I’ve been looking forward to my D.C. trip this week for quite a while. So when things started going sideways this AM, it had me wishing I had a St. Christopher’s medal handy for the rest of the trip.
The AM started out great. I actually think I remembered everything intended to take with me for once. But hey! Someone took my Diet Coke from the fridge. Grumble. Rotten kids. Not a big deal, The quick shop is open.
So we started heading down the interstate… but dammit. The finicky cruise control in the truck finally decided to cease working. Yeah, I knew that one was coming. Not a tragedy. I’ll fix it when I’m back.
As I kept checking to make sure I wasn’t as lead-footed as I thought, as that Madison exit came up awfully fast, my wife grumbled in anguish, as my usual role in forgetting things was assumed by her. Apparently, she change for the big purse to a small purse, and forgot her credit card. Meh. I’ve got cards. No biggie.
By this time, we are pulling into the Sioux Falls Airport for parking, and here’s where things really start to go awry.
Long-term parking in the airport is down to one operable ticket machine. So we pull in line, and wait. And wait. And… what’s going on?
Apparently, despite the LCD screen that says press button for ticket, some idiot jammed a credit card into the lone working ticket dispenser at the long term parking ticket machine at the Sioux Falls airport.
So, on the fly, someone in charge sent us affected persons to short term parking. For some reason, I’m a little nervous about these instructions costing an arm & a leg, or worse being towed.
I could not raise anyone on the phone, so I sent a note to a friendly City Councilperson wondering if they could possibly help me obtain some peace of mind for following the sketchy “on the fly” instructions as related by the person who couldn’t read instructions, and help me find a live person.
After that, we arrived at the Airport terminal… only to find that our flight was delayed 45 minutes. Hm. That means a sprint when we land, but there’s a possibility we can still make our connecting flight. OK. Time to kill. We’ll go get breakfast.
And breakfast was good. Thumbs up for biscuits and gravy. But thumbs down for the notice that came at the end of the meal that we were delayed an additional 45 minutes, which effectively meant we would be missing the next flight. Dammit.
As we trudged to gate 7, defeated, with our arrival resembling anything akin to what was planned shattered, and we waited for a gate agent to figure out how to get two hapless travelers to Washington DC before Friday….. all of a sudden, the flight was updated again.
Instead of an hour-and-a-half delay, we were now leaving in 5 minutes, literally 5 minutes behind our original schedule. Pre-boarding instructions were read at record pace. YOU! GET ON THE PLANE NOW! Amazingly, I had no problem with the rush.
We’re in the plane now, waiting to taxi, only 5 minutes behind. It’s all good. I just hope my car is there when I get back.