Sunday, July 17, 2011

Plane Drama

Nothing can ever be as simple as it seems. Take our flight to Japan for example, hop on the plane in Cheyenne, connect in Denver, fly out of Seattle the next day. Simple. There has to be gnomes working against us amongst the really perky airport associates.

Yesterday, Dave and Georgia drove Ian down to Denver so that he could catch his flight to Seattle. His plane was delayed for like an hour and a half. I got on a little puddle jumper in Cheyenne to get down to Denver. We are all on the plane, traveling down the tarmac, when the pilot comes on telling us that we have to go back and get a part that they hadn't delivered in time. So we go back and sit in the waiting area for another twenty minutes, all for a part the size of a hamburger.

I get to Denver and I can't find my flight on any of the departures because of the United/Continental thing. So after walking really fast (I only had an hour to figure it out, plus pee and eat dinner) I finally find a lady that can direct me to a possible gate. There is no attendant there, but my boarding pass says that it's the same plane. Ian and I hang for a little bit in Denver before he goes off to get get dinner and wait for his flight which is boarding about 15 minutes after mine. The flight was rather uneventful.

I get into Seattle, find the baggage area, and wait, and wait, and wait. My bags aren't on the carousel, oh crap. I find the perky baggage info lady and she has good news, she knows where they are. Bad news, they aren't going to get to the airport till 9, so I have her arrange to send them to the hotel. I find Ian, we get his bags and then flag down the shuttle to the hotel.

Buy the time we get checked into the room I'm ready to drop, but both of us are ravenous so we ask about the nearest restaurants. We find this teriyaki place, but it's closed because it's 9pm on a Saturday. We settle for Deny's. By the time we get back to the hotel it's 10pm and still no sign of the bags. I call the 800 number and find out that only one of the bags has arrived in Seattle - super crap, like holiest of holys crap - I'm going to be in Japan with only two changes of clothes and without all my precious threads. They tell me not to worry and that they will deliver them when they get them.

Now the real problem with all this is that we have to get up at 2am to get the the airport at 2:30am to check in. So that means we are already looking at 4 hours of sleep. So we power nap, and thank God for Ian because when the hotel guy knocked on our door with the bags I was dead to the world. I had to ask Ian if it was a dream or not. Then we got up and the hotel guy took us to the airport. I swear to you, this guys was the perkiest, happiest human being at 2am that I have ever met. Just the nicest guy, he went out of his way to help us with our mountain of bags (8, all over 15lbs, most weighing 50). So shout out to the night clerk at the Rodeway Inn in Seattle, you made my morning.

And now we are sitting the in the airport, waiting for the plane to board, watching all the other less inhibited gi's sleep on the floor and wishing we hadn't had two cups of coffee.
Ian trying to look chipper at 2:30am in check in line.

No comments:

Post a Comment