Oh boy, this has been quite a day. It's almost 2 a.m. Columbus time and I'm checking email, working, replying to messages...why? Well, buckle up, this is quite a train of events. I boarded a plane in Hartford around 1pm today. We were there for a meeting, and now needed to get to Dubuque, IA for a meeting tomorrow morning. There was a scheduled stop in Chicago, going on to Dubuque. We get to Chicago and due to some weather issues, they had stopped letting planes in/out. So, we circled the airport for about an hour and were then diverted. They wanted to send us to Wisconsin, but we didn't have enough fuel, so we ended up in Grand Rapids, MI. We sat on the runway there for another hour or so, and were finally permitted to take off again - back to Chicago! I think by the time we exited the plane we had been on it for something like 5 hours. Ugh...that's just painful, even more so when it's a tiny plane (only three seats across). Alright, so once in Chicago, we check the schedules and guess what? No flight to Dubuque. Yes, they cancelled the flight. They had rebooked us on a flight for tomorrow morning, but we would miss our meeting. No go. Peter (the co-worker I was with, and relationship manager of this account) opted to bail. He was heading back to KC and I was heading to Columbus. One issue here...our luggage was heading to Dubuque. Isn't this a great story? To dramatize things a bit more, I had not had anything to eat/drink in all this time. So, I might have been getting a bit crabby.
Alright, so the flight to Columbus was supposed to leave at 8:05 - and Peter's flight to KC was leaving a bit later, so we were finally able to sit down and eat our first real meal of the day. This, around 7:30pm. After wolfing down our food, we parted ways and I headed to my gate, only to find that my plane was already delayed again - it was now scheduled to depart at 8:25. Ok, so I sit. Why am I sitting when I've been on a plane for 5+ hours you may ask? Well, I'm sitting because my feet have grown double or triple the size, and the shoes I'm wearing were not intended to stay on my feet for how ever many hours and miles walked in the airport. Soooo, I have now developed some pretty wicked blisters on two spots. It's getting a bit ugly, actually. I can feel them throbbing in my shoes. So, I limp down to one of the airport stores, in search of flip-flops - bandaids - padding of any kind - I'll take anything...they have nothing. Are you kidding? Every airport I'm in has one of those Brookstone stores - not this concourse! I would've settled for slippers at this point. Alright, so no go on foot relief. I sit and wait. The flight is postponed even more...now it's leaving at 8:50. I hobble to the bathroom. When I return to the gate, I see people boarding. Wahoo. I hand the gate agent my boarding pass..."this is Columbus" he mutters, and hands it back. Yes, I know it's Columbus, that's where I'm going. "They changed gates - G5". Ok, I'm annoyed. I grab the boarding pass and shuffle down to G5. That gate says Pittsburgh. Are you kidding me? Where the heck did they move my flight? I spot the arrival/departure monitors and, of course, they're down the corridor a ways. I walk slowly down to them and find that my gate is now at the opposite end of this concourse. Thankfully, the flight is far enough delayed that I have plenty o' time to make my way to the new gate.
Blah, blah, blah..I sit, some other passengers waiting talk to me, I stare, I sit, oh, and we finally board the plane, we take off after 10 pm, I snooze a bit, we land. I find the baggage office, and wouldn't ya know it, noone is working in that office. I wander around a bit, trying to figure out who I need to talk to and -- here comes the highlight of my day, folks -- it was just like a movie...I'm walking towards a crowd of people at the baggage claim...the crowd parts, (imagine a ray of sunshine and angelic music here) and there, in the hands of a baggage agent, is my
suitcase! I smile (almost cry), and say...my bag! She asks my name and hands it to me (hear the crowd clapping now). I carefully wheel it over to a post, lay it down, unzip it and pull out my tennis shoes. Yes, this was the highlight of my day.
Ok, so on with the story. In all of the shuffle back in Chicago, I also had to book a hotel room for tonight. That wasn't an easy task either, as apparently it's conference central in Columbus this week. I did, however, manage to get a room at the Doubletree. Well, I hop in a cab, and the ding dong driver took me to the wrong hotel. It seems there is a Doubletree downtown, and one back past the airport. Of course, I'm at the one back past the airport. I tried to stay at the "wrong" Doubletree, but there were no rooms.
Finally, a little after 1 a.m., I arrive at the hotel. I'm delighted. I'm going to bed!
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