My Long Trip to California

Well, here I am in hot California. And it was such an adventure. I left work (last day!) at 9:40 a.m. on Friday and drove to Dulles Airport. Got to the garage at 10:06 a.m. That time is important to remember!

Went through security - removed shoes, computer, little bag of toiletries that will injure someone (ha ha). Checked the monitors to find out that I'm leaving from Terminal D at 12:25 p.m. and it's leaving on time. Took the bus over to Terminal D. Went to subway and got a 6" sub. Then went to the newstand to get a Pepsi. Went back to Subway, got a straw, then went to my gate. Nothing was showing up on the monitor at the gate, so I thought I was in the wrong place. Went back to the bank of monitors, looked for my flight and saw the lovely words - Cancelled.

Aw crap - now I have to go to Customer Service and figure out how they're getting me to CA. Oh wait - first of all, there was no announcement that the flight was cancelled. Okay - standing in line for CS. Save my place and use the electronic check-in to see what they've done for me - they put me on a flight leaving Saturday morning and getting in around 10:00 Saturday. No, don't want to do that - it's cutting it close since we needed to be in Lancaster by 4:00 p.m., and it's 90 minutes from my sister's house. And I don't want to take the chance in case something is wrong with that flight.

Finally get to the agent and lo and behold, there are no flights on United, with seats, leaving for CA today. However there is one leaving from Reagan/National at 5:00 and I can get put on that one. It gets in around 9:40 p.m., going through Denver (instead of San Fransicso, which is a bummer since I was going to get some See's Candies in the SF airport). After mumbling since I hate that airport, I ask him if he is positive that the flight will be leaving this afternoon since I must be in CA for a funeral. Yes, it's leaving. He'll give me a taxi voucher so I don't have to pay for the transportation (it's $60 in cab fare and I know that since I've done it before). Okay, fine, I'll do it. Call my sister, let her know the change in plans. Call my girlfriend Crystal since she was meeting me in the airport in Burbank. She was flying in from Vegas, so she wanted to get a flight that landed close when mine did. Got to Reagan, went through security again, had to buy a new Pepsi, since I couldn't bring mine with me. Finally sat down to eat my lunch. This is now about 1:00 p.m. I'm bored, finish one book, go buy another book and a magazine. Finish the second book and magazine. Text a few friends. Still bored. Finally, about 4:30, we see the plane land and a bunch of us are standing in the line to boad the plane. An announcement comes on and says that we'll be boarding very soon. The screen says that our flight is leaving at 5:01 p.m. People get off the plane and all of a sudden the screen changes and says we're leaving at 6:25. What?? What's going on there? So we go over to stand in the line to talk to the agent and find out about connecting flights. After about 30 minutes in line, finally get to the agent. I tell him that my connecting flight leaves at 8:20 from Denver to Burbank and I need to be on it. When will get land in Denver? We'll get there at 8:00 and you'll have plenty of time to get on your flight. What?? No I won't. If we land, we still have to taxi to the gate. It'll take time to do that, to get everyone off the plane (I'm sitting in the next-to-last row). And I have to walk to a different gate. I know I won't make it. Yes you will, he says. There is nothing I can do for you. Aw crap!

So I call my sister - she's now in CA with my other sister and they start checking flights for me. We finally board the aircraft and pull away from the gate. And stop on the runway. It's starting to rain a bit and we can't take off. Now I know I've just missed my connecting flight. Call my sister back and let her know. Call Crystal and tell her. Call United to see what they can do. Call back to United since they hung up on me the first time. Find out there are no flights leaving at all from Denver to either Burbank or LAX. On any airlines. Crap! Okay, we'll get to Denver and figure out what to do. Finally, around 8:00 p.m. we leave DC. It's normally a 3 hour flight (you know, a 3-hour tour, so Gilligan says!). But it takes us 4 hours since we have to fly in from the south of Denver due to a lightning show. Then we land and there is no gate for us. So by the time we get off the plane, it's almost 11:00 at night. I check my voice mail, and both my sister, Crystal, and my SIL have left me messages about flights. Apparently there were several that I could have taken if we landed at 9:00, or even 10:00. Now remember, United said there was nothing. WRONG!!

So now I go stand in line for the Customer Service guys. At this point, it's 2:00 in the morning for me, and I'm exhausted, starving, and just emotionally drained. I got up at 4:30 in the morning on Friday, and I haven't been sleeping well the past 2 days, so it's just very tiring. So I stand in line. I call United and get on a flight leaving Denver at 8:55 a.m. on Saturday, but flying to LAX and landing at 10:20, but I want to know what else is out there. And to get a place to sleep and eat. All I had was that 6" sub at 1:00 my time. An hour later I call my sister and tell her I'm still in line and now the word is there are no hotel rooms. Crap. Still standing in line. After 2 1/2 hours of standing in line, I finally get to the agent. He was not helpful - I'm sorry, I can't get you on a flight to Burbank at all. There is one leaving at 8:30 and I'll put you on the wait list. You're on the one to LAX. But we won't provide a transportation voucher to you. I can get you on an earlier one to Ontario (about 2 1/2 hours away), but you'll have to find your own way to where you're going. Oh, and since you asked, here's a $6 breakfast voucher. If you want to go to the main terminal, a few things are open, but you can't come back over here since security is closed. And there are no rooms. You can try and find one yourself and send in the receipts and we'll reimburse you.

Now, it's 1:30 in the morning, I'm exhausted and about to have a breakdown. I don't want to call all over Denver to find a room and pay for it myself, plus deal with the cab there and back. I don't want to go to the main terminal and find the Burger King that is open and have grease. I call my sister again and let her know when I'm coming in and that I pretty much have to stay at the airport. It just made more sense to stay at the airport.Both of my sisters are pretty annoyed with all of this. And I just start crying. I'm so exhausted that I can't take it anymore. Finally I pull myself together, go to the vending machine and get a Pepsi, a bag of chips and a bag of Cheetos. What a lovely dinner.

I go stake out my seat to attempt to sleep in. Many people are there with me, so in one sense, that's good. But man, is it freezing. They had the air conditioning on. So when the first store opens, I have to go get a sweatshirt, since I'm turning blue. I never slept at all - it was too uncomfortable. So I read another book and am almost done with the 4th book. When the store opens, I get another book and a magazine. I'm at the gate for the standby flight. An agent shows up and I ask her about the possibility of me getting on this flight and that I'm wait-listed. She checks the roster - I'm not on there. I can get on the noon flight leaving Denver. Sorry, that won't work for me. She advises me to just take my flight to LAX. Fine. I go over to that gate, and as I'm walking to it, see another flight leaving to LA, but it's going earlier. Go over there and see about the possibility of getting on that flight. Apparently that's where the agent put me. Nope, no chance at all - and they're moving people over to my original flight. Fine. Go sit down at that gate. And finally they announce the flight. Get on, it leaves on time, and we're flying to LAX. We actually get in early, but there are no gates, so we have to wait for about 15 minutes. Get off the plane, call my sister - she's waiting in baggage claim for me, along with Crystal, while my oldest sister is doing the loop around the airport. Get to baggage claim and collapse in her arms. Finally here.

Oh, and the time - 10:15 a.m. PST. Which means it's 1:15 p.m. EST. It took me 27 hours to go across the country. Sheesh, no wonder I'm tired.

So I'm now here. Made it to the service on time, which was very nice, but extremely emotional. It hasn't fully sunk in that my brother is no longer with us. But there is comfort in that he's at peace now, and he's with mom and dad, and all the grandparents.