What a crazy adventure this week has been. It started lightly enough on Friday with Nita and I volunteering at Connor’s preschool for Science day. Nothing overly funny there other than Connor gravitating to whatever was the messiest station. Saturday was expected to be exciting with an Elementary school carnival right behind mom’s house. We went over early for breakfast and Connor was beside himself with excitement to go hit all the rides and activities…but bless his heart both he and Josie spiked a fever. So he wore himself out pretty quickly and Josephine just wanted to be held inside the building. The next day I flew to Denver for a conference to discover that: a) the Women’s final four was in Denver; b) Baylor was staying at my hotel (I’m pretty sure the entire city of Waco was there; c) the weather in Denver makes me realize that anyone worried about global warming may not understand the math.
When I landed in Denver it was 83 degrees. I walked to the convention center and did my booth time and then went to dinner with a couple of colleagues. When we got done we asked for a cab and although only six blocks, it was hot and we were tired. Our cab driver misspelled “Marriott” in the GPS, had no idea where it was (downtown city center, how can you be a downtown cabbie and not know the four major hotels within 3 blocks of the professional stadiums and convention center?) and to top it off took us down two one way streets…the wrong way! Yes I felt like I turned into John Candy in a Devil outfit like in Planes, Trains and Automobiles. That night it dropped to 42 degrees. I walked to the convention center again, but this time with a heavy coat and gloves. Many of the folks attending the conference were unprepared. I was not.
Way back when I was a real road warrior, not a part timer like I am now, I had a trip to Albuquerque. I figured New Mexico was hot and deserty. I didn’t really figure it to by cold and mountainy. It was. I got off the plane and it was tolerable. I got to my hotel and I bought a coat. Since then I have always checked the five day forecast of my destination city. I’d never thought about checking the connection city before, but I promise I will now. Anyway I knew it was going to be cold, so I was prepared. So finally, the day I was supposed to leave (Tuesday), I went out to meet my ride and there was a nice little dusting on the ground and we would be driving about 30 miles in a light snow. So now it was 30 degrees. From 83-30 in two days…how will our species survive? J
So we spend an extra 40 minutes on the tarmac waiting to get de-iced and land in Dallas about a half hour after we were supposed to arrive. As “luck” would have it, our flight to Austin was delayed just that amount of time. So I rushed over to my gate and started boarding the plane. The gate agent made the announcement: “Ladies and Gentlemen, please stow your items as quickly as possible, there is some ‘weather’ in the area and we are trying to push back as soon as possible to beat it.” So we loaded hurriedly, but honestly it didn’t seem any faster than any other boarding. About ¾ of the way through, they stopped us and asked us all to de-board the plane. Apparently there was a storm cell nearby and we needed to let it go through…oh and to please stay away from all the windows and move toward the middle of the terminal. So I went to my home away from home the admirals club. I ordered a cocktail and a sushi roll. I figured I needed to eat quickly since they’d be calling us back to the gate which was the furthest away from the club.
Just as I was putting my wasabi on my tuna roll, the alarm went off. They asked if we could all please move to the rear of the club, we were evacuating to a stairway tunnel underneath the club (which I didn’t know existed). Once down there we all kind of joked around but it got kind of stuffy. We had one of the agents from the club with us and she opened an exit door. I thought there might be an alarm, but instead, there was a big ole 737, just sitting there in front of us. I mean right there. I’m pretty sure the FAA would have frowned on that. Then the rain hit…then the hail hit. Meanwhile everyone was taking pictures with their phones, facebooking, messaging, and checking the Doppler radar to see this storm cell that was just plain red. Everyone truly is a citizen journalist now days aren’t they? There were tornados touching down in the DFW area and it was wreaking havoc on the metroplex. Eventually they let us back into the club, but advised us to stay away from the windows.
I kept getting text messages that our plane was delayed 30 minutes, every 15 minutes. So now my 12:50 flight was scheduled for 5pm. I told Nita that I was 50-50 for dinner. I then checked the board when someone yelled, “everything’s cancelled!” It said my plane was in final boarding. Holy Sh*t.
For some crazy reason, I couldn’t sleep well last night. So I woke up around 1:30AM, did some work, finished my book, and went to the hotel gym and worked out. I left for the Denver airport at 6AM to anticipate any traffic the snow might cause. During the evacuation, I had to carry my luggage (with my big heavy coat) down and up four flights of stairs.
Back to the story, when I saw the “final boarding” sign on the flight board, I sprinted to my gate. D40 is as far from the Admirals club as you can be while remaining in D gate by the way. When I got there, it was not boarding…it was being cancelled. Crap. So I walked back to the club and the line to talk to the agents was about 40 people deep. So I called the platinum desk and was on hold for 12 minutes. Apparently other people also needed to get somewhere. So in that 12 minutes I moved up about five spots and finally a nice agent answered. She was able to get me on the last flight and first flight back to Austin, the 9:05 which was now scheduled for 10:05. My long day has gotten longer and I’ve now had three workouts. Also, when anxiety and adrenaline combine, once you calm yourself and accept your situation, the “tired” returns. So I had to walk up and down C terminal several times to stay alert. Yep, had to change terminals, but that was no biggie.
The reason for the mass shutdown was most of the planes on the ground when the storm hit got hail damage. And every single plane needed to undergo a full inspection. Also, it isn’t like the airline has a hanger with 100 spare jets in it, so even the ones not in service which were exposed to the hail, had to be checked. Finally, no new air traffic was coming in. All the flights that were supposed to come in during the storm were rerouted to Tulsa, Oklahoma city and St. Louis. Thus creating a lack of inventory. So back to my last seat: I went and ate some dinner and called Nita with the plan. Now many of you are asking “why didn’t you rent a car?” Well, many of the cars were already being rented and the traffic was crazy backed up. I’m sure you can understand when tractor trailers are being tossed around, roofs are not where they are supposed to be, and other cars are overturned in streets and roadways that it might affect traffic. I mean if it sprinkles lightly in Austin you can expect a 30 minute delay, can you imagine what a tornado might do?
So I am anxiously watching the board for the ONLY flight to Austin tonight and the status. It keeps flashing delayed 10:05, but in my heart I knew it was going to cancel. All of the surrounding hotels were booked solid. You also have to realize that with 90% of the flights cancelled and Dallas being a major airline hub (the DFW airport is actually larger in square footage/mileage than Manhatten), there were quite a few people displaced. So I am planning on the possibility of sleeping on a cot in the Admirals club and then renting a car in the morning. Remember I woke up at 1:30 AM and I’m pretty much on fumes. As luck would have it, the flight didn’t cancel, I got home at 11PM and Nita came to pick me up. I was too tired to even drive home. I came and got the car this morning.
I missed Connor’s first soccer tots try-out but was informed he did well. I can’t wait to see. Nita and I went a few rounds on whether or not he was ready and the impact of his experience on his willingness to attempt future athletic endeavors, but that is for another blog. I’m just glad I got home safely and that no one was hurt. My heart went out to all the families I saw sleeping in the terminal, the kids who spent all day on a little indoor playscape that was intended to be not much more than a 1 or 2 hour distraction, and those folks who missed connections to vacations, cruises and the Masters. So my tornado didn’t put me in Kansas or Oz, but I loved seeing my little munchkins this morning.
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