It Only Hurts When I Blog

Greetings, Bloggy Travelers!

Did you make it through the 4th of July OK?

I didn't. ;-) Well, my schedule didn't.

I am home now after a grueling episode getting from Boston, MA to Nashville yesterday afternoon. My plane out of Boston was delayed, and delayed, then we got on the plane and BACK OFF AGAIN when we had yet another delay, and then finally got back on the plane and flew away. We were over two hours late leaving Boston.

My plane was supposed to stop briefly in D.C. to take on passengers (no change of planes for me). It left so late from Logan, and Washington National was so full of planes trying to land (we circled and circled and I saw at least 20 simultaneous firework shows going on) that when we arrived in D.C. they deplaned everyone and said the remaining leg of the flight (it was even the same flight number!) was cancelled. Since when do they cancel a piece of the same flight??

Actually, they didn't SAY anything - we didn't know the remaining part of the flight was cancelled for several minutes after everyone was off the plane. There wasn't even a gate agent there right away, and all the ticket counters were closed too. Not fun. I did find my luggage later in the airport baggage office, tucked away in a corner, and asked to have it back so I could have some clean clothes. Those people on the plane who didn't find their luggage were out of luck. One lady I spoke to this morning slept IN the airport. That is awful, but I've been there, done that too.

I got on the cell phone last night and rebooked myself for the first available flight in the morning - at the early hour of ELEVEN am. Thankfully I didn't have to go to WORK today or be at a meeting or something.

Several of us called a phone number the airline gave us, and stayed at a reduced rate ($89 - for DC that is fantastic) at the Crystal City Hilton and had free shuttle service from the airport last night (at 11:30pm) and back to the airport this morning. I asked for a king bed, non smoking, and it was luxurious and cushy, with Crabtree and Evelyn soaps and in-room coffee. Aaaaah.

I took the Hilton shuttle back to the airport this morning, nice and early so I had PLENTY of time to sort out the problems. The airport was still experiencing problems from the issues the night before. The line to the ticket counter was 75 minutes long, and they took a long time trying to figure out HOW to reticket me, since their COMPUTER showed that my flight had flown. No, HALF of my flight had flown. If ALL of my flight happened, I wouldn't be THERE.

After I had my ticket, a seat, a boarding pass, and had gotten rid of my luggage, THEN I could think about having something to eat. I hadn't eaten a MEAL since lunch the day before. I did eat a plain bagel at 12:30am this morning because I had a bag of bagels in my suitcase that I was bringing home. Thank goodness for that.

I had a delicious western omelette with foccacia bread and fresh fruit at a restaurant at the airport. It was delicious because it was FOOD. Getting any food was a miracle because they had ONE waitress working, and every single table in the restaurant had dirty dishes on it when I got there. I moved some dishes to another table, wiped it off myself, and sat down. The waitress NEVER bussed the dishes on all the other tables while I was there, just the tables that people wanted to actually SIT DOWN at. Go figure.

When I wanted to pay, I just went up front and stood there till the waitress came by and took my money. I wonder if some people left without paying. Probably...

By the way - after my breakfast, I got in the very long line for security, and got down to the gate. My departure gate this morning was right next to my arrival gate the night before, so it was kind of a spooky sensation to 'recognize' the place (deja vu) when it was busy and bustling, vs. deserted as it was last night.

We had an uneventful flight over to Nashville, my baggage arrived safely, and the Park and fly place picked me up and had my car ready and waiting for me. I stopped at Sams Club on the way home and picked up a few things in case there wasn't any food in the fridge!

Well, Charlie will be home soon so I'd better quit blogging and start unpacking.

TTFN!