Well everybody I am back!
After quite possibly the worst travel day of my life.
The kind of day when you are thinking to yourself "am I ever going to make it home?".....
It started off easily enough.....
Plane on time out of Washington......
Flight to Denver completely uneventful. Going on 3 and 1/2 hours.........
The home stretch when......
Pilot says "well folks we have a weather delay and Denver is currently closed."
Ummmm........
WHAT????
"Oh yeah and it's going to get a little bit bumpy. Flight attendants secure the cabin."
Not more then 20 seconds after he said that.........
It felt like what I would imagine jumping out a 5 story window would feel like!
Up and down. Up and down. And not smoothly I might add!
We did this for an hour! People were starting to get ill. NOT FUN!!
Now United has this thing where if you put on a headset and tune to channel 9 you can hear all communications from the cock pit to the tower.
I couldn't decide if this was a good thing or a bad thing.
But if we were going to crash I kinda wanted to know ahead of time.
Kinda.....
So Denver was closed because an actual frickin' tornado touched down at the airport and they had golf ball size hail!
Can you say "NOT GOOD!!"
I find out, 5 minutes before anyone else in the cattle car I might add, we have been diverted to Grand Junction.
Along with 11 other aircraft!!!
Let me just say this was the smallest airport I have ever been to and they definitely were not prepared for all of us. It's the kind of airport where they let you out right on the tarmac. No ticket counters and one Subway.
It was pretty though. The mountains are actually mesas and I haven't really seen anything like that before. But other than that.......
It was literally the middle of BFE!!
I was continuing to listen to the cock pit transmissions while we sat on that tarmac in that plane for 2 hours! Every half hour Denver was giving updates and letting in a few planes in at a time. I guess our pilot wanted to be the first to get the hell out of there. So we waited which wasn't bad. We could use the bathroom, they opened the doors and the air was on, drinks were served and the other movie was put on. So no one really minded. We all just wanted to get the hell out of there!
But after two hours and FCC regulations they said we had to get out and stretch our legs. Which by the way no one wanted to because we were afraid we'd miss our window. But we had to. Pilot said be back on 8pm. that gave us 45 minutes.
20 minutes later an announcement came on "Flight 903 board now!"
You have never seen a plane of 140 passengers board so fast or so efficiently:)
As we are all settling ourselves pilot says "here's the deal folks this crew is now on it's 14th hour if we don't take off by 9:05pm. we are stuck here"
Well then let's go already!!
Off the ground at 8:59.
1/2 hour flight.
Missed the last connector to Ontario by 10 minutes.
Missed the last connector to LAX by 5 minutes.
Guess where I have to stay........
Taking one look at that line for Customer Service I wanted to jump out a 5 story window!!
So I thought to myself let's not do this the hard way.
I called United I asked nicely for the next flight out of this hell and was told it was not til 7pm. the next evening. Insert lump in throat here!!
What????
How about LAX, Burbank, John Wayne, Palm Springs, I'll even go to San Fransisco and rent a car I just need to get home!!
Best flight LAX 10:30 next morning.
Oh dad.........
Got a ride.
Missed Frank which was one of the reasons I was getting all emotional. He left at 6am. that Saturday. I was supposed to be home by 8pm. on that Friday so we would have a little time. No such luck:(
Ok got a new ticket (love those kiosks!), got a ride home. Now where they hell do I sleep.
First I need a ride out of here so I start at Ground Transportation.
Where I come across a man who says "well hello pretty lady" which is either a sweet thing to say or a creepy thing to say. He was creepy!
Told him I need a ride and is there a hotel just outside the airport I can stay at.......
He asks me "where is your pink ticket?"
Ummmm.......
What???
He says "the airline should have given you a pink ticket with hotel information on it"
So that's what that line was for!!!!!!
At this point I must have looked like I was going to cry because he then says "I have one and I'll get you a reservation number online because I hear the on hold time is about 30 minutes."
Not so creepy:)
So he hands me my pink ticket that I MUST GIVE TO THE HOTEL I am told and tells me he has a cab waiting for me right outside the door if I don't mind sharing with two other customers he just sent out.
Then he winks at me.
Back to creepy!
Then I get in a cab with two of the most chattiest people I have ever heard and I just wanted to tell them both to SHUT UP!!! She was a school teacher from Iowa and he was a neurosurgeon from San Fransico. Isn't that a Toby Keith song:) Anyway he paid for our cab and also frickin' winked at me! Am I missing something here??????
In my room midnight.
I was exhausted. But as I am laying there the wind is just howling and little pelts of hail are hitting the window and for the first time it occurs to me.........
TORNADO!
They get tornadoes here!!
Will there be an alarm???
Does this hotel have a basement???
Should I put my pants back on???
But I must have finally fell asleep because the next thing I hear is my ducks quaking on my phone. It's 6:30am.
Back to the airport.........
We crammed 12 people on a 9 person shuttle and I was in the middle. CRAP!!
Security was pretty easy. No bag to check. At this point I didn't even know where my bag was.
We boarded on time........
I was way in the back but at least got an aisle seat......
Until......
This stupid kid and his stupid mom come bounding down the aisle.
She is the middle seat to the left and he is in the middle seat to the right. Right next to me. But he's like 9 so I am thinking no biggie.
Until he starts talking!!! And trying to pass his mom stuff over me. And fiddling with his huge back pack. And his constant fidgeting and his constant inane chatter with his mother!!! Then they start to get us ready to push back and he starts looking at me with these crazy eyes and saying "I can't do this I am going to freak out. Mom! Mom! I can't do this" WHAT THE F!!
Guess where I had to sit?
Middle seat to the left:(
Whatever let's just get out of here!!!
Doors closed....
Started to move back........
A good sign.......
Then we moved forward again.
SHIT!!!
Pilot comes on "Sorry folks we'll just be another minute at the gate"
Then three Denver police officers come on board.......
For the love of everything holy what NOW!!!
They escort a white man in a suit off the plane.
NICE!!!!
Can we go now!!!!!??????
Oh and by the way the weather still SUCKS in Denver!
So we are climbing and it's pretty rough and the lady next to me looks at me and smiles but she is a little green around the gills if you know what I mean!
And for the first time ever I am relaxed. I tell her "this is nothin' you should have been on flight 903 yesterday you would have peed your pants:)"
I finally got home.....
To a house that had three kids who needed a hug, milk and toliet paper:)
Off to Disneyland today.
And I am driving;)