This weekend was amazing, and I am going to post pics next from the trip, but I have to document the past 24 hours first before I become too exhausted and delirious to remember it exactly. The day actually started out lovely. It was the last day of my Rhode Island Adventure, and it included a delicious breakfast at
Olga's in Providence, a ride through the city to explore the neighborhood around Brown University, and the state capital. I thought it was quite an impressive capital building.
Then, they dropped me off at the airport, and I was on my way back to bham. Or so i thought. Here are the details:
Arrive at Airport: 10:30pm
Flight Departure to ATL: 12:55pm
Flight Departure to BHM: 5:37pm
Everything looked great until noon. At noon, the pilot got on the microphone and started talking. Ive traveled a decent bit, so I know that when an authority figure speaks, it's usually because the news is not good. Sure enough, there is a part broken on the plane, and the only guy that can fix it is in Boston (an hour drive) but wont be here for 2.5 hours, and then has to fix it. Automatic 3 hour delay at least.
New Departure Time: 3:00pm
People start scrambling, which is always stressful to watch. They tell us to just chill and let them start re-booking people based on their connection times in Atlanta. I knew I had to be one of them, because it's a 2 hour flight to Atlanta, and I would def not make my connection at this rate. An hour and a half, some candy and a dunkin donuts ham and swiss flat bread later, they finally call my name. They explain to me that all the flights to bham that night are booked. My options:
A) Put me on standby on these flights and hope for the best
B) Put me on standy on the first flight and book me on a flight to Huntsville at 8:00pm, or
C) change my flight to the next morning.
I actually chose option B first because I figured I could rent a car, and get home (liv, I was very close to giving you a call). However, after a bit of time and some internet research, we found a seat on a later flight on delta.com, so I went back up, and sure enough a flight had opened up on the 10:10pm out of Atlanta. SO, im on standby on the early flight and booked on the later. PERFECT! So, I relaxed for a while happy with my progress.
At 3:00pm they delay our flight until 4:30pm. The guy is still fixing the plane. I figured at this rate, I wasnt going to be able to get on that first flight. But, I was still good, because this flight could be delayed until 7:30pm and I would still make the 10:10pm. I continue to play on computer staying relaxed and very upbeat. Meanwhile, people are continuing to get very pissed all around me.
4:30pm comes and goes. At 5:00pm, we get a visit from the captain again. "Folks, the mechanic doesnt have the part he needs, its back in Boston. He has to go and get it."
New departure time: 7:30pm.
Yikes, that was my cut off time! I still stay calm, and start researching rental cars. Enterprise, Hertz, Alamo. They are all sold out. I even call to see if maybe the internet was wrong. It wasnt. So, im starting to get slightly panicky at this point. Then, the captain joins us again. "Folks, we found the part, we should get it fixed very shortly, and start boarding soon" Amazing! That puts me withing my window to make my flight, so I go back to chill mode. Sure enough an hour later, we are boarding and taking off.
Since so many people had bailed on this flight throughout the day, the plane was spacious and I take a seat in an exit row which was also directly across from the flight attendant's station. I have to note at this point that these are the best two flight attendants I have EVER seen. Throughout the flight, they would refill my water bottle, offer me more pretzels and fill me in on the time, our progress and the plane gossip. Such as:
"Our friend in 10b needs a second blanket...guess i'll go steal one from first class"
"Our friend in 34d needs two more Miller lights...he is going strong!'
"We need some socks and duck tape for the mouth on our friend in 16 c, she is not happy!"
I felt like one of the gang. At around 8:30pm one of them says "Odd, we are suppose to land in 15 minutes, but the captain hasnt told us to prep the cabin..." Sure enough, not 5 minutes later, we hear from the pilot. "Well folks, looks like there are storms over Atlanta, we are going to hold here and wait for those to clear" No biggie, since they weren't letting us land, no one else was departing, so my flight to bham was certainly going to be delayed. All is still peachy.
20 minutes later...
"Well folks, these storms wont leave us, so we are going to head over to Greenville, SC to refuel and then see if Atlanta reopens"
hmmm, how long do refuel's take?
While over Greenville..
"Well folks, they are moving us onto Greensburo, NC to refuel, it'll be another 20 minutes."
So, we land in NC, 40 minutes off course, but Atlanta is still closed, so no one is leaving. All is still good. Then I hear something Ive only heard in movies. One of the flight attendants ever comes over to our area and says:
"Is anyone a doctor?"
oh shit.
That cant be good. It didnt take long for me to get the scoop. An older lady up front takes breathing treatments every 4 hours and she was overdue, so they had to administer her oxygen. No biggie im promised, it shouldnt take long.
At this point, let me take a step back for a second and fill you in on the activity in the cabin as we are parked. First, since we had been delayed in the airport for an extra 6 hours, a good part of the passengers are quite drunk. They arnt obnoxious drunk, but are actually pretty funny and still drinking. While the flight attendants are seeing to oxygen lady, they are totally raiding the food and drink carts across from me and having a great time. The flight attendants didnt even care, so cool. There is also a lady who keep pacing up and down the isle holding her head, cramming pieces of gum in her mouth, and swears she cant get her ears to pop. The guy in front of me is watching Lost on his ipod. Children are running up and down the isle getting their energy out. It's a crazy scene. But everyone is getting along.
An hour goes by, and we have not refueled. This is not good. Then the back door to the plane opens and two paramedics and two fire fighters storm on board. Apparently the oxygen treatments arn't working and grandma is refusing to go to a hospital. You have to be kidding me. We have now been here two hours. It's at this point that I started to get kinda freaked out. I had been upbeat and positive all day, but all of my surroundings, coupled with the fatigue setting in, gave way to a small come apart when i started talking to my parents and J. We discussed Jordan getting in the car that moment and driving to atlanta to get me if we ever got there, but I didnt want him to be on I-20 late at night. Luckily, my dad is awesome and goes ahead and gets me a hotel room in atlanta and calms me down. Then we hear from our fearless captain:
"Hey folks, thanks for being patient with us. We are still dealing with a situation up front. (old lady not breathing well) We are now refueling (tanker outside my window), and we are going to go ahead and fix the two toilets that arnt working too. (did i mention only two of the four toilets were working?) We should be back to the air in about 30 minutes or so."
Finally, all of this insanity does calm down. They get grandma to go to a hotel, our plane as fuel, and in about 45 minutes, we are back taxing on the runway. Im still a bit teary-eyed and did i mention, hungry? The sweet flight attendants (both) come over, squat down and say "are you alright sweetheart?" I dont know what about this made me upset all over again. Im pretty sure it was their genuine concern, mixed with my hormones and general tiredness, but I lost it all over again. I swore to them I was really ok, im just one of those people that gets really red and blotchy and cant stop crying once I start. Like clockwork the sweet (gay) guy flight attendant comes over with a bag of M&M's and says, here will these help? Me: "sniff, sniff, yes, sniff" I suddenly felt like a 6 year old who needed to be appeased. I couldnt help but laugh at this. Then of course I ate m&m's all the way back to Atlanta.
We do actually land in Atlanta, finally. But, it's 12:45am. All the flights that were delayed have already left. We get off the plane, and I take my place at the VERY end of a line of at least 300 people who are trying to re-book their flights. Luckily, Jordan had more brain cells working than me at this point, and texts me the delta number. In less than 3 minutes I had a rep on the line and a flight re-booked for 8:30am the next morning. That was the easiest part of the whole day. As I am about to walk off to figure out where I get my shuttle to the hotel, my two flight attendant friends walk up, see me at the end of this massive line. They immediately ask me to give them my flight info so they can re-book me themselves. Talk about going above and beyond. I thank them and tell them ive already gotten it taken care of. Seriously nice and helpful people are so great.
I make it to the hotel, sleep for 4 hours, shower and get back to the airport this morning at 7:00am. My flight to Bham gets delayed an hour, but does finally get me home. I had full intentions to work today, but when i got home and laid in bed, I stayed there till about 4pm. I think normal me would have bounced back from the past 24 hours in no time, and head to the office, but pregnant with twins me was not as physically capable of bouncing. Im just glad im finally home.
