Hmm where to begin. I don’t know… I guess my flight from Anchorage to Houston, which is already a 7 hour flight… gets to Houston airspace, and because of air traffic backup, has to circle the airport for an hour before landing. Ok sweet I say, just less time for my first 2:40 layover, taking off from Houston to Memphis! Wrong. Flight delayed 2 hours before boarding, then sit on the tarmack for two hours, waiting in line to take off. Apparently there was a back log of people taking off and landing from previous storms that rolled through in the morning. Yay.
Land in Memphis. I’m only an hour and 45 minutes late for my connecting flight. No problem!!! I even had a two hour layover, to allow plenty of time. In Memphis, reschedule for 7:40pm flight (keep in mind I should be landing at my destination at 4pm.). Ok I think, I’ll walk around, grab something to eat. I pass the flight arrival/departure display… 9:09PM!!!!! Currently my flight is schedule to leave at 9:37pm, everytime I look it’s later.
I’ll get a cart I say… not that I have a lot of stuff, but after carting it around since 10:40pm YESTERDAY, i’m sick of it, and I want to explore. $3.00!!! Extortion. But whatever. Do you think the damn cart machine will work for me? No. Won’t take dollars, won’t take coins. Carts, sitting there mocking me. Well hey, at least I only had to pay $7.95 for my wifi! You’d think they’d offer it for free.
Oh, and as a side note to all this crap…. I always arrive, and leave, at the farthest possible gates. I’m talking… A36, to C65. Everytime. I’m at the end of the terminal. Concrete wall, no where else to go. End of line. Taking off tonight (supposedly) from A1. See what I mean? Endless!
Wish me luck…
Laura
**UPDATE** Flight was put off until 10pm, and then cancelled, spent an hour in line to get a re-route, which won’t happen until tomorrow. Car rental, five hours one way, and huge expense to pick up at one airport, return at another. Northwest was kind enough (cough cough) to put me up in a hotel, and give me two meal vouchers, one for $13 one for $7. Uhhh, you can get a bagel at the airport for $7! Oh well, that’s probably what I’ll get, because guess what! I get to wake up at 4:30am, to catch the 5am shuttle, to catch my re-routed DELTA flight to CHICAGO, then into Springfield. I just hope there’s no bad weather, which was part of the problem today. Flight delays, which backed up air traffic, and also caused the pilots to have logged too many hours, so they were short pilots. Sweet. Anyway… i’m so exhausted. Going to hit the hay, and hit it again tomorrow. I *should* get into Springfield just before 11am. Geez… I’m even afraid to say that, I might jinx myself. Sorry for the long entry today!! ~Laura
by Debo Hobo, on December 28 2007 @ 11:29 am
And that is why I refuse to travel via plane in the winter months. Glad you made it to and fro safely though