MySpace - Update 12/23/06

Let me tell you a happy Christmas travel story!

Prologue: Two years ago, the day before Thanksgiving, my flight to go see my mom was cancelled. I am still very bitter and have only flown once since.

Friday I got up and finished packing, went in to work about 10:30 because I was just going to go to the airport from work (because it's about 30 minutes closer). Everyone leaves work and around 6 pm I start checking nwa.com for my flight that leaves at 9:30pm. Trouble. The first leg of the flight from Canada is delayed an hour. two hours. three hours. They update the Mpls -> Springfield leg to say 'Flight Pending, information will be updated at 6:47.' The information was finally updated at 6:51 and everything pointed to being on time.

I tried the Park'N'Fly this time, $50 to park in a secure lot, and a shuttle bus picks me up and drops me off at my car and right at the ground transportation area of the airport. (About $10 cheaper than parking at the cheapest lot at the airport plus I don't have to hoof it to the light rail and back.) There was a luggage check for online check-in just 2 escalators up, so I checked my bag and started following the signs to the Gate area. Security was a breeze (for me), I didn't do the 3 oz. of liquid in a bottle in a baggie B.S. and they decided my digital camera and iPod weren't bombs so all was good. I headed to my gate at a leisurly stroll, seeing as we were supposed to be on time and I still had about an hour until boarding time.

Our plane finally arrived about 10 minutes before we were set to depart at 9:23, and we were finally situated and taking off about 9:50. Our flight attendant, Josh, was very tired but very funny. At that late hour we all just needed a little humor so it was very nice to have someone with a sense of humor taking care of us. Oh.. and yay for no prearranged seat assignment as I was in 2D!! 5th person off the plane! I listened to the first 7 Dean Koontz podcasts on the way and re-found the title of one of his books that I've been wanting to read again (Watchers - about a golden retriever that has the brain capacity of a human and can talk who escapes from a genetic testing facility only to pair up with a disgruntled 35-yr old military vet.) and got to hear a lot about his newest book that I really want to read now (The Husband).

We landed at our exact scheduled arrival time of 11:08 pm and booked it to get to the jetway. I called Justin about halfway down the ramp between the gates and baggage claim (what.. you thought Springfield/Branson National Airport would be more impressive?) and asked 'Where are you?' I was surprised to hear 'Around...' I turned in a circle and found him and greeted him with a big long hug. That hug was the beginning of my vacation. YAY!

We waited and wondered as two (of the three) luggage carousels started up and spun around.. nothing. Fortunately we were standing by a security door and one of the guys popped out and said quietly that our stuff would be on the third carousel. We were the first ones there as it started spinning and finally we found my blue cubey suitcase and were off! A quick sidestop at McD's on the way home because I hadn't eaten in 12 hours and then finally home!

We are driving to his family's place tomorrow morning, then probably spending the night at his mom's house tomorrow night and to his dad's to celebrate on Monday, then driving back Monday night. I'll be offline until then and cell phone reception will be spotty so I'll get in touch when we get back.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday, let me know how it went and what you got!!

Much love,
A