Friday, February 1:
Beginning this crusade was a two day trip to Iowa for my Grandfather's super sad funeral. On Thursday, Russ and I drove back to Illinois in a blizzard causing our three hour drive to take more than 6. Waking up in Sycamore on Friday, we had to turn around quickly to head home. I have plane tickets for a previously scheduled trip to Minneapolis. Its hectic, but I'm excited to see Mona and Josie is all about airplanes so its actually kind of fun.
Saturday: Super fun day with Mona and her new baby, Andrew! We capture their first kiss on film. Really great day and hardly any arguing about politics with her Bush-backer hubby, Jon.
Sunday: Josie and I head to a day with Plank relatives at Jane's house. Its so fun, I am miserable when its time to leave for the airport to go home.
4:00: Arrive at Minneapolis airport with Josie. I make my way through ridiculous security. They force Josie to put Pooh through the xray thing and even have her take her shoes off and walk through the metal detector. She is suspected of being a terrorist.
4:30: Dang! My flight is delayed 45 minutes! Some problem with not having the right pilot. Whatever, Josie and I walk around checking out the airport scene.
5:30: Time to board! We'll be home soon!
6:30: After sitting on the plane for an hour and doing nothing, the airline tells us the flight has randomly been CANCELLED. They kick us off and tell us to rebook the flight. Apparenty they still couldn't find a pilot.
7:15: Hooray, maybe this isn't too bad, we got on another flight right away. We take off and head to Midway. Can't wait to see Russ! The flight attendants are giving us updates on the Superbowl.
8:15: Flight attendants, prepare for landing. I can see Midway out the window! Hooray!
8:20: What's happening? Why are we not landing? A flight attendant comes over the loudspeaker and says "Bad news, folks. The weather has gotten bad and the visibility is down to zero. We have to turn around and fly back to Minneapolis." I choke on my gum. This has to be a joke, right?
9:30: Um, no, its not a joke, because here I am getting off the plane in Minneapolis exactly where I started 6 hours before. Only this time the airline has lost my stroller and my luggage. They finally find my stroller but by the time I can get to the ticket counter there are no more flights scheduled until tomorrow. I have to call my Dad, but he doesn't answer because he's at a superbowl party. I am now stranded and living like the people on Lost!
10:00 pm: I finally get a hold of my Dad and he is coming to get me at the airport. The airline has lost my carseat as well, so I ride in the backseat of my Dad's car with Josie in my lap hoping we don't go over a bridge or something.
11:00 pm: We get home and I put Josie in one of MaryBeth's shrunken t-shirts for sleep. Josie is screaming and freaking out. Where am I, what's up with this t-shirt, who is this MaryBeth character, and why am I not at home. We sleep together that night. Josie wakes up every couple of hours to make sure I am still there.
Monday:
8:00 am: Wake up and assess the damage. Schedule a new flight. My Dad goes to buy Josie some extra diapers.
10:45 am: Head for the airport for another attempt. My Dad helps me and tries to talk security into letting him come wait at the gate with me, but I am not disabled so they kick him out. We say good bye and it is not until I reach the gate that the computer tells me my flight is cancelled AGAIN. I call my Dad as fast as I can so he doesn't leave the airport with out his two vagabond ladies.
All day we watch the computer as flight after flight is cancelled. All in all 6 flights I was scheduled to take home are cancelled. I talk to Russ and he tells me that more bad weather is coming to Chicago, and if I can't get home today I might be stuck in Minneapolis until Thursday! In mid-afternoon, another snow storm also hits Minneapolis.
10:40 pm: We head to the airport in the fluke chance we might actually get home on this red-eye flight. The northwest employees seem doubtful. But they board the plane and we are heading out. 10 minutes before we land, they say something about needing to circle the airport because they can't land due to fog. I experience acid flash backs and start sweating. But suddenly, we are on the ground and home!
By Wednesday I am back at work. Besides waiting another day for my luggage and enduring a 4-hour power outage on Tuesday night (a vast Republican conspiracy to keep people from voting on Super Tuesday), its almost like things are back to normal. I can't wait to fly again!
2 comments:
Em told me about this horrible, terrible, no good very bad travel experience. I hope you got some sort of compensation for it all- you are officially a super mom!
Fun to check out your blog Gmax. Now that I am blogging I will be checking yours out regularily. There will be some "Bush-backing" as you so lovingly put it, but not all politics....let's set an example to the world on ending blog-violence!
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