Well, today did not quite go as planned, and I am definitely not where I thought I'd be as I am starting to wind down for the night. My flight was scheduled to leave LaGuardia at 5:30pm. To start, I was a little rushed getting out of the office on time, and then had quite a time trying to find a cab in Midtown at rush hour. I rarely check bags, always check-in online, and I've never missed a flight. You might say I'm a rather efficient traveler! You wouldn't know it from the evening I just had, though.
It started getting overcast on my way to the airport. It was supposed to rain, but planes take off in the rain. No big deal. I get through security quickly, board the plane and close my eyes as the plane begins to taxi. I am awoken 20 minutes later to see that we have pulled off the runway. The pilot comes over the speaker to let us know that there is a huge storm about to blow through, and we need to wait for it to pass. He said it is moving quickly, and we should be in the air in no time. I'm not worried at this point, as I have a layover of a couple hours in Cincinnati, and was wondering how I was going to kill all that time anyways. Approximately 30 minutes and one huge monsoon later (I later learned there were tornadoes in Brooklyn - this was a serious storm!), the pilot comes back on the speaker.
"Well, the good news is that the storm has passed quickly, and air traffic control is letting planes start taking off again. The bad news is that we're 35th in line on the runway."
Uh oh.
Our approximate arrival time in Cincinnati is now 9:00pm. Which would be all good and well, except that my connecting flight leaves Cincinnati at 8:30pm. I am still not panicking, though, because I've NEVER missed a connection flight. And with this plane packed full of people also making the San Francisco connection, I'm feeling like the chances the connection flight will be held for us are pretty high. My optimism turned out to be all for naught, though. We landed around 8:45pm and missed the connection by 15 minutes. Delta gives us a really unfortunate overnight kit (I fortunately have all my things thanks to my refusal to check a bag), and lets us know they can hook us up with a discounted rate at the Comfort Inn in Hebron, KY. They won't pay for the room, though, as this was not any fault of their own. I tend to disagree, as it's their fault they didn't hold a flight missing 20 people for an extra 15 minutes, but not much I could do about it at this point. I got to talking with a guy from New York heading to San Francisco and a girl from Los Angeles heading home in the line to re-book our flights, and we decided to head to the hotel together, have a pizza party, and then meet again in the morning to take the shuttle back to the airport.
I spoke with Greg for a little bit to let him know the change in plans and let my parents know what was going on and where I was (although I'm not totally sure myself).
So here I am, sitting in a hotel in Kentucky, when I thought I'd be happily in San Francisco by now. Tomorrow's flight is at 9:30am, landing a little after noon - which means I am going to miss the Alcatraz ferry I booked for 10:30am. Hopefully I can get that sorted out somehow.
Good night, world. Better luck tomorrow!
Miles Traveled Today: 654
Total Miles Traveled: 654
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