Petosky to Tucson, the Long Way/Wrong Way Home: The Saga of my return from Knitting Under a Mango Moon

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Well, I’m stuck at O’Hare Airport for 4 hours, continuing what has been a really lousy day. It started out OK, had breakfast with the other participants of the Jane Thornley Workshop/Retreat, said our goodbyes, and went back up to my room to finish packing. Unfortunately, by the time I finished and took my luggage down to load up the rental car, it was pouring. I had planned on a leisurely drive to the Traverse City airport (the first leg of my journey home), stopping along the way to take pictures of the magnificent Fall foliage. But that was not to be. It rained heavily and continuously all the way. So much so that I not only couldn’t stop, but ended up at the airport without having filled the gas tank, which was what I had contracted to do. So there was an extra charge for that.

I then had the worst experience ever at the security check-in, where they had me take almost everything out of my carryon luggage, including the C-PAP machine. None of this had been required at the Tucson airport when I started on my trip. (Thank goodness for that!) Then, in contrast to the 6 or 8 passengers on the way out, this puddle-jumper was quite full,

I arrived in Chicago to find that my flight to Dallas was delayed; enough that it was questionable whether I would make my connecting flight to Tucson. Which is how I find myself with 4 hours to kill; I’m now on a direct flight to Tucson, but it doesn’t leave till 6:35 (as opposed to my original 3:25 flight.) 

So I went and had a leisurely meal, and figured I’d spend the rest of the time going online. But to my surprise, I can’t connect to the internet; the free airport WiFi doesn’t seem to be working on my computer. So here I sit, composing this on Word, instead of directly on my blog, and instead of checking email and Ravelry, etcetera, etcetera.

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Friday, September 24, 2010

I started this post yesterday in the airport, while waiting for my last flight of the day, but got interrupted by a new glitch. As I mentioned, I had changed to a direct flight from Chicago to Tucson instead of changing planes in Dallas. Little did I know that the 4 hour layover was going to stretch out to 8 ½ hours.

When boarding time approached, it was announced that our plane was inoperable, and we were switching to another at Gate 3 (the gate for my original flight) and a long walk from Gate 15 where we were. After waiting for the new plane to land and the passengers to get off, we then had to wait for the usual cleanup and maintenance before boarding. My mind is a bit foggy at this point, and I don’t remember how long all that took, but it was at least 8:00 before we boarded. Once we were on board, we sat and sat, until they finally announced that there had been an oil spill on the tarmac and we had to wait till it was cleaned up. Long story somewhat shorter, once they cleaned up as much as they could, all the international flights had priority. And by the time we were able to take off, it was around 11:00pm Chicago time.

By the time I got back to Tucson, retrieved my luggage and picked up my car, which I had parked at the airport, it was around 1am, and 1:30 when I pulled into my garage.  Allowing for crossing a couple of time zones, I was en route 17 or 18 hours or so. 

NOT an experience I would recommend.