Long day yesterday...
We just got back from a trip to Sarasota, Florida, to watch my son Eric graduate from New College of Florida. The American flight we were supposed to fly home on had mechanical problems on its initial leg from DFW to Tampa yesterday and arrived in Tampa 2+ hours late, so our plane, scheduled to depart at 4:45 PM, did not leave until 7 PM. Therefore, we were set to arrive at DFW right about the time yesterday's storms did. The airport was closed. We were diverted south around the storm, towards Waco, then up to Abilene, with the plan to approach the airport from the NW. Unfortunately, the storms were still there, the airport was still closed, we were getting low on fuel, and our pilot and co-pilot were reaching the limit on their flying time for the day/week/whatever, so we were sent to Oklahoma City.
We sat on the tarmac for a little while and I called my cousin Tom who is a pilot with American and explained the situation. This was all complicated by the fact that Eric had flown on a separate flight out of Sarasota a bit earlier in the day and was already waiting for us there. Tom told me there would be no way we'd get out of OK City that night, even if refueled, and seconded my idea to rent a car and drive back to DFW (where my car was parked). That cost $215 but would have been less than two hotel rooms (one for us and one for Eric near DFW) with incidentals (reimbursements from the airline would have been minimal). Not to mention the hassle of checking our four bags (two of which contained Eric's stuff) and going through a take-off and landing again.
So, renting a car is what we did. Luckily the plane got to a gate (around 10:30 PM) before the rental car office at the OK City airport closed at 11:30. If we'd been stuck on the tarmac longer, I'd probably be in a plane right now circling DFW again (they are being hit by yet more thunderstorms at the moment). We arrived home at 5 AM after I'd been up 24 hours straight. I drove five of those hours, one from Sarasota to Tampa and four from OK City to Granbury, picking up Eric en route at a hotel near the airport (he'd taken a shuttle to one just in case he had to spend the night), gassing the rental up, picking up my car, dropping off the rental, and stopping at a Denny's at 3 AM for some food for the guys and coffee for me.
I have slept a little (from about 5:30 to 9:30 AM), but have a raging headache and am going back to bed when the meds kick in (and when the weather radio stops going off). Calling in sick today.