A day of flights and fondue

The short story is that I made it to Red State and hubby survived his first day of school.... losing his 'teaching virginity' wasn't easy or stress-free, but he probably didn't freak them out either.

The miracle of the day was that I made it here on time... there was a thunderstorm in Chicago yesterday morning, thus there was complete chaos for United Airlines all day.

When I got to the airport, my flight was ok, but the previous two flights to Chicago hadn't left yet -- and should have. That smelled like trouble to me.... for good reason. About five minutes before my flight to Chicago was to begin boarding, we didn't have an aircraft and the gate agents were looking tense.... then, they announced a delay of about two hours.

I immediately did some quick math and realized that if I stuck with this flight, I'd miss my connection to Red State and things would get hairy...so I grabbed my stuff and went down the hall to where the previous flights were boarding over 3 hours late... after going around the line, some amazingly nice gate agent understood exactly what I was doing and put me stand-by on the flight that was supposed to take off three hours before - and, I was off. At EXACTLY the time I was supposed to leave, on a different flight number..

In Chicago the previous flight was listed as delayed 3 hours and mine wasn't on the board at all. I knew I was on a small plane, operated by a regional carrier, so I started heading for the other end of O'hare.... which, by the way, is a LONG walk... (for those familiar, I went from the end of the C concourse to about E14). Thank goodness I had my rolling briefcase, or I would have been shedding student files and important dissertation stuff all the way.

Eventually I made it to the gate area for the little jets--- and, miracle of miracles, they listed my flight as on-time.... although they ended up cancelling the one that was delayed. It actually left about on time and arrived in Red State on time as well.

After a stop at the house and a quick shower (I smelled like travel... ick) we went out for a late night of fondue at the Melting Pot-- to celebrate my visit and hubby's first day of teaching.

On Sunday I'll dive back into the madness, hoping to make the last flight back into BN state... again via Chicago. For now, hubby and I are haning out in Red State.... which I have now declared my other home.