Getting There Was Hard to Do!
It was a dark and stormy day. It was the day I was going to The Seeing Eye to train with my sixth dog. The Delta Airlines app said the flight was still on time. James Spann wasn’t raising any alarms . . . yet. So, I hugged my Quan dog, told him he was a very good boy, and we headed out to the airport.
As I was checking in, an announcement came over the PA, my flight was delayed an hour. Not too bad, thought I. We got some coffee and settled down to wait.
The 9:30 flight did, indeed, depart at 10:30, just as advertised. It’s a short flight from Birmingham to Atlanta. After an hour or so, I began to think something was wrong. Sure enough, we weren’t going to land in Atlanta at all. We were going to Jacksonville, Florida.
Once on the ground in Jacksonville, they announced there would be a delay departing due to the weather in Atlanta. So we waited. Then…
“There’s a two-hour ground hold in Atlanta. Our flight crew will be unable to continue as they have a flight crew time out.” The announcement continued, “We will have to bring in a new flight crew . . . from Atlanta.”
As I waited in line to reschedule a new flight, Seeing Eye’s travel agent called. They had received notification of the cancelation of my flight and had booked me on a United flight instead.
That flight didn’t leave for several hours so I wandered off in search of sustenance.
Back at the gate, there were more delays but, eventually, we boarded the plane. And then we sat.
“There’s a two-hour ground hold in Newark. Please disembark this aircraft.”
By now it was 11:00 pm. With visions of sleeping on the floor dancing in my head, I booked a seat on a 6:30 am flight and opted to get a room. Exhausted, I fell into bed in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.
Three hours later, I groaned when my alarm went off.
I entered the terminal just in time to hear that my 6:30 flight had been canceled. There were no more direct flights to Newark. The only other option was Newark by way of Washington/Dulles. Doesn’t everyone get from Alabama to New Jersey via Florida and Virginia? Sigh…
The storms seemed to be over, there were no ground holds, and no flight crew time outs. Both flights departed and landed on-time.
Arriving in the baggage claim area, I heard someone call my name. I’ve never been so happy to hear a familiar voice. It was Lea. And she had my luggage!
I arrived at Seeing Eye 27 hours after my scheduled arrival time. Hillary was there to meet me. “Are you up for a Juno walk?”
Settling into the pace of training with a Seeing Eye dog, we got to work.
