Day 208 - July 31st

Friday John and I sat with our boss, David, at the Corporate Office while he showed us things specific to our job. It was a really productive day! On the way out, I snapped this picture of the fountain in front of the office.

Then we got to the airport and our flight to Atlanta was significantly delayed - like to the point I'd miss my flight to Seattle. So we all got on the wait list for an earlier flight. Which we didn't get on. There were over 95 people on that wait list!! Finally we got on our plane - I sat next to David - they closed the door then announced that Atlanta had shut down all flights coming in for two hours because of a rain storm. Off the plane. Had dinner. Back on the plane. Fly to Atlanta. Late.
My flight for Seattle had taken off on time. One and a half hours prior. So I got in line for customer service. There were FOUR HUNDRED people ahead of me. All told, some 1500-1600 people missed their flights, but they were spread out amongst the other terminals and cs desks. I got in the line at 11:15 pm on Friday night, stuck my iPhone in the air and snapped this picture. And we crawled forward. Between 2:00 am and 3:00 am, we moved less than 20 feet. At 3:00 am, a supervisor FINALLY came to terminal B and started barking into his phone. Shortly thereafter, we went from 2 Delta reps to 10 Delta reps. FINALLY we could do more than shuffle forward every 10-15 minutes.

I was confirmed on a flight that left at 9:30 pm the next night. Sunday night. Fortunately, I was also put on a rolling wait list for each flight prior to that. I laid down on the hard floor - and it was not good sleep. Because every five minutes, some HOMELAND SECURITY announcement would come blaring out the speakers at a much higher volume. So I downloaded an app to the iPhone that was "white noise", plugged in the headphones and listened to a waterfall. My back still hurts on the lower left side from that experience. I got maybe an hour sleep.

Did not get on the 8:30 am flight. Then for the 10:15 am flight, after they did the final boarding call, there were four empty seats and I was number five. I about got up to shuffle down to the 1:00 pm flight terminal when they called my name! One of the four that got called no showed! Woohoo! At about 2:00 pm Pacific time, I pulled into our town exhausted. 24.5 hours after I left the Corporate Office for the Fort Lauderdale airport.

I slept for around 15 hours Saturday night.

My sister tells me that soon Alaska airlines will start non-stop flights to Atlanta and I am thrilled. YAY! An airline I like! And if I have to go to Fort Lauderdale again? I'll fly to Miami direct via Alaska Air and drive the extra 20-30 miles.