Travelogue, Part the Third

There are probably only a handful of people--if any--who read part one and two of my little travelogues of my trip back to Ohio. But I still wanted to finish the series, detailing the travel aspect of my trip back home for Easter. The trip itself was fine, with much fun and kinship with my 2,000-miles away family. The getting there, and the getting back? Not so much.

My story actually starts back a few days, when I realized I'd need a larger bag for my trip back. At $15 a pop for checked baggage, I thought it best to just take one. Mom had a better solution, a bag large enough to hold my current suitcase. As luck would have it, we were attending an auction together, and Mom got me a great TravelPro bag for $10. While shuffling some contents shortly before I had to go to the airport (in the rain), I even discovered that the bag was expandable. Very cool.

My brother took me to the airport, and I discovered as we were driving that we share a tendency to lack navigation skills while in conversation. After two missed turns, we arrived at the airport. I needn't have worried though, since our plane was half and hour late due to a mechanical. So, I sat at the airport from 4:15 to about 6:30. No big deal. Sitting in an airport is more fun than sitting on a plane.

The pilot's name on my flight from Columbus to Dallas was Captain Downing which did not inspire confidence. After he promised a bumpy ride, but delivered a smooth one, I settled down a bit. I read, and dozed, and read and dozed. There was of course a screaming baby. Eventually we landed in DFW. Even with the delay, I had plenty of time to get from the C concourse to the D, which is on the opposite side of the very large airport. Dallas has a great tram service that zips you from gate to gate, so there isn't a massive amount of walking involved.

After milling about my gate for a while, I wandered around, grabbed an iced tea, and then went back to discover that my gate had changed back to the C concourse! Back onto the tram, all the way to the other side again. By this time, I only had to wait about half an hour until we boarded. Another screaming baby. We took off for Las Vegas.

This flight was fairly uneventful, though it felt like it took much longer than it should have. It had been a long day. So I was thrilled when the pilot (possibly Captain Falling?) told us we'd be landing ten minutes early. Great! Except that there was a plane stuck at our gate. Captain not-Falling told us it would be ten minutes. It was half an hour. Sitting on the runway, really having to pee. Why couldn't they change our gate, like they did in Dallas? Anyway, my travel day started at 4:00 pm EDST and ended at about 11:30 PDST. Ten and a half hours!

Much of this was annoying, and could have been avoided with a costlier non-stop flight. I will remember this next time, and try to plan further ahead.