Did I say 8 weeks of travel? I meant 16.

Turns out I a) forgot to schedule one of my trainings and b) got volunteered to go on 2 extra trips for another group.  Here is my revised schedule:

Week 9 - Wheeling, WV  (I also visit Martin's Ferry, OH and Pittsburgh, PA on this trip.  It's like a bonus three-states-in-one)
Week 10 - Miami, FL (SUPER excited about this one :)
Week 11 - Brookhaven, MS
Week 12 - Albany, MO
Week 13 - Findlay, OH
Week 14 - Miami, FL (Would be more excited if this trip were in the winter)
Week 15 - Siler City, NC (gulp, I have to go back...)
Week 16 - Lebanon, IN

We'll see if I can handle this many trips in a row... I may be sleeping for ALL of September.

Another Misadventure

This story is from last week, when I was attempting to fly home from Eden, NC.  (As a side note, I made it home last night from Wheeling, WV a full two hours earlier than I was scheduled to arrive, so not all of my trips have been a terrible travel disaster).

For some reason, no airlines fly directly from Boston to Greensboro, NC so I had to fly through Atlanta.  This is where all of the trouble was caused.  (I didn't post about this one, but I also got stuck in Raleigh-Durham, NC the week before, due to a weather issue.  They tried to fly me home through Fort Lauderdale, WHICH IS THE WRONG DIRECTION, in case anyone is geographically challenged).  Anyway, when I got to the airport my flight was not delayed.  I was scheduled to leave for Atlanta at 5pm.  The plane coming in ended up being a few minutes late, but it wasn't too bad.  Unfortunately they announced a weather delay around the time we should have been taking off.  Apparently there were some thunderstorms in Atlanta and we needed to wait.  We ended up waiting about an hour and then they began boarding the plane.  So we all get on the plane and they announce: 'One of the brakes is overheated.  We have to call a mechanic, wait for him to get here, and then wait for the brakes to cool off.'  Surprisingly this all takes only about 45 minutes and we pull away from the gate at around 7pm.

We start to taxi through the airport and I am engrossed in a book I just bought called "The Imperfectionists" (which is fabulous, by the way, I highly recommend it).  About an hour later I look up and realize in horror that we are still on the ground.  The announcement: 'There is a ground stop in Atlanta due to the weather.  They are not letting any planes take off.  Fortunately that means that all of your connecting flights are delayed as well.  We will now be pulling back to the gate."

We arrive back at the gate and they say we will be getting an update from Atlanta in an hour so everyone gets off the plane.  At this time we learn that we were the last scheduled flight out of Greensboro that night and so all of the restaurants have closed.  Awesome.  If only I hadn't planned on eating dinner during my two hour layover in Atlanta...  About every half hour they inform us that we will be updated on the ground stop again in half an hour.  Finally, at 9pm we re-board the plane and actually take off this time, HURRAY!

The flight to Atalanta should take about an hour.  At 10:45 I realize that we have been flying for way too long and then the announcement comes: "We flew all the way to Atlanta and attempted to get permission to land and discovered that they have closed the airport.  We tried to re-route to land in Savannah, but due to the air traffic with Atlanta being closed and all they were unable to accommodate us.  We will be heading back to Greensboro and when we get back on the ground this flight will officially be canceled.  You will need to see a re-booking agent about getting a different flight out tomorrow.  Flight attendants please prepare for arrival."

Aside from crashing and everyone on the plane dying, I'm pretty sure that this is the absolute worst thing that could happen on a flight.  We land back in Greensboro and the brilliant flight attendant makes the following announcement: "Since there's still about an hour left in the day we could still go to Atlanta tonight.  Please stay on board until further notice."  [ARE YOU KIDDING ME???]  And then: "Actually the pilot has reached his maximum flying hours for today so he will not be able to take us to Atlanta tonight.  We will see what we can do about getting a different flight crew."  [PLEASE LET ME OFF THIS F---ING PLANE] And then: "Actually you should probably get off the plane.  Please see the re-booking agent about getting a different flight out tomorrow."

As it turns out Delta is significantly better at re-booking a canceled flight than Jet Blue.  Just some travel wisdom for those amateur passengers out there.  Also, North Carolina is cursed.  You can get there, but you cannot leave.  Avoid this state at all costs.

 I did get to stay in a really nice Marriott at the Greensboro airport.  Here's the view out my window:

Some lovely wisdom from Eden, NC

"It's just another pancake on the stack.  There ain't so many you can't eat em all yet."

The Detroit Airport - An Epic Tale

4:00 - As I was driving through a massive thunderstorm on my way to the airport I received the dreaded phone call - an automated message from Delta stating that my flight was delayed.  It was originally scheduled for 7:00, but was now being changed to 8:50 due to the rain.  Fine.  I'll go shopping for a while.

6:30 - I arrive at the airport and all of the monitors state that my flight is scheduled to leave on time.  Meaning that I have NO time to get through the security line.

6:45 - After sprinting to the gate I notice that there is no plain at the end of the jet-way.  Not a good sign.  I look around for an airport worker to ask whether the flight is actually leaving on time or not and notice a truly enormous line at the gate.  And then I overhear: the 5:30 flight to Boston had been canceled as had the 5:45 flight to Manchester, NH.  There are now 3 planes worth of people trying to squeeze into one flight home.

7:00 - I give up trying to talk to someone and take a seat.  I figure it is going to be a while.

7:30 - Announcement: "We are still expecting an on time departure [yeah right, you already missed that by 30 minutes and there's still no plane...]  The plane from Boston will be arriving shortly."

8:00 - The plane actually shows up.  All of the passengers and flight crew get off and leave.  Unfortunately this includes the airport worker who has been providing us with such truthful and helpful announcements about an on time departure.

8:15 - A random airport worker walks by the gate, notices all the people and the plane.  He makes a phone call and then announces: "Ah, so I wasn't supposed to work this flight, but I saw you all sitting here and I saw that you had a plane so I figured I'd do something about it [THANK YOU].  What seems to have happened is that the flight crew who brought this plane in were supposed to take you back to Boston, but they left.  So...we'll have to try to get you a new flight crew."  Awesome.

8:30 - Two flight attendants come over to the gate and sit down in my row of chairs.  They start talking about how crazy everything's been and how they were both originally scheduled for different flights.  I ask them, "Do you think we'll be leaving soon?"  They respond: "Well, I don't think they have a pilot yet..."  I guess not.  I wonder how often they have flights scheduled with no pilot.  It seems to me like that would a pretty necessary component for all flights, but hey, what do I know?

9:00 - Announcement: "This flight has officially been canceled.  Please see a Delta agent for your re-booking options.  We are sorry for any inconvenience."  Perfect.  Luckily, my company has an emergency after hours travel line we can call.  I get on the phone (and in line with the 3-planes-worth of other people) and they put me on hold.  Many people notice that there is a flight right across from us that is scheduled to leave for Boston at 9:30.  We all head over there hoping for standby.

9:25 - I finally get to talk to the emergency travel agent and explain what happened.  The response: "Oh, Delta already re-booked you for a flight at 7:00pm tomorrow.  There wasn't an earlier one."  Now, [insert shameless plug for iphones] I had already checked on my phone while I was on hold and saw that there were 3 flights out the next morning (all before noon) that had space available.  I tell this to the emergency travel person, but she insists that they don't exist.  FINE.  Then I need a place to stay for the night.  Preferably a hotel that is attached to the airport as I have already returned my rental car.  The emergency travel woman starts listing off hotels that my company will pay for as if I could make an ineligible decision about which to stay at.  "Do any of them have shuttle service from the airport?"  None of them did.  At that point I got frustrated and hung up.  It was almost my turn to talk to the poor people working the 9:30 flight to Boston that had already boarded, mind you.

9:50 - "Is there ANY chance I could get on this flight?"  "I'm sorry Miss, but as you can see there's already a pretty long waiting list.  I'll scan your boarding pass and see if there's anything I can do."  I get handed a 'seat request' pass.  Things are looking pretty grim for me and the 30 or so other people milling around the gate area.

10:00 - The people behind the desk get a message from the flight crew: "There's one seat left!"  They start frantically trying to figure out who is first on the list.  They call a name.  Not mine.  **Luckiest moment of the night**  The guy isn't there.  I was next and made it safely home.  Turns out being a member of the frequent flier program and *almost* having priority access gets you to the top of the standby list.  SCORE.

P.S. My luggage made it home too.  Now that's what you call a miracle.

Week 3: Ottawa

This was actually my second trip to Ottawa, but the first time I went it rained the whole time.  This time I was sick (which massively sucked), but it was my last trip there and I really wanted to see the Parliament buildings.  So I went and took a tour which was pretty awesome.

You could just walk up to the Parliament buildings.  To go inside you have to go through a metal detector though.

The library was the coolest part.  It was the only part of the building that didn't burn down in 1960, so it was the oldest and it was beautiful.  The statue on the right is of Queen Victoria who was the monarch who decided to make Ottawa the capital of Canada.

Weeks 1-2

Were not particularly exciting.  I've been to Indiana several times now and Indianapolis is actually a pretty cool city, but I didn't end up finding anything new to do there, having already been to the speedway, race-car museum, and sky mall.

Findlay, OH was your typical middle-of-nowhere Ohio town.  I've been to 3 of them for work now.  For some reason Ohio seems to have more hospitals than any other state in the Midwest.  I liked Findlay for two reasons:
1. Panera within walking distance of my hotel.
2. It was close to Lima, OH where Glee is set.  Being the Gleek that I am I drove through the town and took a picture of the real Lima High school :-)

I haven't posted in quite a while...

So May was tentatively going to be 'Learning to play the Ukelele," but that didn't end up happening.  I did learn one song on the Ukelele - the song at the end of Juno (Anyone else but you) - which has exactly 3 chords.  Turns out I don't want to learn the Ukelele badly enough to actually practice (or learn any other chords).  I looked all over for other songs that only contain the 3 chords I know, but I didn't have any luck. 

Moving on... As many of you know I travel for work.  I currently am in the middle of a stretch of 8 trips in a row.  This means that I am on the road Monday - Thursday (roughly) each week, in the office on Fridays, and home on the weekends.  I actually had 2 trips scheduled in the same week for a while, but (thankfully) that has been remedied.  (Although I was rather excited by the challenge of needing to be in two places at once.  I was totally going to try to figure out how to do it, but alas, the need is gone so I'll have to leave that to someone else to discover).

Here's my schedule:
Week 1 - Lebanon, Indiana
Week 2 - Findlay, Ohio (most exciting place ever)
Week 3 - Ottawa, ON (the capital of Canada, who knew?)
Week 4 - Siler City, North Carolina (unfortunately nowhere near the beach)
Week 5 - Eden, North Carolina (also nowhere near the beach)
Week 6 - Wheeling, West Virginia
Week 7 - Brookhaven, Mississippi (I've never been to Mississippi, excited to cross it off my list)
Week 8 - Albany, Missouri (Also a state I've never been to)

This week is actually week 4, so I'm almost halfway through!  Maybe I'll actually get to enjoy what's left of summer when all this is over...