The Romance (cough cough) of Air Travel
So, the trip to Florida was good. Actually, let me rephrase that: being in Florida was good. Getting the chance to see the Lovely Bride's father and stepmother was good. They were thrilled to see us, and I really got the sense that it did Diane good.
Getting to and from Florida: another story entirely.
We were going to fly down on Thursday evening, and fly home on Sunday afternoon.
Thursday afternoon, I left work just after lunch, to go home, pick up the Lovely Bride, and head to O'Hare. While I was heading home, a situation in the office exploded, and it became clear that I had several hours of work to do, ASAP -- work which would require me to be in the office. So, I put the Lovely Bride (who, at that point was steaming mad, and understandably so) in a cab for the airport, and spent some time on the phone, trying (and, finally, succeeding) in rebooking my ticket so I could head down on Friday night.
The Lovely Bride's flight on Thursday went off without a hitch. I spent Thursday night back in the office.
Friday afternoon, I headed to O'Hare, and discovered that my flight was delayed an hour, as the plane was coming from the West Coast, where the weather was horrific. Then, the delay became two hours. Then three. I didn't arrive in West Palm Beach until 1:30 am.
Saturday afternoon, I went to do the online check-in thing for Sunday's flights (we couldn't get a direct flight home; we had to take US Air from West Palm to Charlotte, then a United flight from Charlotte to O'Hare). Well, the online check-in thing wouldn't work. I spent a half-hour on the phone with US Air, then an hour and a quarter on the phone with United...turns out that the United agent who rebooked my ticket from Thursday to Friday messed something up, and it was making US Air (who shares flight codes with United) very unhappy. They had to reissue my ticket, and they warned me: "you'll have to check in at the airport. And be there early...like, two and a half hours early." I get nervous about travel logistics anyway; this all set me on edge; I spent the rest of the evening (and all night) worrying about whether I'd be able to get on that plane.
Duane and Diane drove us to the airport on Sunday morning, and it only took about 10 or 15 minutes (and a little bit of fiddling on the part of the US Air ticket agent) to get us all squared away. Phew. And, the flight from West Palm to Charlotte was just fine.
We got to Charlotte at about 3:30; our flight to O'Hare wasn't scheduled to depart until 7:15...but, it was being listed as on-time, which is a good thing. Flights in and out of Chicago earlier in the day were delayed (it was 65 degrees in Chicago on Sunday, and all the snow melted, which caused some fog), but, as the day went on, the delays were lessening. So, we had an early dinner, and then headed to the gate to hang out.
And then, the fun delays started. Just like on Friday, our plane was coming in from the West Coast (Salt Lake City to Chicago, then to Charlotte, before turning around and going back to Chicago), and it suffered a weather delay coming out of SLC. So, the 7:15 departure got pushed to 8, then 8:30, then 9, as we sat and seethed.
Finally, the plane got to Chicago...at which point, they had a mechanical problem. The gate agent at Charlotte told us that there was a good chance they would cancel the flight! They then worked on rebooking all of us onto other flights, which were going to be on Monday afternoon (Sunday being the end of the holidays, every flight out was already overbooked). It was looking like we were going to be staying overnight at the Lovely Bride's stepsister's house in Charlotte, and the Lovely Bride spent quite a bit of time on the cell phone with people at her school, discussing how to handle her unexpected absence.
Then, a miracle occurred -- they got the plane fixed, and sent it on its way to us. We wound up being about 3 hours late getting out of Charlotte, and didn't get home until midnight.
The Lovely Bride claims that she only really has travel problems like this when she travels with me...when she's by herself, or with her girlfriends, this kind of thing never happens. I didn't think I was cursed...