So Over It.

After our experience this year, I am pretty much over traveling, or rather flying! On Sunday the 20th, the hubby and I headed up to Phoenix to stay in a hotel since our flight left at 6:30am the next morning and we weren't sure about traffic & making the three hour drive so early! The day started off fine, the airport wasn't too busy, security wasn't a nightmare, and we waited only a little bit before they started boarding. Then it got bad. Our flight took off 30 minutes late, but I wasn't too upset since we had a 2 hour layover in Minneapolis/St. Paul. About an hour into the flight, a flight attendant came over the PA and asked if there was a doctor on board. Apparently, a older man in his 60's had collapsed near the bathroom. He had an oxygen tank, and as he was walking out of the bathroom, the tubing got caught in the door, cutting off oxygen, and causing him to pass out & fall. The flight attendants and a nurse gave him CPR & mouth to mouth for about 30 minutes, when the pilot finally came over the PA to announce that we were making an emergency landing in Denver so the man could get medical help. Yeah, I was annoyed, but I couldn't be mad, it wasn't his fault. So we landed and proceeded to sit there for almost 2 hours while were waiting to re-fuel and be taxied onto the runway again. Long story short, we missed our connecting flight and ended up home almost 2 hours later than planned.
The time home was wonderful though! I got to meet my nephew who is six months now, and is oh-so-adorable. He is a a happy baby for the most part and has the cutest little grin! I love him so much already :] I also got to meet up with Bestie while in the Mitten. Her husband grew up about an hour away from me, so they drove down and we went to lunch. And it felt like we’d never been separated. It felt good to talk to someone who understands me and I can be myself around. And of course, her baby is becoming a boy! He will be two in February and he has changed so much since I last saw him! Along with that, it was good to be around my family, especially my sisters who I love dearly and miss so much.
As if getting my Michigan weren’t annoying enough, I would soon find out that the trip home would be 10x worse. Our flight was supposed to leave Chicago at 6pm, so we of course arrived 2 hours early, went through security fairly fast, and were waiting for the plane to arrive, when an announcement came over the PA: Our flight coming from Atlanta, was being diverted to Indianapolis due to the weather in Chicago, which wasn’t bad AT ALL. They said they couldn’t keep the runway clear from snow, which I don’t understand because it was barely coming down. As soon as they announced this, I knew we were in for a long night, as our we only had a 40min layover and our connection flight was the last one out of Atlanta to Phoenix that night. They immediately rebooked us for a flight out of Atlanta the next day at 1:30pm – a whole 16 hours later than our other flight. I was seriously annoyed, but what could I do? Nothing. We kept getting updates saying our plane would land in an hour, oh then another hour, and on and on. Our flight finally landed at about 10pm. But then the flight attendants had worked their allotted hours and we needed a new crew, who had to fly from O’Hare, which took and hour. It’s in the same city for crying out loud! After much waiting, we finally boarded the plane and took off at 1:30am, arriving in Atlanta at 3:30am. We hadn’t eaten dinner, because we didn’t know when we would board and didn’t want to miss the call to board, and when we got to Atlanta, of course everything was closed. We ended up sleeping on benches on the airport; it was pointless to go to a hotel only to check out seven or eight hours later. The only plus to our big mishap – we got to sit in first class on our 4 hour flight to Phoenix. Free movies, a meal, and larger seats – if I could, I would always fly first class! It was so nice. We finally made it to Phoenix and then had to drive 3 hours home, ate dinner, and went to bed since my husband had to be up at 4:45am for work.
I could understand having a traveling mishap on our way there, but to have such luck on both travel days? Like I said, I am over traveling…until next year :]
Hope everyone had a safe holiday, and here’s to a new year!