Hundreds using Valley airport to get away from cold and snow

The price -- 59 one way -- suited many pocketbooks.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
VIENNA -- Patrick Chaplow of Canfield unloaded his family's luggage at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport entrance, leaving his wife and two small children to wait for him while he parked the car.
The Chaplows were four of about 150 passengers who took the sold-out Allegiant flight to the Sanford International Airport, near Orlando.
They were escaping Ohio's snow and cold Friday morning to enjoy some time in the Sunshine State.
Today's flight is sold out, too.
Chaplow said dropping off the family can be a little scary at big-city airports because of the number of people and sheer size of the facility. But not at the local airport. He was in the check-in line inside the terminal about 10 minutes later with his family.
"It was easy," he said.
This was the first time he had flown out of the Vienna Township location, but not the first time he had taken his family to Florida.
Kim Chaplow said they'll visit Walt Disney World, Sea World, spend time with two sets of grandparents and relax in the warm weather over their 10-day trip. "We're just going to enjoy the warm weather, that's for sure," she said.
Cold and snowy weather in recent weeks has given her children, Michael, 6, and Erin, 3, an old-fashioned case of cabin fever.
"It helps that we had 2 inches of snow," she said of the weather late Thursday and early Friday, which put the Chaplows in a good mood to go south.
The price was good, too, she said: 59 each way.
Fun and family
Also in the terminal was Lisa Seegert of Ravenna, who will spend 10 days in Florida with her twin sons, Ben and Casey, 9. They planned to visit Universal Studios, attend a Cleveland Indians game in Winterhaven and go to the beach in Tampa, where Lisa's parents live.
"I want to find shark teeth on the beach," Casey said when asked what he was most excited about.
"It's an escape, totally," Lisa said.
Seegert said she couldn't pass up the 59-each-way tickets, noting that the regional airport is also closer to her home than the Akron-Canton Regional Airport.
As a bus driver for the Portage Area Rapid Transit Authority, Seegert said she has battled cold and snowy weather on a daily basis recently, making the trip south all the more welcome. "It's been a rough couple of months," she said.
New Springfield residents Tiffany Karelin and her daughter, Lexi, 13, planned to hit the hotel pool by Friday afternoon, they said. The main reason for their weekend trip is the Sunshine Shootout Cheerleading Competition in Orlando.
Lexi, a member of the STC Academy Elite All-Star Cheerleaders of Boardman, has made the trip each of the past three years.
"After all the cold weather, it will be nice to have some sunshine," Tiffany said, noting that her husband, Greg, had been gone from home on business for several weeks.
"The kids had to shovel the driveway," she said with a laugh -- adding that a neighbor helped out when the inches piled up in the driveway.
Drove from Columbus
A retired couple from Columbus, Bob and Marj Heffelfinger, said they drove up Friday morning to fly Allegiant, primarily because flights to Orlando out of Port Columbus Airport require a layover in Atlanta, which they wanted to avoid. Allegiant flights are all direct.
They also appreciated flying into the Sanford International Airport instead of Orlando, Bob Heffelfinger said, because Orlando International is so big and congested.
runyan@vindy.com