OK, recap… day 8 was the trip home… I remember all those years of people saying it must be so much fun to travel to all those places… well I was travelling for work… not play… I seldom got to see the sites, unless you count work sites and industrial parks and such… I also had to put up with all the hassle of travel and those that were with me this time got their share of it… will it keep me or them from going again, no… but now they know it was not all fun and if you’re not seeing the sites… it is down right bad…
All that said, I saw a lot of things in 20 plus years of travel… been to a lot of places I would never go for touring… and made a few friends on the way…
As I said, travel can be just one huge hassle… case in point, we were up early… remember we were 6 hours ahead of local time… so we were up at about midnight in Oklahoma and off to the airport after some goodbyes… Got there in plenty of time, no big hassle checking in but security there is always a bit different as you have to pull out everything electronic and put it in a try… well I got through, (practice) but both Sherrie and Elaine were gone over twice cause one forgot a phone in a pocket and the other forgot a watch or something… which entitles you to the magic wand search and several other things…
We got on our first plane with out delay and the 8+ hour flight went well… a bit rough in spots but ok… slipped into Chicago with only a few added circles… the new passport automated controls are nice, speeds up the transition, although I have Global Traveler status so I don’t need to go through the same lines but for them I went anyway…
Took a bit of time but got our bags and again, I didn’t jump to the Global Traveler exit but went with them, although we got a line open as soon as we got there and out we went… to recheck… got rechecked and out the first doors and it was CHAOS… like normal… up to the train and it was packed… tighter than normal… to the connection terminal and got in line for recheck and … I got my Global pass push but they shifted Sherrie and Elaine to the other lines… not bad as I had seen lines out the doors but we hit it at the right time but again… phone on pocket, junk left out, and this time it caused a finger swab and the multiple questions… they grabbed things and moved in to put shoes back on… I didn’t have to take mine off or even my belt this time… but I would see things were going downhill from there… our flight was still about 4 hours off but there were flashing “CANCELLED” and DELAYED on every board… the halls were packed about tight enough you could not stir the people…the help desk had a line of maybe 200 or more having to reschedule or argue what do we do now… it looked like more weather was moving into Chicago and that would cause even more delays… so much fun… the seats are damn hard if you setting for more than 20 minutes… the toilets are packed the food vendors are making a killing on the elevated prices cause they have a captive audience… we found some seats and waited for out flight to show up on the board… I got board so I added the United App to my phone to get updates instead of fighting the crowd to find a board… then my phone started shaking… like very few minutes it would vibrate… the delays and changes and cancels were taking the effect… the line for service doubled… our flight was still scheduled but /?? moved back 2 hours… then up then back then gate change and another and another… and back and up… every time lightening hit within 5 miles of the airport it shut down… so things were not moving well…
This was my list of emails from the time I put the app on my phone till we turned the phone off…
For all those that think the travel is glamorous… think again… unless your rich or have advanced status… it just sucks… the fun when you get there (if not working) is worth it but otherwise… it sucks…