Grumpy Santa seems quite startled by a hard landing; but notice his seatmate is cool as a cucumber. Better relax, Santa; you have a lot of landings ahead of you.

Fortunately, he is distracted by a magazine article on Richard Branson, who is soon going to be testing the limits…with dogs??

Better click “more” to see the video.

Elf is livin’ large up in First Class, but then again, since he’s 6-and-a-half-feet tall, he’s livin’ large everywhere he goes.

But he takes pity on Grumpy Santa, stuck back in Coach. He sends him a beer.

It is unclear whether it’s foreign or domestic. You’ll just have to watch the video for yourself (click “more”).

Poor Grumpy Santa. This was not his day. Or his flight. That rascal Elf is getting all the perks. Like flying in First Class.

Our intrepid Santa is stuck in Coach. We feel your pain, Santa.

Meanwhile, watch Elf swill what appears to be an alcoholic beverage, and generally have a swell time, by clicking “more.”

I can now say, they are trying to get you fired up about flying with them. The pilot sounded like an early morning deejay. He was all, “Hey, welcome to ExpressJet! We’re going to have a great flight! The weather’s is great, our crew is fantastic, and we’ve got dollar beers in the back!”

He actually said, “We’ve got dollar beers in the back.” Had it not been 7:00 am, I might have taken him up on that.

But, see what I did take them up on…by clicking “more”.

I remember when Sundays were the “calm before the storm”, the fall-asleep-on-the-couch time, or as the Bangles say, “My fun day, my I-don’t-have-to-run day.”

But for me, Sunday was 6-flights to places that were ridiculously cold. Pioneer cold (”your-wagon-train-broke-down-in-the-snow-and-there’s-no-food-or-firewood” kind of cold).

That alone sent me into a grumpy downward spiral. But now, the flipping icing on the cake. I am left to carry on…alone!!! Keep reading….

Have you seen this man? Watch out: Grumpy Santa’s coming to a city near you! Just check his itinerary, then head for your airport.

Meanwhile, Grumpy has just left New York City, where he had a fine old time (and we’ll be posting video of his frolics just as soon as we get it).

Now, it’s on to Cincinnati, the “Queen City” or, in a nod to its pork packing past, “Porkopolis”. Then on to West Virginia, North Carolina and Alabama…

Have any idea what Santa’s 48-state, 12-day marathon trip is going to cost? Enter our contest, and win a free flight.

And sign up for FareCompare’s Email Alerts as long as you’re here; it’s free, takes about 10-seconds, and…you’ll save like crazy!

Well, Grumpy Santa tried a Richard Nixon impression-but it’s clear he’ll never make it in stand-up comedy.

The point, you may well be asking? Well, Mark Ashley of the esteemed “Upgrade: Travel Better” site asked Santa to do one of the former President’s patented Air Force One waves, to illustrate an historical parallel.

You see, back when he was campaigning against JFK in 1960, Mr. Nixon went on a journey similar to our Santa’s…but the presidential candidate’s trip didn’t work out so well.

Click “more” to see Santa in action, but please, don’t judge him by the one performance alone—check out these videos, then rate his performances!

Just off the phone with Santa and they are bailing off their regional Jet in Boston (boarded 30 min ago). Per Plan “C” they are heading to the Boston South Amtrak station to see if they can hitch a ride to New York Penn Station.

I really want Grumpy to do some stuff in Times Square — so lets see if we can get him to Manhattan for the night.

Santa says the pilot was warning of airport closures in Boston and New York — so I told them to jump off and find a cab while they still can to the train station — the amazing race to Manhattan starts now…

I did most of my ranting in my “Delay Post,” so I’m going to lay off the daily rant and keep this one positive.So, I missed the Providence flight.

But I swear to the good people of Rhode Island, if it’s the only state I have missed as this thing starts to come to an end, I will make it there.

I know for a fact the folks back at home are already concocting mad schemes to make it happen. After the Providence delay I ran into some problems with US Airways.

Since I missed that flight, I missed the first leg (out of Providence back to Philadelphia) of a two-leg journey (I’m flying on from Philadelphia to Burlington, VT).

Once you miss the first leg of a trip, you’re automatically canceled for the following leg.

This is not looking good…and it only got worse….

Grumpy Santa’s actually smiling!

Santa made a new friend, who kept him entertained: the fellow joked about “dares” you could take with department store Santas (he said his info was courtesy Vanity Fair magazine); he also spoke about escaping a certain relative.

Oh my! Watch the fun right here.

Grumpy Santa wants pie. But he settles for a beer.

No, this isn’t exactly your typical image of Santa, but then this one’s been on the road for quite awhile. And has miles to go!

In total, about 25,000-miles!

So, go ahead, Santa. This Bud’s for you.

And for the rest of us? More video…so stay tuned.

Just to keep you updated: Day 2 started out wonderfully. I got a quick lesson on flying with one of the pilots on my Southwest flight, and everything was looking up.

Then, we made the switch to AirTran, and everything seemed to go downhill from there.

It’s not AirTran’s fault really, but they did put us on the narrowest, most cramped plane I’ve been on.

After a few AirTran flights and two on US Air, I arrived in the magical land of Orlando, and all hell broke loose. Word of advice …

For a minute there, I thought I was a department store Santa-as soon as I got into the Orlando Airport, there were kids-EVERYWHERE!!! (I don’t suppose it had anything to do with Orlando being home to a rather famous rodent, do you?)

Fortunately, even Grumpy Santas like kids, so it was fine with me, but it did make security lines go oh-so-slooooow.The biggest problem was the moms and dads, all carrying strollers, and car seats, and diaper bags, and, well, you name it.

All that stuff took awhile to check through, but what the heck, we made our flight and tonight we arrive in Pittsburgh.

Talk to you soon!

-GS

Today, I got to fulfill a dream I have had since I saw Top Gun.

I got to sit down in the captain’s seat of the plane. One of the pilots walked me through all of the dials, and showed me the crazy screen you watch when you are landing “by hand.”

He said, piloting a jet really isn’t as complicated as it seems. But with having to log at least 3,000 flight hours before you can even think about maybe applying for the gig, I think he was being modest.

The captain told me if I focus up, I could be a pilot in 10-years. Yeah, and if I put my mind to it I could be President.

Thanks to the pilots and entire crew of the Southwest flight from Houston to New Orleans for making me turn into a 12-year old again!

–GS

We’re back at Hobby in Houston (I have seen enough of this airport for a lifetime) getting ready to head out to New Orleans for Day 2.

The day started at 4:00 am, which isn’t particularly my favorite time of day, but in order to make the trip in such a short period of time, we have to pretty much be out on the first flight of the day.

Yesterday was so crazy that everything is already starting to run together. I will not, however, soon forget our landing in Little Rock. The fog made it seem like the runway came out of nowhere, and it felt like the plane just bounced when we landed.

I’m sure the suddenness of it just threw me off, but I was freaked out, and honestly it wasn’t just me.

Grumpy Santa is beloved!

See people in the terminal call cheery greetings to him! See Santa respond!

Then see a pan-handler get in on the act: he hands Santa a sign reading, “Will Work for Peanuts”.

Well, after all the flights he’s taken, Santa should have plenty of peanut packs to give away!

Keep visiting this site…more video is on the way.

The second leg of our trip took us back to Texas. We’re in Houston for an hour or two, and we will be back to Houston tonight. That famous Houston humidity is some how leaking into the airport, but other than that, everything is going well. Had a great time on the flight in from Little Rock.

The Southwest Airlines crew couldn’t have been better. I got to hand out peanuts, they gave me souvenirs, and gave us a pep talk about taking multiple flights in a single day (they often do 7, so they feel our pain).

They did, however, demand that Grumpy Santa fatten up, so airline pillows were put to use. (note: you do not want to use those pillows — click more for very raw video — cutting it tonight –)

Is Grumpy Santa actually smiling?Yes, indeed! He’s playing “little helper” to Southwest Flight attendants, by handing out souvenir coloring books.

Unfortunately, as you’ll see, there weren’t too many kiddies on this flight, but several adults were happy to snatch these up!

Stayed tuned…more video is on its way!

The FareCompare Grumpy Santa tour is off and running. I had to say goodbye to a trusted friend before we even left on our first flight. My good old Santa boots weren’t up for the trek.

They fit, but they had sprained ankle written all over them, and they left weird black marks on my socks, so Grumpy Santa has donned his old school Reeboks for the duration.

We made our first flight from Dallas to Little Rock, AK Arkansas. Little Rock is currently shrouded in fog, and that made for a very interesting/slightly terrifying landing. Looks like the fog is going to clear, so we should be able to head back to Texas and land in Houston before heading out to Jackson, Mississippi.