Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Las Friday my brother and I met up at O'Hare to fly south to visit our Mom and Al. As it turned out, the weather in other parts of the country, including where we were headed, were getting hit with snow and ice. But all seemed to be going well for us. We managed to find each other easily enough, no troubles at security, found our gate at the furthest end of the corridor and sat down to rest. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 8:20 p.m., but about 7:15 for some reason I decided to check the departure screens and noticed that our gate had changed from what it was on the departure screen when we got through security 45 minutes prior. So we walked down the corridor to get in line for the shuttle, since we had to go to an entirely different area of the airport. When the shuttle arrived, we went down the stairs, outside and onto the shuttle bus, which then took us over to "F12A". We disembarked from the bus, got outside, back up the stairs, and down the corridor to sit at our gate and wait. As it turned out, our plane was announced 25 minutes late. No biggee.

About 9:00, an announcement was made that the plane had arrived but boarding would be delayed further since the plane was experiencing some technical difficulties. Hey, take yer time I say. About 15 minutes later they came on the intercom and said there was good news and bad news. The bad news was that our plane was out of commission; the good news was that another plane was available to take us instead. It was back over in the other part of the airport where we'd just come from. I literally LOL. So we went back down the corridor, got in line for the shuttle, went down the stairs and outside. By this time the wind was blowing, the snow was flurrying, but we got on the bus which took us back over to terminal C. Got out of the bus, back outside, up the stairs, and back down the corridor to our gate. Did I mention that I had a carryon bag packed? Yes, it had wheels, but that didn't do me any good going up or down the stairs or getting on or off the shuttle bus.

Once we arrived at our new gate (which was directly across from the first gate), we were met with........no one. No plane, no crew, no check-in person. Thankfully, someone from United came by but since there was no crew and no plane, well, check in couldn't really begin. Tom and I sat down. He said he wanted to file a complaint with his travel agent (me). At least we were keeping our sense of humor, as others were not. Finally plane and crew arrived, and we boarded the plan around 10:00 p.m. With a sigh of relief, we found our seats, and sat down. Since the plane was too small for carry on, I had to check my bag at the gate. No problem though since once we arrived, they'd put all the "at the gate" bags at the arrival gate so we wouldn't have to wait in the baggage claim area.

The pilot came on around 10:15 to state that there were further delays because they really needed to de-ice the plane. So we waited further for the de-icing crew to come and de-ice the plane. At 10:30 we finally thought we were going to be under way but the pilot just got on to say that the de-icing crew missed a few spots, so we had to wait for them to come back and do it again. Are you freakin' kidding me? I was losing my sense of humor by this point.

At long last we lifted off at 10:45 p.m. and arrived in Springfield, MO about 12:15 a.m......about 2 hours late. This wasn't a big airport and we were absolutely the only passengers in the place. So it was truly a wonder to me why we had to pull into the furthest gate in the terminal. Was there something wrong with the vacant gate 1?? I was fully anticipating to receive my luggage at the gate, but they decided to bring all the luggage to the claim area, so I basically lugged that thing all around the airport for no reason at all now that I had to wait in baggage claim like everyone else.

When we got to the baggage claim/rental car area, I went over to the Enterprise window to get our car. Unfortunately they closed 15 minutes before we landed. So I went over to the open window of Alamo and got a little crappy car for highway robbery. Had my brain been engaged, it would've been cheaper to call a cab. For a one day rental at Alamo, it cost as much as a three day rental at Enterprise. But Enterprise was closed, so their fabulous prices were doing me no good at that moment. We waited for our luggage and then shlepped out to the car rental lot.

Did I mention that Springfield was getting hit with a snow storm? Southern states just aren't prepared to deal with 8"+ of snow. They aren't.....no salt, no plows......but lotsa snow. There was no way we were going to be able to manage the hills of this area to drive 80 miles south to where our Mom and Al lived, so we opted to find a hotel (being the prepared person that I am, I did anticipate this need and found a hotel online that was 5 miles from the airport. Even got directions off their website to the hotel.) So anyway, we go out to the rental car parking lot to row 9 and space 216. It was about 15 degrees out (without the windchill), and loads of swirling snow hitting us in our faces. There were 10 rows in the rental car lot, we trudged out to row 9. Did I mention that the rental car lot wasn't plowed.....at all?? And to think I left my snow boots at home. So in my Borns and Tom in his sneakers, we went to......the absolute last parking space of row 9, me carrying my, by now very heavy, rolling suitcase. I do have to agree with my brother when he said, "For $60, they should've $@&*!* heated the car up and brought it around for us." So true.

So it's dark, windy, snowy, and unplowed where we're at in our little Nissan box on wheels with a brake that thumped or sounded like it was dragging on the road whenever I used it. We had a bit of trouble finding the exit to the airport, but managed to get out onto the main road. The directions said to go to the roundabout and take XYZ road. Except there was no XYZ road. We gave it our best shot to find this place.....in the dark, on unplowed roads. And I do mean unplowed highway roads in a place that had received 8"+ of snow. By 1:45 we couldn't find this hotel, and gave up. We had seen a little place back up the road and stopped off there. We asked if they had a room, which he said he did (through a sliding window while we stood outside at 2 a.m. in the morning in the 15 degree weather with snow swirling around us.) Unfortunately he didn't have a room with two beds but did have a room with a king size bed. At this point, we really didn't care, so we took it.

We got to our room and it didn't have any heat turned on and was about as cold inside as it was outside. Tom got the heat cranking while I laid down on the bed still in my coat. Abougt 10 minutes later it started to crank out some heat. Fully clothed, we crawled under the covers to try and get some rest. Tom woke me up at 8 a.m. because he needed coffee; besides we need to try and get to Arkansas. One look in the bathroom told us we weren't showering here, so after brushing my teeth we split and headed back to the airport to turn in this lousy car (they wanted $130 for the whole weekend. Gimmee a break!) We turned in the car, then went down to the Enterprise counter, which was open. Yay. I explained what had happened last night and the woman upgraded us for free AND went out to the rental car lot to get the car for us, brush it off and warm it up. Sweet. I think it was a Pontiac G4 (?). Much nicer ride anyway, and off we went. Truly amazing though that the roads leading into the airport still hadn't been plowed by 8:30 a.m.

We hit the highway and arrived at Mom and Al's about 11 a.m. The MO highways were reasonably plowed, but when we saw the "Welcome to Arkansas" sign, the roads instantaneously became awful and our travel was slowed to about 30 mph. I found myself behind one plow and really it seemed like he was just making the road worse, so I passed him. Sure enough, once I got in front of the plow the road was considerably smoother traveling. Back at Mom's they were snowed in; neither could drive, and both were sick and couldn't have shoveled the drive to get out of the garage, so Tom and I shoveled so I could take Mom to Walmart for some items Al needed, including a new prescription.

When I booked the flight about a week before we left, I really sensed God wanting us to go that weekend. While we were at the airport and dealing with the delays, snow, and lousy hotel, I found myself questioning the whole thing - Did I misunderstand? And if I didn't, why all these hassles to arrive at our destination? I didn't have my answer immediately, but after our short weekend there, I'm certain that I understood correctly; we were meant to be on that flight and to travel that weekend. They needed us there that weekend, especially on early Monday morning when Mom woke us up to take Al to the emergency room. After several hours at the ER and many tests later, they determined that he had a puliminary embulism (sp?). Forutnately he was admitted to the hospital and will be treated for what he's been suffering from for the past week. My step brother is flying in today to take our place, so we felt OK leaving on our scheduled flight. The trip back up to the airport was uneventful and all 7 of us got on the plane with no problems. As a matter of fact, we left 10 minutes early.