Airport Hell - Part II

Apparently it was wishful thinking that we'd get home without a hitch.

On our way out to Michigan it took us longer to get to Detroit than it did to get us to Egypt. Looks like we won't do much better on the return trip.

We got to the airport way early so we could make it through all the THREAT LEVEL ORANGE security without having to be rushed. Since Detroit airport has a lot of international flights their security is fairly tight.

We actually boarded our plane pretty much on time and were excited that everything seemed to be going well. Then we sat in the plane on the tarmac for THREE HOURS due to a lightening storm passing over. Being stuck in an airport with ability to walk around, get food, use Internet, etc is not my favorite thing. But being stuck ON THE PLANE really is worse.

We finally made it to Salt Lake about 11 PM. (Should have been all the way to Pasco by 9pm)
Of course, by then the last flight out to Pasco was long since gone. So now we are here in some little hotel by the airport, hoping to make a different connection sometime tomorrow.
On the up side, we met a couple of really nice folks from Twin Falls, ID who had just gotten back from a month long trip to Uzbekistan. We enjoyed visiting with them about various international trips we both had taken.

But I'm tired, my head hurts, my throat hurts (I hate airplane air - it always makes me feel cruddy for a day after). I just want to go HOME.

My Underwear Went to Chicago

After a 23 hour ordeal of delays, schedule changes and hold ups, we FINALLY made it to the Detroit airport. Three of our four suitcases came with us. One, however, did not. All our socks and underwear went to Chicago. This was problematic.

Fortunately, it did show up, intact, a full day later.

So now we are here in Grandville, MI very much enjoying time with family. I'm not really looking forward to the return flight home this coming Friday. Hopefully this next trip will be less eventful.

The Threat Rainbow

For the past couple hours we've been hearing announcements every 15 minutes or so over the loud speakers throughout the airport about the Department of Homeland Security raising the threat level to ORANGE due to increased risk and that we should report any suspicious behavior.

Personally, I think this is useless. The information is so vague and ambiguous - I doubt anyone has a clear idea of how they should behave any differently than if the threat level were labelled yellow or green or blue. All it does is push people's buttons of worry and mistrust.

Then there's the whole thing of having to take of our shoes to be x-rayed, throw out tubes of toothpaste that go over the 3 oz max limit, and have every single bag opened and ransacked to check for explosives.

Does this make us safer? Is this a worthy way to spend our time and resources?

I've heard a few people suggest that so many new jobs were created by the increased threat level that now some want to KEEP the threat level high to protect those jobs for all the people searching our bags and x-raying our shoes. Who cares if it makes air travel far more uncomfortable and less efficient. Of course, people wouldn't stand for that if they thought they were going through this rig-a-marole for that reason. So we keep up the talk of safety and national security so it seem down right fool hardy and unpatriotic to object.

What if instead of all these warnings about Threat Level ORANGE they keep announcing every 15 minutes, instead we heard a soothing voice wishing us a happy travel day? What if there was light music? What if there was just silence? Would we really be any less safe?

Trapped in the Airport- The Saga Continues

My beloved and I have been stuck in airports all day. I'm tired, cold, and trying not to be grumpy.

We had reservations to fly out at 6:45 AM to get to Detroit (via Salt Lake City) orignally scheduled to arrive by around 3:00 this afternoon. Well, you know what they say about best laid plans of mice and men.

We got a recorded - message call about 3:30 this morning telling us our flight from Salt Lake to Detroit had cancelled. So we called Delta, were put on hold long enough to grow a beard, then spoke briefly with someone who barely spoke English. Our call was transferred to a different department where we were put on hold AGAIN for another tedious, frustrating wait being subjected to bad music. Finally we were told we had been rebooked on a different flight. Great! So we went ahead and drove the hour and a half to the airport in Pasco where they informed us our flight to Salt Lake was today and our trip to Detroit was for TOMORROW. GRRRR.

I have grandbabies waiting for me to taking 'em on a wild geocache adventure. I need to GET there.

So we rearranged flights AGAIN, this time taking us from Pasco to Denver to Chicago and THEN Detroit, which would get us in a little before midnight. That meant a long delay of sitting around the freezing cold Pasco airport, but at least we'd be able to get to our destination late tonight rather than blowing a whole other day traveling.

However - once we got to Denver there was another delay - our plane came in but there was no crew to fly it. The figured they could eventually get us to Chicago by 9:30. However, our flight FROM Chicago to Detroit was scheduled to leave at 9:00. AGH!

So back we went to ANOTHER line of about 50 people who all had their flights screwed up. We somehow managed to get yet a different flight, this time directly from here to Detroit. We were supposed to fly out of here at 7:00. We breathed a sigh of relief. Until the monitor sign popped up with big letters saying "Flight Delayed". They bumped it to 8:00. Then a while later it was moved to 9:00. We just checked again and they don't plan for that flight to leave until 10:00 PM. No telling if we will even get out of this airport yet tonight.

I'm thinking we should have just gone to Salt Lake as originally planned, but who knew?

I'm trying to choose to be positive in adverse circumstances. I'm struggling a bit because I'm tired and I'm cold. I never went to bed last night, assuming I'd have a long flight to sleep on. There's no place to comfortably rest here in this waiting area of loud annoyed people who are all milling around complaining about their flights being screwed up. So I'm loopy from sleep deprivation. Also, the temperature in the terminal, just like the one in Pasco, has me shivering with goose bumps. The air conditioning is set way too cold.

So I'm pretty uncomfortable. Still....I decide how I will respond. There is nothing I can do to change the situation. I can only choose how I handle it.

I alternate between reading, people watching, stretching, trying to get comfortable. It's all wearing pretty thin. I believe desperate circumstances call for desperate measures. This calls for a walk down the concourse to Cinnabons.