'You got to be spontaneous': Sen. Angus King takes road trip with four strangers

WASHINGTON – Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, was just trying to make it back to his home state on Thursday.

After an hour on the tarmac, the junior senator's 5 p.m. flight from Washington, D.C., to Portland, Maine, was canceled due to weather in the Pine Tree State. He quickly rebooked his flight for the next one out — at 10 p.m., which was already experiencing delays.

So instead of leaving things to chance, King decided to tag along on a road trip with two software engineers, a college professor and a lawyer, who all ditched their airlines, rented a car, and decided to make the nearly 10-hour drive back to Maine.

"You got to be spontaneous," King said in an interview with USA TODAY. "You got to say 'hey, let's go for it.'"

"Because at first blush, you know, driving from Reagan National [Airport] to Portland, Maine, that's an undertaking and something you think about for weeks," he continued. "We just decided to do it in about 15 minutes."

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The senator accompanied Rebecca Gibbons, a professor at University of Southern Maine; Ramon Krikken, a technical professionals analyst at Gartner; Matt Dusoe, a premier field engineer at Microsoft; and Tim Schneider, general counsel and principal consultant at Tilson Technology Management. 

King said he ran into the group as he was going to get his new boarding pass, and asked what they were doing. The group, who recognized the senator, informed him that the 10 p.m. flight was already delayed two and a half hours, so they decided to rent a vehicle instead to drive to Portland.

"They said, 'you wanna go with us,' and I said 'sure!" King said, adding "it was just like an old-fashion road trip."

He said they took turns driving, pitched in for gas and mostly chatted throughout the 10-hour long drive.

The senator and his new travel buddies left D.C. around 7:30 p.m., he said. After nearly four hours of driving, the travelers reached the George Washington Bridge in New York around 11:55 p.m. They reached Portland, Maine, at nearly 4 a.m. King, taking the last leg of the drive, then drove two more hours to reach his home in Brunswick, Maine.

Throughout the drive, King said that he and the other Mainers were repeatedly looking to see if the 10 p.m. flight ever made it out. It did, arriving in Portland at nearly 2:30 a.m.

"It beat us by two hours," he said. "We figured we had a lot more fun than sitting at around the airport for eight hours waiting for the plane to take off."

King, who advocated for the creation of the lobster emoji, posted about his journey on Instagram, updating his followers on where he was on his journey. He said that it is his "fastest liked Instagram I've ever uploaded." He also noted it was the second most liked post on his account. He said that he and the other travelers were monitoring the reactions.

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"We were all looking at it and saying 'holy smokes, what's going on here,'" he said.

He noted that people like when "senators are not being senatorial."

King, a former journalist, said that he loves "asking questions and learning," and talked to the other travelers about how they got to Maine and their current jobs.

"I was just drinking it in," King said. "Put me in a car with four strangers for 10 hours and I'm going to learn a lot."

"I met some really wonderful people," he added. "It was a fun group of people, lots of good conversation."

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