This is the website of Abulsme Noibatno Itramne (also known as Sam Minter).
Posts here are rare these days. For current stuff, follow me on Mastodon
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Traveling Man
This last week had a variety of fuin travel adventures. I will briefly catalog them.
Barely made it to Orlando in time for my flight becuase of all the traffic leaving the cancelled space shuttle luanch. Traffic on the Bee Line… er… Beach Line… was going like 10 or 20 miles per hour most of the way. Then there was a long security line. Very long. Finally ran up to the gate when they were supposed to be almost done bording.
Sometime while I was going through the security, the status of the flight was changed from on time, to delayed. Unspecified delays. (Turns out to have been weather.) I had a connection with only a one hour gap. The plane wasn’t even at the gate yet.
I had Brandy and someone at work looking to see if I had other options to get to the northeast. Pickings were slim. There was one flight Brandy found on another airline heading in the right direction, but by the time it was clear my connection would probably not be made, it was gone. So, based on a decision from work, I went ahead and got on the flight. To Chicago. I was going to Connecticut.
Of course, I got to Chicago after my flight to White Plains, Connecticut had already left. And all other flights heading back to the northeast were already gone, or already had dozens of people on standby from other flights to the northeast which had been canceled due to weather earlier in the day. So, I’d be staying in Chicago over night.
I figure I’ll head to the airport Hilton. It is late. They have me scheduled for a 7 AM flight back out. I know it will be a little more, but it is right there. So I go there. They are booked for the night. I go back to the little hotel board. I start calling places. They are ALL booked. I was not the only one stuck in Chicago because of weather delays in the northeast. Eventually, after calling most of the places on the board, I found one with vacancy. An EconoLodge half an hour from the airport.
An EconoLodge. It took half an hour of waiting for a shuttle, then half an hour of riding, then half an hour of getting checked in, then I finally got to lie down in my EconoLodge room. It had a bed, but no broadband. It was kind of icky. But it would do. And I would only be there for about four hours.
In the morning, after dragging myself out of bed and catching the 4:30 AM shuttle I got to the airport, went through security, and then, a few minutes after I got to the gate… Delayed. The meeting I was supposed to be in Connecticut for started at 9:30. I would not have made it even if the flight left on time. I was on the phone with folks from the office. In the end it was decided after we got on the phone with the clients to do a conference call and do a bit of the stuff that could be done without me in person, then reschedule the rest for 24 hours later. As it turned out, I was actually able to do the whole conference call from the airport. We didn’t end up leaving until almost 4 hours after the flight was originally scheduled.
Got to White Plains mid afternoon. Got to the hotel I was supposed to be at the night before. Basically crashed for a couple hours. Then got up and went to buy a shirt since I was at this point already supposed to be on the way home and hadn’t been planning on more days. Food followed, followed by a normal nights sleep, then the meeting in the morning. We finished a little early, partially because we’d already done some of it the day before.
So, it was off to the airport, four hours before my rescheduled flight. (Returning a day later than originally planned.) Hopefully they would be able to get me on an earlier flight. Uh, nope. So, four hours sitting in the cramped terminal at White Plains. I read some magazines and some of my book. But that was it. Then, of course, an hour or so before the plane was to leave, it was of course delayed.
And once again, there was only a one hour layover scheduled. This time in DC. The flight was delayed, then delayed again, and again. They said there was a chance I could still make my connection, because flights out of DC were also heavily delayed. Uh huh. Well anyway, somthing like 7 hours after I arrived at the airport, I was on the way to DC.
And of course, when we touched down in DC, the flight back home to Orlando had left 20 minutes earlier. So, I was stuck in DC.
Being in DC, I called Rebecca and Chris, and was able to see them for a few hours. (I’ll post about that in a bit.)
Rebecca and Chris offered a place to stay, but I am allergic to their cat, and had an early flight in the morning, so I grabbed a hotel again.
In the morning, finally, a flight went as scheduled, and I was home a little while later. About 36 hours later than planned, but OK…
And that was my adventure this week. Woo!
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Rule #1 for a business trip, don’t make crazy connections all over the place. If it’s a quick in and out making those connections makes it highly likely you will get fucked up somewher, so don’t go through Chicago to get to fucking white plains!
Believe me, I wanted to strangle the woman who made the arrangements. It was not me. I would have booked a direct to Laguardia, then rented a car. Or at least connected somewhere on the east coast.
Yes, that would have been nice. Flight to LGA and rental car, and it would have been cheaper. My father just flew back from Amsterdam and he went Amsterdam – London Gatwick – Dallas – Fort Lauderdale , of course missed one flight and another delayed, got here at 3AM!!!!
Next time, I think I’ll fly Melbourne to Newark, with connections in Atlanta, London, Cairo, Katmandu, Toyko, Honolulu, San Fransisco and Toronto. That should do quite well. I’ll catch the sourtern hemisphere on the way home.
And on the flip side, at least your flight back was for the right month.
You got a hotel in DC? You could have stayed here. I’m deeply hurt…
Weren’t you at camp or something?
[Note: Actually posted by Brandy, accidentally logged in as Abulsme.]
This flight was the same month, but we have yet to see about the next flight! (Nothing scheduled yet…)
Yeah, Cynthia was at camp. Plus, it was like 11 PM, and I was at Dulles, which is a decent drive away from the actual city. Probably at least 45 minutes to my Dad’s house each way. And I didn’t have transport, so it would have been like “Hey, I know it is almost midnight, but want to spend a few hours driving me back and forth to the airport now and a few hours later at 4 AM? R&C live maybe 10 or 15 minutes from the airport, so it seemed actually possible.
I’m sorry I missed you though Cynthia!