Sunday, May 17, 2009

Long Journey Home



In April , Jamey and I enjoyed our spring break in Phoenix, AZ spending time with our great friends who we miss greatly. It was a jammed packed week of laughing and enjoying our many friends, and we still didn’t get to see everyone we would have like to.
Our journey home to Virginia was most eventful. Jamey and I have traveled quite a bit in our lives, including many overseas flights, and we have never missed a flight, had a flight cancelled, or any major bumps in our journey. That was until this trip. Our day began with an early flight (6:30 a.m.) of Phoenix, which was delayed. No big deal. On our first leg to Houston, we were in a holding pattern for two hours due to bad weather in Houston. No planes were landing or departing from the airport. Eventually, we learned that we would be rerouted to San Antonio to refuel. So we joined the long line of planes on the runway in San Antonio for another two hours. The flight attendants did a great job giving us drinks and snacks. I was also pleased at how pleasant most of the passengers were, as I’m sure the flight attendants were as well. At this point we knew we had missed our flight to Greensboro, NC. Finally, we were able to land in Houston. When we checked flight status there were no more flights to Greensboro that day. So, off to the long line at customer service. We learned that the next flight to Greensboro would be Tuesday, most likely Wednesday. This was Saturday! A longer vacation would have been nice except we would have lost quite a bit of pay for not being at work. Eventually they found a flight for us to Raleigh, NC that evening. We took it, but the next problem was how to get from Raleigh to Greensboro where our car was. After many phone calls, we were able to rent a car. Several hours pass and we are now in Raleigh, NC waiting for our luggage (11:00 pm). I kind of knew that our luggage would not make it to Raleigh, and sure enough it didn’t. I made a missing luggage claim while Jamey got the rental car before it closed. At midnight we left the Raleigh airport for an hour drive to Greensboro. At Greensboro, we pick up our car, drop off the rental car, and leave for a two hour drive to Roanoke at 12:30 am. Finally, at 3:30 am we arrive at home. Is it possible to have a delayed flight, rerouted flight, missed flight, and lost luggage for just one journey? Apparently it is. Thankfully, we had good attitudes throughout it all and we were not stuck in Texas for days.

No comments:

Post a Comment