sunshine0221's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do NOT, I Repeat, Do NOT Mess With the Travel Gods Do NOT, I Repeat, Do NOT Mess With the Travel Gods
Last weekend I flew to Sacramento (maybe I should just quit flying to Sacramento?) for my father's 80th birthday, and Father's Day. My sister and I planned a surprise birthday party for him Saturday at 4:00. Big surprise as Dad did not know that Sarah and I were coming to see him. The plan was to fly out of Moline, Il at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, arriving in Sacramento at 11:00 p.m. I was flying out of Moline, even though I greatly prefer to fly out of Cedar Rapids, because Moline cost $250.00 less. I left work early on Friday, ran home, finished packing, and headed off to the airport. About an hour and a half away from home, I got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach regarding the whereabouts of my carefully-packed suitcase. I could not remember actually putting it in the car. When I arrived at the Moline airport after driving for two and a half hours, I discovered that I had indeed FORGOTTEN MY SUITCASE. I started to freak out a bit, and then realized, hey I would get to go shopping, and it was only for the weekend, so really not the end of the world. I checked in for my flight, and when asked about any luggage, I told them I had FORGOTTEN it, and that to save the enormous embarrassment, I was just going to tell everyone the airline had lost it. The check in clerk was cool with that, but asked that I say that the Minneapolis airport lost it, not them. Off to the gate, and right on time onto the plane. For I swear 10 seconds. Then it was off the plane due to a one hour ground hold due to bad weather in Minneapolis. Two hours later, our flight was cancelled, it was the last flight of the day, and the frazzled Northwest employees were trying to rebook everyone for Saturday. My new itinerary left at 2:38, and got me into Sacramento at 7:00 p.m. - exactly 3 hours after my dad's surprise party. This was not so good, so I called the airline, and asked if there was any way to get me out earlier, say like from Cedar Rapids. And woohoo they got me on a 5:00 am flight that arrived at 11:00 am. Mucho better. I drove back home, and arrived at 12:45 am. I took a shower, changed my clothes, and then at 2:30 left for Cedar Rapids. With my suitcase this time! On the way out of town, I saw a cat in the road. He seemed to not be moving, and there was another cat with him who seemed upset. I absolutely did not have time to stop and still make my flight so I kept going. For a mile, and then I turned around and went back. I went to check on the cat, and he was still alive, but hurt. I picked him up, put him in the car, and headed to the Mom's house. I ran into her house (it was now 3 am) woke her up, and told her that the kitty needed to get to the vet right away. I went back to the car to get the kitty, and he had died. I wrapped him in a towel and left him in the yard, ran back in and told Mom he was gone and to take care of him, and jumped back in the car. The kitty rescue had taken about half an hour, so I was running really late, but I dramatically exceeded the speed limit and made it to the airport on time. The flight to Minneapolis was uneventful, and my flight to Sacramento was on schedule. We boarded the plane, and headed out to the runway. So far so good. Then an announcement from the pilot that there was something wrong with the plane, and that we had to go back to the gate to get it fixed. An hour and a half later, another announcement that maintenance did not seem to be able to fix the problem, but it should be okay, we would just need a longer runway when we landed in Sacramento. Gah!! We landed just fine, despite our mechanical problem, and my sister picked me up at the airport, and we headed off to our hotel. This is where I realized I had done Stupid Thing #2. I told Sarah about how I had been rerouted out of Cedar Rapids, and she intelligently mentioned that I was however still scheduled to fly back to Moline. So car in Cedar Rapids, and me flying into Moline - 100 miles away -not so good, so again on the phone with airline and got return flight changed to Cedar Rapids. The visit was good � we actually managed to surprise the Dad, and he enjoyed his party. The rest of the trip was uneventful, except for my flight from Minneapolis to Cedar Rapids. It was a small plane, and way overbooked. They offered free round trip tickets to anyone who would take the 7 p.m. flight instead of the noon one. I was very tempted, as Kelly now lives in Portland, and I need to go visit her soon. I also realized that the 7 p.m. flight was the last flight of the day, and if something went wrong, I would have caused self-inflicted travel stress, which really I don�t seem to have to go looking for. So I got on the noon flight, made it to Cedar Rapids on schedule, and I blame jet lag for making me purchase a spiffy new cell phone before picking up some I'm-Sorry-I-Left-You-a-Dead-Cat-Please-Forgive-Me sushi for the Mom and heading home. 8:29 p.m. - June 25, 2006 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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