you,’ or like ‘I feel like I’m your mom, check back,’ and it’s so funny.”
They said the roads weren’t too bad, but they took it slow.
Bridget said it ended up being about 18 or 19 hours with the weather and road conditions.
And at about 8:45 a.m., Bridget posted the final update: they made it to Cleveland!
@bridgeteschuster Replying to @miss_merv ♬ Snow (Hey Oh) Part1 - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Their first stop was the Cleveland airport to drop their rental car off.
From there, the four strangers went their separate ways for the holidays, but it sounds like they made a memory of a lifetime, and a solid pitch for a Lifetime holiday movie, together.
Watch live and local news any time:
Download the News 5 Cleveland app now for more stories from us, plus alerts on major news, the latest weather forecast, traffic information and much more. Download now on your Apple device here, and your Android device here.
You can also catch News 5 Cleveland on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube TV, DIRECTV NOW, Hulu Live and more. We're also on Amazon Alexa devices. Learn more about our streaming options here.
