When I have an uneventful trip, I consider that a small miracle. Today, I paid for all the stolen small miracles with a trip from hell.
Trip: Scranton, Pennsylvania to Denver, Colorado.
Original plan: American Airlines, leave at 7:30pm, arrive at 11:50pm.
Morning of the trip: American Airlines informs me that I will be missing my connection in Charlotte because of a delay out of Scranton. I call and they rebook me on United, flying through Chicago instead of Charlotte.
New plan: United, leave at 5:30, arrive at 9:20pm (I am actually happy about the change, as it gets me to Denver earlier).
At the gate at the Scranton (Wilkes-Barre) quaint little airport: I notice that American Airlines is not flying any of their planes. I get online and discover that Charlotte underwent a major computer meltdown and the airport has essentially been shutdown since the day before.
Boarding gets delayed 15 minutes because the coffee maker on board was malfunctioning (or maybe not).
We get on the runway, right on the wide strips. Expect a revving up of the engines, and the acceleration. We taxi for a while on the runway, then veer off of it. We wait out a thunderstorm. 15 minutes. By then, I am starting to worry about my connection in Chicago O'Hare, it's a big airport.
We arrive over Michigan and start going around in circles. Weather over O'Hare has grounded all traffic. After 45 minutes of holding, we have to land for fuel. We end up in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where we wait for hours.
10pm: We finally make it into Chicago. But upon deplaning, we are informed that the jet bridge requires repair. We sit on the plane for 10 minutes while they take care of that. My connection got delayed to 11:45 so I am in no hurry.
11pm: At the gate, we are informed of a further delay. Now 12:20, arrival 2am.
2am: We land in Denver (that's 4am for me, with the jetlag).
3am: I am at the United lost luggage service desk. Despite over one hour in Chicago to transfer luggage, my suitcase stayed behind.
4am: I turn in for the night at my Airbnb. I don't sleep much both because of jetlag (by now it's almost time for me to wake up) and because of the fact that my earplugs are in my overnight toiletries kit that I cleverly put together... and put in my checked luggage. I didn't want to go through the headache of little bottles and baggie for my liquids. And because of unfortunate living arrangements in the past, I have gotten addicted to sleeping with earplugs.
8am: I get out of bed looking awful and missing all my liquid makeup. That includes the concealer. I make do with eye shadow.
There is a happy ending. One, I got to my destination and two, my luggage was delivered in the early afternoon.
Hello Agnes. I am a Pastor from Mumbai, India. I am glad to stop by your profile on the blogger and the blog post. I am also blessed and feel privileged and honoured to get connected with you as well as know you and about your interest. It was interesting to go through your blog post and the journey filled with challenges. I love getting connected with the people of God around the globe to be encouraged, strengthened and praying for one another. I have been in the Pastoral ministry for last 39 yrs in this great city of Mumbai a city with a great contrast where richest of rich and the poorest of poor live. We also encourage young and the adults from the west to come to Mumbai to work with us during their vacation time. We would love to have you come to Mumbai to work with us during your vacation time. I am sure you will have a life changing experience. Looking forward to hear from you very soon. God's richest blessings on you, your family and friends also wishing you a blessed and a Christ centred rest of the year 2018. My email id is: dhwankhede(at)gmail(dot)com and my name is Diwakar Wankhede.
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