okay, i am tired.
I'm home. Now I will tell you all about my adventures getting here.
Yesterday, I had to get up, ride all the way to Epcot, and talk to my manager there. He's going to mark me as a call-in-sick for Wednesday through Saturday, and I'm only going to work for about three hours on Sunday evening. So then I rode all the way back, called my mom, and she made flight arrangements for me - giving me about an hour and a half to get ready to go. I just flung a bunch of random stuff into my suitcase, and then I set out to catch my taxi to the airport.
When I got to the check-in counter, the lady was like, "Uh, yeah. You have a reservation, but no ticket." So I stood around for a while until she got things worked out. By the time I got through security, ate, and got to my gate, I still had about 45 minutes left. I drew a picture and made friends with some random kids who were coming back from Disney World and wanted to tell me about every ride they had been on during the whole week.
Then the plane had mechanical issues and we left about 40 minutes late. It was annoying, but I thought there would still be plenty of time to catch my connecting flight in Dallas. When I got on the plane, I was pleased to discover that I was seated next to a rather attractive young man whom I had happened to notice in the terminal. So we started talking - his name was Trevor and he was very nice.
Well, it was storming over Dallas. It was the sort of thing where you could look down at the clouds and see lightning flickering - very cool, except we couldn't land in it, so we circled. For about an hour. And then we were getting low on fuel, so we had to land - in San Antonio. We sat around on the ground for like half an hour while they refueled. I borrowed some guy's cell phone and called home while we were waiting, and apparently everybody was already waiting for me in Springfield. Har. Then we fiiiinally took off again for Dallas, and we fiiiiiiinally landed there. It was after midnight.
They told us that we would get vouchers for the Clarion Suites. I was like, hey, good deal, and we all piled onto the bus to the hotel. The check-in line was out the door when we arrived, and we stood around for a long time in line. Then this lady Trevor had been talking to earlier walked out past us, with her daughter, and said something like, "40 bucks for 4 hours? No way." I was like, "Wait. You have to pay?"
Yes, you had to pay. The vouchers were just for a discounted rate. Is that not despicable?!?!
So then a ton of people piled back into this airport van that had pulled up, and we rode baaack to the airport, and had to go baaaack through security (which took freakin forever, cause they had to go find someone who could check IDs, or something) and then we wandered around looking for food. Everything was closed. I was starving. I did eat some peanut butter crackers and lemonade, but it didn't do much.
Trevor and I ended up hanging around with these two other girls. We wandered aimlessly for a while, trying to decide which empty terminal out of the 32104983545 to crash at, and lo and behold! We discovered this big ol' pile of cots and blankets. (My mum thinks they must have been there for hurricane refugees. Well, ha! We were airline refugees.) So we set up camp in some random terminal, sat around and talked, and then kind of slept for a while. These really loud floor cleaners kept going by, and the noise made me think I was still on the plane with the engine roaring. Also it was really cold and my blanket was like 3 inches too short. However, the accomodations were really quite comfortable, considering we were camping out in an airport.
In the morning, we had breakfast at McDonald's, which was finally open. Amy, one of the other girls, took some pictures of all of us, and is supposedly going to e-mail them to me, so we'll see. I left my camera in the pocket of my apron, which is currently on the floor in Florida.
Eventually we parted ways, and I waited around at my terminal for a while, and then I finally, finally flew home to Springfield.
Not bad for my very first time flying all by myself, eh?
It's freaking cold here.
Yesterday, I had to get up, ride all the way to Epcot, and talk to my manager there. He's going to mark me as a call-in-sick for Wednesday through Saturday, and I'm only going to work for about three hours on Sunday evening. So then I rode all the way back, called my mom, and she made flight arrangements for me - giving me about an hour and a half to get ready to go. I just flung a bunch of random stuff into my suitcase, and then I set out to catch my taxi to the airport.
When I got to the check-in counter, the lady was like, "Uh, yeah. You have a reservation, but no ticket." So I stood around for a while until she got things worked out. By the time I got through security, ate, and got to my gate, I still had about 45 minutes left. I drew a picture and made friends with some random kids who were coming back from Disney World and wanted to tell me about every ride they had been on during the whole week.
Then the plane had mechanical issues and we left about 40 minutes late. It was annoying, but I thought there would still be plenty of time to catch my connecting flight in Dallas. When I got on the plane, I was pleased to discover that I was seated next to a rather attractive young man whom I had happened to notice in the terminal. So we started talking - his name was Trevor and he was very nice.
Well, it was storming over Dallas. It was the sort of thing where you could look down at the clouds and see lightning flickering - very cool, except we couldn't land in it, so we circled. For about an hour. And then we were getting low on fuel, so we had to land - in San Antonio. We sat around on the ground for like half an hour while they refueled. I borrowed some guy's cell phone and called home while we were waiting, and apparently everybody was already waiting for me in Springfield. Har. Then we fiiiinally took off again for Dallas, and we fiiiiiiinally landed there. It was after midnight.
They told us that we would get vouchers for the Clarion Suites. I was like, hey, good deal, and we all piled onto the bus to the hotel. The check-in line was out the door when we arrived, and we stood around for a long time in line. Then this lady Trevor had been talking to earlier walked out past us, with her daughter, and said something like, "40 bucks for 4 hours? No way." I was like, "Wait. You have to pay?"
Yes, you had to pay. The vouchers were just for a discounted rate. Is that not despicable?!?!
So then a ton of people piled back into this airport van that had pulled up, and we rode baaack to the airport, and had to go baaaack through security (which took freakin forever, cause they had to go find someone who could check IDs, or something) and then we wandered around looking for food. Everything was closed. I was starving. I did eat some peanut butter crackers and lemonade, but it didn't do much.
Trevor and I ended up hanging around with these two other girls. We wandered aimlessly for a while, trying to decide which empty terminal out of the 32104983545 to crash at, and lo and behold! We discovered this big ol' pile of cots and blankets. (My mum thinks they must have been there for hurricane refugees. Well, ha! We were airline refugees.) So we set up camp in some random terminal, sat around and talked, and then kind of slept for a while. These really loud floor cleaners kept going by, and the noise made me think I was still on the plane with the engine roaring. Also it was really cold and my blanket was like 3 inches too short. However, the accomodations were really quite comfortable, considering we were camping out in an airport.
In the morning, we had breakfast at McDonald's, which was finally open. Amy, one of the other girls, took some pictures of all of us, and is supposedly going to e-mail them to me, so we'll see. I left my camera in the pocket of my apron, which is currently on the floor in Florida.
Eventually we parted ways, and I waited around at my terminal for a while, and then I finally, finally flew home to Springfield.
Not bad for my very first time flying all by myself, eh?
It's freaking cold here.