I was ~supposed~ to go visit the Spouse in Arkansas this weekend.
Yeah, that, too
Seeing as how this post is happening on Friday, it clearly didn't happen!
I went last year, too. And it started out pretty dicey.
I sense a trend of this NOT being an easy trip for me!
Anyhooo. My flight was supposed to leave out of Flint Bishop Airport at 5:44pm. I was up early, at work at 6am, did a half day in the office, then came home "worked" from home until 2pm.
Normally I travel and do stuff with a 3 foot skeleton with googly eyes who wears a tux (aka Chuck) but I only took a carry on so there wasn't room for Chuck in all his glory.
Welcome to Mini Chuck.
I almost didn't get him in time, but as I got in the car, I saw the mail truck on the other side of the street. By the time I got gas in the car and came back - the mail had been delivered!
Perfect travelling size!
The Flint Airport has paper airplane art!
I got to the airport with plenty of time. I prefer coming here over Detroit Metro because it's smaller and less traffic / fewer people.
However, this means that my flights require a change of planes in Chicago before going on to Little Rock.
The Spouse was watching FlightAware.com and was keeping me informed, usually faster than the airline itself was!
At this point, I'd already missed my Little Rock connection and was going to have to stay at a hotel in Chicago for the night.
When I clicked "view other flights" there was nothing.
AAARGH!!!
We were told there were significant mechanical issues also and they had to change planes.
And then the snow started in Flint!
But we got a plane.
I don't remember the plane last year being this small, but it must have been. It just goes back & forth between Flint & Chicago.
And we proceeded to sit there until after midnight because visibility was only about 1/2 mile.
Watching the plane get fuel.
We'd watched it land and there was already more than an inch of snow on the wing.
As we waited, we heard about a maintenance snow sweeper truck that got stuck on the runway, so even if visibility had cleared, we would have had to wait for that to get moved. And that late, airport workers were already going home so they had to find someone to move that truck, make sure the de-icing crew was on standby, etc, etc.
Then they just cancelled the flight until today.
And had to track down workers to put the jet bridge back.
I felt sorry for the people who were trying to get home! I feel very fortunate that I was able to just cancel my flight completely and come home. Yes I'm bummed that I didn't see my Sweetie or get to go to the bathhouse (or eat real southern BBQ) but I didn't have any solid plans for the weekend. An older lady (who was quite hilarious - she sang happy birthday - loudly - to another passenger who was trying to go to Nashville with her friends to celebrate and then prayed - loudly - to Jesus & all the saints for everyone to get to their destinations safely, etc) and her daughter had been in town for a cousin's funeral and were trying to get home.
By the time I got back out to my car, there was 4 inches of powdery snow and crazy drifts from the wind. It only took me 45 minutes to get to the airport, but an hour & 15 minutes to get home.
It was hard to see the lanes on the highway. I followed a truck for 35 miles because the wind was tossing his trailer around and I was afraid to pass him!
It was well after 3am when I got home and thankfully the Spawn kept the grandkids quiet and they left me alone until I woke up on my own at 11! I haven't slept that good / long in I don't know how long, guess being up close to 23 hours will do that to a body.
Maybe next year's attempt will be less eventful...?
Sigh. Guess I'll save a vacation day and go to work Monday.
Boooooo.
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