Travel Woes

After enjoying a quick break at home, I arrived at Memphis International on Sunday evening to begin my return to Plainview. Little did I know that my journey would be such an adventure.

I was slated to travel to Dallas/Fort Worth on American Airlines. After an hour delay in DFW, I had a connection to Lubbock -- the last flight to the airport that night. After sitting in the gate for nearly an hour, I received a text message from the airline that my flight was going to be delayed. Over the course of the next 25 minutes, my fellow travelers and I watched as our arrival time into DFW got pushed further and further back. Finally, my DFW arrival reached the same moment that my connecting flight was Scheduled to depart. I knew this was going to be a mess!

As I spoke with the gate agent, I quickly decided that she was a new employee. (She later admitted that this was her second day on the job. Yikes!) Once the supervisor arrived at the gate -- thank Heavens! -- we determined that the next available Lubbock flight from DFW would be late Monday evening. I was given the option of spending the night in a Dallas hotel -- and spending much of the next day wandering around the airport -- or beginning my travel on Monday. I decided that another day at home would be the better choice.

Once Dad returned to the airport to pick me up, the night was uneventful. My intentions were to keep everything packed so I could quickly return to the airport and not worry about leaving anything behind. Karma seemed to have other plans.

As Monday got underway, I was beginning to feel drained. I accompanied Mom to a doctor's appointment that afternoon as I realized the cause of my weariness. Since I wasn't expecting to spend another day in Arkansas, I didn't bring medications to take for the day. My blood pressure was elevated and I felt horrible! The doctor gave me a sample bottle of a related medication and I immediately began to feel better.

That evening, Dad and I made great time getting to the airport and everything was running smoothly. That is, things were running smoothly until I stood at the ticket counter and realized my cell phone was in the car that was on its way back across the Mississippi River! After checking my bag and grabbing my boarding passes, I had a light bulb moment....grabbed my iPad and sent a message to my siblings. Carlene called Dad, got him to turn around, and my iPhone was once again in my possession. I had only lost 35 minutes standing on the curb waiting for his return! (At that moment, I was incredibly thankful that I had allowed more time at the terminal than I normally do.)

As I'm writing this post, I'm sitting at the gate in Memphis....just hoping that tonight's travel goes much more smoothly than the process has gone thus far. I really don't think I can handle any more travel woes at the moment.

Posted with Blogsy