Denver, day 1
Well, as promised, I'm blogging about my trip. Not sure how long this post will be (I'm waiting for liannegizer to get ready while I'm sitting here in the hotel lobby).
All I'll say is that our trip here was a disaster. We flew out of Albany to Chicago without any incident - until we got to Chicago. First, we were twenty minutes late getting to the gate, because a plane occupying it was late getting out. Of course, while we were sitting there, our connecting flight was boarding. And when we finally got to the gate, we were delayed even longer while we waited for our "carryon" bags (the plane was an ERJ 145 - or, as I described it, "a sardine can with wings." They made me take my larger carryon and give it to them to stow).
And if that wasn't enough, our connecting flight was in a different concourse that was only accessible by a shuttle bus - and it was all the way at the end of the concourse. (And if you know how big O'Hare Airport is, you know how much of a pain that can be.)
Lo and behold, we got to the gate, it was closed, and the plane was pushing away. If you want to see a group of very irate passengers (and I was one of the worst - I was spewing four-letter words like nobody's business), there they were. They sent us to customer service where we waited in line for over an hour. At this point, I was ready to tear someone a new one.
We got new boarding passes and were put on standby for another flight. I'll leave it at that.
Well, the flight was full, so they sent our names (on the standby list) to the next available flight. We were able to make that flight, but liannegizer and I ended up sitting two rows apart (as the gate agent said, "that was the best I could do").
We taxied to the runway, and were about to take off - and they stopped us. One look at the weather radar told us all we needed to know. We sat on the tarmac for a while, then sent us back to the gate. We couldn't even get all the way to the gate at first because of all the lightning (they were understandably concerned about the safety of their gate workers). When we finally got to the gate, we refueled and pushed back out again.
I'm going to estimate that we were on that plane on the ground for a good two to three hours. We probably spent more time on the ground than in the air.
We finally made it to Denver at 1:30 local (MDT) time.
Not much else to talk about. We slept in this morning. I let liannegizer sleep while I went to get breakfast (with her blessing) and pick up the rental car. I'm typing this now from the hotel lobby, trying to get some work done and waiting for liannegizer to get ready to head out.
And that's where we are right now. More updates to follow.
All I'll say is that our trip here was a disaster. We flew out of Albany to Chicago without any incident - until we got to Chicago. First, we were twenty minutes late getting to the gate, because a plane occupying it was late getting out. Of course, while we were sitting there, our connecting flight was boarding. And when we finally got to the gate, we were delayed even longer while we waited for our "carryon" bags (the plane was an ERJ 145 - or, as I described it, "a sardine can with wings." They made me take my larger carryon and give it to them to stow).
And if that wasn't enough, our connecting flight was in a different concourse that was only accessible by a shuttle bus - and it was all the way at the end of the concourse. (And if you know how big O'Hare Airport is, you know how much of a pain that can be.)
Lo and behold, we got to the gate, it was closed, and the plane was pushing away. If you want to see a group of very irate passengers (and I was one of the worst - I was spewing four-letter words like nobody's business), there they were. They sent us to customer service where we waited in line for over an hour. At this point, I was ready to tear someone a new one.
We got new boarding passes and were put on standby for another flight. I'll leave it at that.
Well, the flight was full, so they sent our names (on the standby list) to the next available flight. We were able to make that flight, but liannegizer and I ended up sitting two rows apart (as the gate agent said, "that was the best I could do").
We taxied to the runway, and were about to take off - and they stopped us. One look at the weather radar told us all we needed to know. We sat on the tarmac for a while, then sent us back to the gate. We couldn't even get all the way to the gate at first because of all the lightning (they were understandably concerned about the safety of their gate workers). When we finally got to the gate, we refueled and pushed back out again.
I'm going to estimate that we were on that plane on the ground for a good two to three hours. We probably spent more time on the ground than in the air.
We finally made it to Denver at 1:30 local (MDT) time.
Not much else to talk about. We slept in this morning. I let liannegizer sleep while I went to get breakfast (with her blessing) and pick up the rental car. I'm typing this now from the hotel lobby, trying to get some work done and waiting for liannegizer to get ready to head out.
And that's where we are right now. More updates to follow.