You Can't Get Here From There!

On Saturday, Dad said in his daily email “Hope Mitchell gets thru Chicago ice storm OK and gets home today”Sorry.
No dice.
Not gonna happen.
Fugetaboutit!

I think the omen started in Chengdu.
I arrived at the Chengdu Airport and for some reason I never understood, they couldn’t print my boarding pass. I waited a few minutes and they gave me a boarding pass for a different flight number. I wasn’t too concerned because the Chinese will combine two or three partially full flights onto one flight so all planes are always full. It’s actually very cost effective and efficient, but when they do this, the signs at the gates always show all flight numbers. However, in this case, the signage only stated my original flight number and not the the flight that matched my boarding pass. Why I was changed, I don’t know. But the plane was going to Beijing and I they did let me on it, so I was confused, but happy.
After our arrival into Beijing, the baggage carousel never displayed either flight number and I started to get a little worried about where my baggage actually was. Nobody I recognized as being on my plane was getting their bags either. I knew I could get home, but began to worry what to do if my bag was lost and how I was going to get it forwarded all the way to Greenville. I knew I had a four hour layover, so I felt somewhat confident that I had time to figure it out, but that uneasy feeling began to churn in my stomach.
Fortunately, our bags finally showed up and sure enough, mine did too.
So off to check in for Chicago.
That flight left only about 10 minutes behind schedule and I was sitting comfortably in my seat with a cold beer so was happy to be headed home.
Then came Chicago.
It was snowing. Pretty hard snow, too.
Didn’t effect our landing. A zillion ton 747 and gravity pretty much work together and we landed with no issues. The Customs line was very short (unusual, but a nice surprise) and we got our bags and rechecked them to Greenville.
By the time I got to my gate, I learned my 07:30 PM flight was delayed until 08:00 PM. This news worried me, but 30 minutes wasn’t too bad, and it did give me time to go eat dinner. Then I learned our flight was delayed again until 09:00 and I saw that MANY flights were being delayed and cancelled. It was now snowing something fierce and all the departure/arrival screens were lit up like a big red Christmas tree!
Delayed
Delayed
Delayed
Delayed
Cancelled
Cancelled
Delayed
Delayed
Delayed
CancelledUh-oh. Not good.
So while hanging out, I got delayed again until 11:30 PM.
Now I have a problem. I really odn't want to spend the night in O'Hare and I overheard some lady on the phone who couldn't find a close by hotel room.
I checked with the nice lady in the Club Lounge and we found a contingency flight to Charlotte that was scheduled to leave at 08:40. I figured I could do that and rent a car to drive home. I went online, got a rental so I decided to go for it (hope this is a smart decision, it could backfire on me).
Well, of course this flight then got delayed until 09:15. No worries, I was told that the rental companies were staying open late because of all the delays, so I was still OK - I will get home.
We actually got on the plane and pulled away from the gate and then the pilot said those infamous words … “We now have to wait for de-icing.” As the groans rumbled through the plane, we sat for 45 minutes and then finally left at 10:00PM (3 hours late from my original flight).
When I arrived in Charlotte, it was 01:00 AM and of course the rental counters were now closed.
So what to do?
I could -
A) Find a corner and sleep till morning and then get a car or,
B) Take a cab to a local hotel and sleep till morning and then get a car.
Elise had a left a message encouraging me to do just that, so I figured that would be for the best – though I really didn’t want to do that.
I found the taxi stand and then it hit me!
Me - “Hey, any of you guys want to drive to Spartanburg??”
Driver – “I will”
Me - “How much?”
Driver – “Standard rate - $2.00/mile”
Me – “We need to stop at an ATM.”
Driver – I take credit cards”
Me – “Even Better!!”
Driver – “Yup”
Me – “Lets go!!”
We stopped at a gas station. He got gas and a coffee. I got a bottle of water, and we were off. Nice guy, but a little chatty for me since I was pretty worn out by now. However, 1.5 hours and a few bucks later, I was - finally - home.
It was 02:45 AM Sunday Morning.
Total travel time was 34 hours.Sunday, I drove down to Greenville airport to get my luggage. It turned out that my original flight to Greenville eveuntually had been cancelled (so my decsion to go to Charlotte proved smart) and my luggage had been rebooked on a different flight that had just arrived, so timing was perfect. Got my bag and went home.
Whew!

I have to do all this again in January – so I hope life doesn’t repeat itself. But you can’t control the weather, so it’s not worth getting upset. You just deal with it and maintain flexibility.
Ain't traveling fun?