I had gone to bed on Friday, September 12 worried about my flight to Chicago on the 13th. I was suppose to leave at 7:50 am out of Ontario (Ca) with a stopover at Dallas/Ft Worth. Of course, just a few hundred miles away, Hurricane Ike was trashing Galveston and Houston. I had kept an eye to see if the flight was going to be delayed.
Even when I got up Saturday, I checked. But just the Travelocity site. So, mistake number one. Mistake number two was not checking my mobile.
Anyways, I was dropped off at the airport by my house mate (who does not do mornings) and proceed to check-in. Suddenly I discovered my departure time had been moved to 9:25. Puzzled, and still a bit tired, I proceed through the process, and then headed through security. After that, I sat down and looked at my e-ticket and discovered I had been booked on another plane in both California and Texas. I popped open my mobile to discover I got a VM from the airlines at 2:30 am, notifying me of the change. I glanced at the clock, and realized I would be sitting here for 2 hours.
So, after calling the family and telling them of the change, I settled in and started reading the Accidental Time Machine. Once off the ground, things went smooth. As I read my book the flight went on, with the pilot giving us updates about the Hurricane.
We landed in Dallas at 2pm local time. Now, according to my new flight plan, I was suppose to leave there at 3:15. As soon as I got off, I saw that flight had already been delayed to 4:15. On the phone again, I discovered that not only was Ike causing problems for flights, it was pouring in Chicago, causing the whole system to be effected. Now, I’ve seen news reports of folks stuck at airports -especially in Chicago- during winter storms. I just never dreamed I could be one of them.
Once again I was on the phone calling home. I even told them they may laugh at me living here in California, but rain is never a problem.
As I continued to read, I realized that 3:45 had come and gone -as they load the plane a half-hour before take-off. When other people noticed this too, they finally announced that they were delaying this flight to 4:45, as the pilots due to take this flight were delayed on other flights. Well, 4:45 became 5:15 when the pilots finally arrived and said there was something mechanically wrong with the plane, and thus we needed another plane.
After about 15 minutes or so, another plane was found and all of us raced over to that gate. They started loading us a little bit after 5. When the plane finally taxied away from the gate, the pilot informed us that they were still a bit of planes in front of us waiting to take off. I estimated we finally took off at 6pm -4 hours after my arrival in water logged Dallas.
The problem was, I was heading straight into the remnants of Ike that was heading straight for Chicago.
So, yea.
Finished the book and started next on John Grisham’s Playing for Pizza. We did make up a few minutes, I guess, and arrived to circle Chicago for about 20 minutes due to the fact that rain was stacking everything up -and I would later hear that O’Hare broke a record of receiving 6.64" of rain in a 24 hour period.
Finally on the ground at 8pm, I went to get my one bag and wait for my brother and sister-in-law to pick me up -which then took another hour, as both them and my older sister and her husband (whom I would be staying with) live way up in the northern counties of Illinois.
It’s amazing how a 8 hour trip turned to 12.
Even when I got up Saturday, I checked. But just the Travelocity site. So, mistake number one. Mistake number two was not checking my mobile.
Anyways, I was dropped off at the airport by my house mate (who does not do mornings) and proceed to check-in. Suddenly I discovered my departure time had been moved to 9:25. Puzzled, and still a bit tired, I proceed through the process, and then headed through security. After that, I sat down and looked at my e-ticket and discovered I had been booked on another plane in both California and Texas. I popped open my mobile to discover I got a VM from the airlines at 2:30 am, notifying me of the change. I glanced at the clock, and realized I would be sitting here for 2 hours.
So, after calling the family and telling them of the change, I settled in and started reading the Accidental Time Machine. Once off the ground, things went smooth. As I read my book the flight went on, with the pilot giving us updates about the Hurricane.
We landed in Dallas at 2pm local time. Now, according to my new flight plan, I was suppose to leave there at 3:15. As soon as I got off, I saw that flight had already been delayed to 4:15. On the phone again, I discovered that not only was Ike causing problems for flights, it was pouring in Chicago, causing the whole system to be effected. Now, I’ve seen news reports of folks stuck at airports -especially in Chicago- during winter storms. I just never dreamed I could be one of them.
Once again I was on the phone calling home. I even told them they may laugh at me living here in California, but rain is never a problem.
As I continued to read, I realized that 3:45 had come and gone -as they load the plane a half-hour before take-off. When other people noticed this too, they finally announced that they were delaying this flight to 4:45, as the pilots due to take this flight were delayed on other flights. Well, 4:45 became 5:15 when the pilots finally arrived and said there was something mechanically wrong with the plane, and thus we needed another plane.
After about 15 minutes or so, another plane was found and all of us raced over to that gate. They started loading us a little bit after 5. When the plane finally taxied away from the gate, the pilot informed us that they were still a bit of planes in front of us waiting to take off. I estimated we finally took off at 6pm -4 hours after my arrival in water logged Dallas.
The problem was, I was heading straight into the remnants of Ike that was heading straight for Chicago.
So, yea.
Finished the book and started next on John Grisham’s Playing for Pizza. We did make up a few minutes, I guess, and arrived to circle Chicago for about 20 minutes due to the fact that rain was stacking everything up -and I would later hear that O’Hare broke a record of receiving 6.64" of rain in a 24 hour period.
Finally on the ground at 8pm, I went to get my one bag and wait for my brother and sister-in-law to pick me up -which then took another hour, as both them and my older sister and her husband (whom I would be staying with) live way up in the northern counties of Illinois.
It’s amazing how a 8 hour trip turned to 12.
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