Friday, March 22, 2013

Life's A Beach And So Is Flying


Last week I went on a little mom-cation / business trip to Virginia Beach. I was super excited to be able to fly, see the Atlantic Ocean, and meet with my friend Liz.  The beginning of the trip was perfect. My scheduled flights were smooth. I arrived on time and Liz picked me up from the airport.

The condo I rented was so nice. It was walking distance to the boardwalk and beach. Liz and her awesome little boy, Sterling, stayed with me while I was there. Although it rained and was pretty cold, I did get to play on the beach for a while and I enjoyed dining in a few yummy restaurants.

My trip home was an entirely different story! Some of you may know that I had never flown before so I was pretty nervous.

After the first flight, from Memphis to Atlanta, I figured out that it really wasn't a big deal. Aside from the clogged ears and the weird guy that sat next to me, everything was good. The flight from Atlanta to Norfolk was uneventful, except for the ears of course, and I sat next to some really nice ladies.

The trip home.........I arrived at the airport around 4 P.M. and my flight was scheduled to leave at 7:00. No big deal.  By the time I get through TSA, eat something, and read my book it will be time to  board.

Well, the storms in Atlanta changed that just a bit. My flight was delayed until roughly 10:00. I say roughly because I'm a little confused at exactly what time we ended up leaving because we boarded and de-planed three times. Yes, 3 times.

Now mind you my plane from Atlanta to Memphis was scheduled to depart at 10:00.

I arrive at  the Atlanta airport around midnight. Yep, you guessed it, my flight had been cancelled. Now I get to join 300 other angry, tired, and hungry people in a mile long line to find out where the heck we are supposed to be going.

Moving along...1 hour in the rebooking line and I am informed that I have been rebooked for a 7 P.M. flight the following evening! Wow.. I have 15% left on my cell phone, it is 1:00 A.M., I am in Atlanta, and I do not know a single person here.

Luckily, John was able (John by the way, had been waiting in Memphis with our two very tired and cranky children.) to find me a hotel downtown Atlanta. So, now all I have to do is catch a cab. I make my way out of the airport (If you have ever been to the Atlanta airport then you know how complicated this can be).

I found the taxi line. Yep, line. This freaking line was 3 miles long.

I wanted to cry.... I waited in this line for over an hour. I make it to my hotel at 2:45 A.M.

Now, I'm usually a very nice person. But, I was ready to push the lady in front of me at the hotel front desk.  Apparently, 2:45 A.M. are her normal hours because she was taking her sweet time asking questions and wanting to "chat up" the desk clerk.  I was sick and tired of and waiting in lines! Geeze! I was at my breaking point.

The Hyatt was kind enough to give me a late check out the following day, so I was able to sleep in the the next morning.

I make my way back to the airport and wait and wait and wait and wait. Finally, it is time to board. Guess what? I was not on the boarding list! I had a boarding receipt and I reconfirmed that morning but I was not on the list!!

I started to cry.

The poor lady at the boarding counter would not even look up at me. Hahahaha. She just made a  quick phone call and got me on.  I heard her say to the person on the phone, "Can we just get her on?" followed by,"She has a lot of stuff in her notes." What I'm sure she was really thinking is,"Can we please get this lady on the plane before she loses it!?"

Anywho, that's my first flying story. I hope you enjoyed it! I will say that now that it is over and I am home I really enjoyed the entire experience from beginning to end. I can't wait to fly again.

P.S.

My ears are still clogged.










Well, thank you for reading my ridiculously long blog post. I hope I did not make you feel like you were going through TSA :)

Nikki-


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