If you have ever driven from Cleveland to Chicago (or reverse), you probably know that it doesn’t take anywhere near 10 hours. And the flight is a whole 45 minutes of air time. But Monday, my journey took 10+ hours.
It started with leaving the house 5 minutes before the security system auto disarms, meaning that I set off the alarm, woke my husband and probably my neighbors, as well as scared my cats.
After getting to the airport it got better ( and by “better” I mean worse). I took a seat in the terminal and plugged in my laptop to do some work. I got notice that my flight was delayed 30 minutes.
While I’m working, I feel my nose start to run so I grab a tissue to wipe it. The tissue came back red, turning into a 10-minute, gusher of a nose bleed surrounded by complete strangers. Using up the whole packet of tissues, I finally got it under control enough to pack my things with one hand and take my trauma to the restroom.
Meanwhile, my flight had been delayed two more times. Then again. For a total delay of nearly six hours.
We got to a point of boarding and I was in a seat, making friends with my seatmates when they kick us all off the plane. The windshield had cracked.
They took a plane from an upcoming flight (which I found out they ended up cancelling) and we finally boarded for real… I could have driven from Cleveland to Chicago in that time!
So then we land. Every plane that had been diverted also landed so we all sat on a hot airplane on the tarmac for almost an hour. Causing me to miss my first meeting.
But Chicago ended up making up for it. Hopefully getting home isn’t as bad as getting here!
O man…that is a rough day! I’m glad you got there safe though! XOXOXO
Yikes, that sounds like a terrible time! I’m so glad I’ve never had a flight delayed that long. What did you DO the whole time? And my recent flight back from Seattle involved a lot of extended taxiing time, which just felt ridiculous. We landed at one end of the airport and we traveled basically five miles to get to our gate. Ugh!
It was a work trip and work has been crazy busy so I took the opportunity to “catch up” as much as I could. (and I called my mom.).
Don’t you hate feeling like your plane is literally driving you to the destination?
I feel your pain.
I’ve been flying almost every month for the last 15 years so I know how much it sucks due to unexpected delays and little dramas. Glad you got to appreciate some of Chicago in the end. Every bad day needs some silver lining.
Thanks! Once I got there everything went well. One of those silver linings was getting a ton of work done at the airport!