at the airport

photo from petervanallen's flickr photostream

this week of travel has done me in:

• left town at 4:30 am on Wednesday to catch the 7am flight...ick. The reason we did this was so we could leave early this morning and get home around 1pm and have the afternoon to ourselves.


• We usually fly thru Atlanta to Jacksonville, FL. When I travel with my boss, he likes to go thru Memphis since there often are delays if we go thru Atlanta. Today we went thru Memphis


• On our flight this morning (which left Jacksonville at 6:30am) there was a medical emergency. A guy lost consciousness, and had to be given oxygen. We had to make an emergency landing in Montgomery, AL. 643 firemen got on the airplane to check out this dude who was back to normal by the time we landed. We were initially told that we would have to all de-plane and make other travel arrangements as they couldn't fly without the full oxygen bottle. As I was on the cell phone with the booking agent (while we were still on board the plane on the tarmac), she tells me that we are indeed going to take off again and fly on to Memphis. Hooray!


• We land in Memphis with 35 minutes to spare before our next flight leaves (our original layover was 2 hours), and are told that there is a traffic jam and we have to drive around the airport until we can get to our gate. 30 minutes later we park at the gate.


• We get off our plane and find out that the plane that just left our gate was the one we were SUPPOSED TO BE ON! We missed the connection!


• We stand in line and rebook. The next flight to Wichita is at 2:55, and it is full, but we are on standby. We are booked on the 7:55pm flight to Wichita.


• We go into the Delta Crown Room for Bloody Marys and bagels for breakfast (plus also a small nap).


• We go to the gate to see about the stand-by situation. It doesn't look hopeful. They tell us that the flight is now delayed due to mechanical problems.


• They then tell us that the gate has changed to another terminal. We walk all the way to the other gate, fully prepared to NOT get on the flight.


• It is indeed full, and we have to wait.


• We eat BBQ in the airport with out $10 vouchers from NWA.


• We return to the Delta Crown room for another 4 hours. We have moved on to cookies and dirty martinis (for my boss) and wine for me.


• We should arrive in our town by 11:30PM tonight. Sheesh!

ps, there is a girl here behind me who thinks she should be French. She is dressed all in black with a beret on her head. The guy she is with is in his scrubs. He is traveling in his scrubs. He is so showing off that he is a doctor or something Like there isn't time to change your clothes? You are in the Club Room and all...