Some Wild Travel

It's nice to finally have a week at home, where I can just return to my family after the day's work, and not have to head off to a hotel for more work and little sleep. The past two weeks I'd spent in North Carolina, and I actually came home over the weekends I was out there. There were some wild travel experiences, so here's the recap.

Week 1:
As I was getting ready to leave North Carolina for Atlanta, freezing rain started to fall. As the plane came in, and re-loaded, and was ready to head back to Atlanta, we say on the tarmac for 2.5 hours waiting for the de-icing. How many planes did they have to de-ice? 2 before us. Apparently, they don't use their de-icing equipment that often, so it was a very slow, very painful process. So, we waste 2.5 hours in North Carolina, and I miss my flight from Atlanta to Minneapolis. In fact, I missed 3 flights from Atlanta to Minneapolis. As I arrive in Atlanta, very distraught over my options being practically eliminated, I went to Delta customer service. Upon arrival, the agent tells me that I could go standby on the 7:00 flight, and still make the 10pm flight in Minneapolis to Sioux Falls. So, looking at my watch, I only had 20 minutes to get to the gate. I raced across the Atlanta airport, just in time to get to the gate and claim the last seat on the 7pm flight. Yes!!! I'm going to make it home on time. So, we fly to Minneapolis, and I get over to the Sioux Falls gate for the late flight home. I was just happy I was getting to go home, I didn't care if it was the late flight. As I went to the ticket counter to have them print me a new boarding pass, the agent comes on the PA system and tells us that the flight to Sioux Falls has now been cancelled. Talk about an angry passenger. All that work, and all those things playing just right so I could still make it home, and now I'm stuck in Minneapolis. I checked when my Saturday flight home was, but since I wouldn't arrive until 2pm on Saturday, and was scheduled to leave at 1pm Sunday afternoon, I knew that I didn't have time to wait. So, I rented a car and drove it, 5 hours home arriving in Mitchell at 3am Saturday morning. Not fun, but I made it. I was just hoping the next week was going to be better.

Week 2:
So, fast forward to Friday of the following week, my boss Sue and I were getting ready to head back to Sioux Falls from North Carolina, and as we leave our client there, we get a message that our flight is now delayed 3 hours. Well, good news for my boss, I'm an expert at these delays! I quickly told her to find a new option, because it's not good to get stuck in Atlanta and Minneapolis. As we're heading away from the client, we move toward the airport and Sue decides to call Delta and see if they have an alternative for us. In looking for food, we drive past the airport, and as Sue talks with the agent, she finds out that there is a flight to Detroit that was slightly delayed and leaves in 30 minutes. So, I flip a u-turn and we race back to the airport arriving 25 minutes from scheduled departure time. We run in to the building, and try to use the new kiosks, and it tells us it cannot print a boarding pass because we are too close to departure time. Of all the times you want the machine to make your life easier, and now it won't do it!! So, we get in line. This doesn't look good. Finally, we get to the counter for an agent, and she checks with the gate, and finds that the plane is still on the ground, and loading. She quickly gets Sue her boarding passes, and Sue heads for security to get to the gate. Meanwhile, when you miss you flight, Delta has an automatic rebooking system. Well, mine had already kicked in and was trying to take me off the plane I was supposed to get on. 10 minutes from departure, and I'm still standing at the ticket counter willing the ticket agent to get my boarding documents. She finally handed them to me and wished me luck. I was going to need it. I raced to security. I get to the officer checking Id, and of all the days for them to be training a new person, it had to be today! It took 3 times longer than necessary. Thankfully, when I got past them, everyone else in line let me skip to the front seeing I was in a hurry. I'm still grateful to those people. I get through security with no issues, and race for the gate. I'm literally sprinting for the door, and as I arrive, they still let me on the plant. Thank goodness! So, we now are headed to Detroit instead of Atlanta. Fine by me, I just want to go home. In Detroit, I was the recipient of a complimentary upgrade. Thanks Delta!! A nice seat and some space to enjoy the flight over. We got a nice 737 that had individual video monitors, so I caught up on some ESPN on the flight, and as we come into Minneapolis, I switch over to watch the flight information that tells me how fast we're going, our altitude, how long we have left, etc. The pilot comes on and tells us we have to circle for a bit due to heavy snow in Minneapolis, air traffic is backed up. Great....delay. So, we circle for about 15 minutes before being cleared to land. As we come in for our landing, I'm watching the altitude, and am seeing us drop to 3000 feet, 2000 feet, and we are seconds from touching down, when all of the sudden, the engines start roaring again, and up we go as if we were actually taking off. The pilot had pulled out of the landing and was now climbing back above Minneapolis and turning us away from the airport. Now I've flown alot in my time, and I've never had that happen before. As we climb and turn away from the airport, I look out my window and see the reason for us having the pull out of the landing. There on the runway sits another plane. Somewhere, someone screwed up and we were on a collision course for the other plane. Not a real great feeling, but I think I'd rather have that be the issue than for the pilot to have just messed up the landing and had to try again. A plane seems like an acceptable reason to go try again. Except, now, we had to circle back around, and go to the back of the line. Fortunately, our flight to Sioux Falls was delayed, and after we went to the back of the line and came around again, we landed without trouble. Quite another adventure though, for a traveller who didn't really want to see any adventure!