At first we thought getting to Kansas would be a breeze. I didn't get searched and none of my carry-on stuff got searched - life was good. We boarded the plane and the captain told us that we would be pushed back from the terminal momentarily in preparation for taxiing to the runway.
About 2 minutes later he told us that we were to be delayed for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Due to the weather in Chicago (where our connecting flight was), our take-off had to be postponed. We couldn't disembark because he wanted to be ready for taxiing at a "moments notice". Later the take-off time got pushed back another 10-15 minutes.
There were 4 infants on board and another 4-5 toddlers. I don't know if there was a baby convention going on or what, but I figured that they would add exponetially to our grand experience on the flight. One of the babies fussed for quite a while during our time waiting on the tarmack. Fortunately, he or she never got into a full blown scream-fest, so it wasn't too bad.
We finally got off the ground on our way to Chicago. We made good time until we got to the holding pattern. Thunderstorms meant that we were delayed in the air as everyone was sent to circle above the skies in Indiana. A couple of the infants started crying as were were decending, but still the clamor wasn't as bad as I had imagined it would be, so it didn't irritate me overly much (as you can tell, I don't have any patients with children). We finally made it to the ground and taxied to the terminal. I thought we were done with the delays, but OH NO, we had to park out on the tarmack because there were planes in every spot.
Finally we got to disembark at B18. Our connecting flight hadn't left yet (it had been delayed massively too) so we quickly made our way to F14. This is always our luck, our connector is always just as far away from where we enter the terminal as physically possible. Our connector was actually boarding in the International terminall!
We thought we had missed the connector because it was supposed to depart 15 minutes from the time we disembarked from our previous flight, and we got there about 12 minutes after disembarkation (I don't think that is a real word, but work with me here). The man at the desk for the gate we had to use said they had just pushed back, but he would call them and we could get on. Fortunately, the ticket taker was paying attention - if we had gotten on board that plane, we would have ended up in the wrong state.
We finally got to board the plane going to Wichita, then had to sit on the ground for about 45 minutes. To make matters worse, the air conditioning wasn't working, so we sweltered as we were sitting there. We finally took off, and the natural air flow began to cool us off. We made excellant time to Wichita and landed only 45 minutes late.
The adventure wasn't done yet though. We got to the baggage carousel and found that we only got one of the two bags we packed. We always split our clothes among the bags, so at least we each had some clothes to start with. After waiting in the ticket line for forever, we got a claim in for the bag. The next flight in from Chicago was in a couple of hours and they would deliver it after that.
8:30 Friday morning I called to find out where the luggage was. After talking to the electronic helper, I finally reached a real person who said that the bag had been located in Chicago and would be on the next flight, which was to land in Wichita at 10:10 AM.
At noon, I called to find out about the bag. Hmm, it has been located in Chicago and will be on the next flight that land at 2 PM. I told the guy that we had already been told that it would be on the 10:10 flight and he promptly said there wasn't a 10:10 flight, so whoever I talked to was mistaken. After a few minutes of back-an-forth, he admited there was a 10:10 flight, but the bags would "really" be on the next flight. I told him that I really needed that bag because it held my husband's suit for the wedding tomorrow morning (an slight exageration - the wedding was in the afternoon) and if we needed to buy a new suit, we needed to know fairly soon.
He assured me the bag would be on the flight and delivered shortly after. At 3, I called to find out about the bag. Joy in Mudville! The bag had arrived and would be delivered between 3 and 7. We left to go see CK's and Chew's new apartment, while Cop Car and HH kept a lookout for the delivery guy.
We got back to the house about 6:30 and were informed by HH that the delivery service had called and the bags would be delivered in 15-20 minutes. They were close (if you consider how on-time anything about this trip had been) - it took them closer to 45 minutes - but we got the bag!
So in the end, WS had no excuse not to wear a suit to the wedding - darn!
Not too bad of a traveling adventure! Once, going to Chicago, I sat on the tarmac with no air conditioning
for 3 hours! It was awful!
Glad it was not too bad for you.
Posted by: Susan | May 22, 2005 at 11:32 AM
Bogie, I liked the "live" version you and WS gave much better. Of course, it would have taken HOURS to post all of it, but it was much better.
Posted by: Wichi Dude | May 22, 2005 at 12:44 PM
Yikes! This gives me a headache just reading it! :-(
Posted by: Monkey | May 22, 2005 at 06:46 PM
Sounds like our typical trip. We once sat at the gate for almost an hour waiting for the air conditioner to be fixed. It was the end of August, which in NW Arkansas means 100+ degrees and high humidity. One of the few times I've gotten so overheated that I almost passed out.
Posted by: rita | May 23, 2005 at 07:02 PM
What was it that Dorothy said? "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore!"
Posted by: Jackie | May 24, 2005 at 11:13 AM