13 Strangers Street Journey in Rented Van After Canceled Flight

After their flight was delayed, a gaggle of strangers determined to take issues into their very own fingers. So, as an alternative of ready for the subsequent flight out of Orlando, they rented a van collectively and drove for over 10 hours to get to Knoxville, Tenn.

Alanah Story, whose TikTok movies documenting the expertise went mega-viral, advised At this time that after their Dec. 4 flight was canceled, her mother was standing within the customer support line when she heard concerning the one-of-a-kind highway journey.

“She yells over at me and he or she’s like, ‘Alanah, we’re headed downstairs to get this van with all these people!'” Story advised the outlet. And the remainder was historical past.

Within the first video she posted, Story launched her journey companions: herself, her mom, her godmother, and a gaggle of 13 strangers who collectively turned generally known as “the gang.”

“I can not make this up,” she captioned the clip, which has over 3.6 million views as of Thursday.

Story mentioned that originally, she did not assume the video would blow up.

“However inside, like, half-hour, it’s beginning to get a whole lot of hundreds of views,” Story advised At this time. “Individuals within the van are refreshing my web page all the time. They’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re at this many views’ … and so they’re studying the feedback out loud the entire time.”

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For the reason that first video was such successful, after just a few hours it was time for an replace.

“Alright, we’re three hours into our impromptu highway journey,” Story mentioned at the beginning of the second video. “We at the moment are in Georgia, so I’ll let all people give their updates.”

The digicam turned first to Carlos Cordero, who was touring alongside his future stepdaughter, Mikayla Puckering, and her mother Laura — and was very intent on attending to the College of Tennessee in time for Mikayla’s tour the subsequent morning, in keeping with At this time.

Cordero, who was driving, mentioned he wasn’t feeling drained however was “able to go” for “one other 5 hours.”

“I am quantity two, I do not know what which means however which means I get to sit down within the passenger seat, so I am okay with that,” added one other traveler named Seth, who acquired stranded whereas visiting buddies.

As for Michelle Miller, an agriculture influencer generally known as The Farm Babe who was making an attempt to get to Knoxville to present a keynote speech, her replace was easy: “I similar to snacks.”

Jokingly declaring that this type of a situation would not all the time prove effectively within the motion pictures, one other passenger joked, “Y’all know I am dying first.”

The ultimate replace got here the subsequent morning once they lastly acquired off the highway.

“It is 8:30 within the morning and we simply made it to Knoxville so let’s wrap this story up,” Story mentioned at the beginning of the clip.

Re-introducing himself as “Carlos the Driver,” Cordero shared how grateful he was for the expertise.

“My child lady had her coronary heart got down to make this appointment for the College of Tennessee,” he mentioned, happening to say that “due to a neighborhood that acquired collectively,” she would have the ability to make it on time.

Playfully he added, “and to the college, that is the extent of dedication that you will get from my household”

As for his passenger seat buddy? “Truthfully, I attempted to nap a great little bit of it, however I prefer to assume I used to be good ethical assist for Carlos, so we’ll go along with that,” mentioned Seth.

Mikayla additionally gave the “pretty cool” strangers a shoutout on TikTok.

“I used to be simply making an attempt to make it to my school tour and ended up on a highway journey in a creepy white van with a bunch of strangers from the airport,” she joked within the publish.

Nevertheless, within the caption Mikayla wrote that “these strangers have been truly fairly cool (effectively not strangers anymore). Thanks for enabling me to make it to my school go to!!”

As for why their journey went viral, Story mentioned it was a dose of “healthful enjoyable” that confirmed individuals coming collectively in a tough state of affairs.

“In my video, you’ll be able to clearly see our variations. And, you understand, I really feel like we’re so divided proper now and to have the ability to see only a ragtag group of strangers who’re completely completely different from one another, come collectively and simply get pleasure from a loopy state of affairs collectively,” she advised At this time. “I really feel prefer it resonates with lots of people.”