I Blame Nashville (Airport)

I've been home from Ohio for a week now. I had mostly scheduled my posts for when I'd be out of town, but now that I'm back, I have some stories to tell. (I did start a bit last week with the tale of Loveland Castle.) 

Last year, when I went to visit my brother, weather was an issue during my return flight. Waiting for an opening to land in Denver lasted so long, I missed my connecting flight home. Sigh. Yet, at no point did I blame Denver for this. I'm not sure why. 

(I did not want a repeat, so when booking my flight, I made sure not to use Denver as my layover this year.) 

I do, however, blame Nashville. 

When booking my flight this year, I noted that the layover in Nashville would be almost four hours. (We were due to land at about 1:15 PM. The flight was close to on time. We were due to take off at 5:55 PM.)  Considering last year, I was fine with that. 

After deplaning, I went in search of a monitor so I could locate my next flight. The destination cities were in alphabetical order. Los Angeles... Las Vegas... some M city... Um. Wait. You're missing something. I was flying into Long Beach. I checked again. No Long Beach. 

Did I get on the wrong plane? They scanned my ticket before getting on board in Columbus. They would have said something. (I had seen them say something to passengers before, so they do confirm you are where you should be.) 

I checked my phone and the airline app. It gave me a gate number. D6. I was somewhere in the upper Cs. 

Okay, so here's a diagram of the airport: 

The red arrow is where I deplaned. The blue arrow is the gate my phone told me was the gate I'd be leaving out of. The distance between the two was roughly a half a mile. (This will become important in a bit.) 

I hiked to my departure gate. I checked the screen, but it didn't show my destination yet. I didn't expect it to. I was way early. But I double checked with the lady at the counter, and she confirmed that this was where my flight would be. I found a seat and relaxed. 

An hour or so later, I got hungry. I headed back up the way I'd come to find a Burger King. (About halfway up the concourse.) I double checked the monitors. Now it said I'd be departing from gate D7. Okay, then. 

I didn't want to walk all the way back, so I sat at the gate nearest where the restaurant was, and I overheard a flight going to Milwaukee getting ready to board. It was going to be the pilot's last flight, as he turned 65 the next day (and the FAA mandates pilots retire on their 65th birthday). His son, daughter-in-law, and grandson were all joining him on the flight. 

I headed back to gate D7. Double checked the screen. The flight after the current flight was not Long Beach. It wasn't even close to Long Beach. We'd been moved again? 

The departure screen still read D7. My phone? C22. All the way back. 

That seemed like a monumental hike. Deep sigh. No help for it. 

I struggled. And clearly I looked like I was struggling because an airport worker pushing a wheelchair asked if I needed assistance. Sigh. (I declined. Yes, it was a hard slog, but I could do it.) 

By the time I got to the Cs (all the way through the whole C concourse, basically back to the red arrow in the image), the monitors had finally caught up. Long Beach: C22. Only, now my phone said C23. 

I sat down and texted my brother. Whining. (I still had plenty of time before my flight. I'd get home that day. But now I was wiped out.) And that's when he noticed my gate had been changed. Again. To... 

D4. 

I couldn't face it. I sat for a bit. I had to make that hike. Again. 

But I'd have to do it sooner or later. I gathered my tatters of energy, and I set out again. This time I started my walking app so I could measure the distance. And at least no wheelchair pushing staff were around to point out how terrible I looked. 

D4 showed Sacramento as the destination, but a good hour before my supposed departure. My phone continued to show D4. And the monitors had finally caught up. 

Throughout this, I was getting texts about my flight being delayed. 5:55 was a distant memory. It became 6:08. Then 7:15... 

My brother did some sleuthing. The airplane scheduled for our flight was coming from Washington, D.C. And it hadn't left yet. 

I watched the Sacramento peeps line up and board. Those of us who remained looked around. Was this the Long Beach gate? Would we get moved again? Yes, there were others who knew my pain as it was their pain. And we noted the changes in our departure time... 

And suddenly departure time was 6:08 again. Huh? Via my brother, I knew the flight hadn't left DC yet. They were stuck on the runway. 

The pilots showed up. The flight attendants showed up. No airplane, but the staff was there. That we would be boarding soon was announced. Um... 

I don't know which plane it was, but they had given up on our expected plane and found us a different one. Good enough. 

An airplane arrived. Passengers deplaned. Our pilots and flight attendants boarded to prep. And then we could board. 

6:08? Nah. It was more like 6:45 by the time we left. But I did not care. I was on a plane headed for home on the same day that I left. I was good with this. 

We were supposed to arrive at 8:15. The flight was supposed to be 3 hours 50 minutes. We landed at roughly 8:40. (Time zones are so much fun while flying. We were on the edge of sunset for a good hour at least.) 

Whew. Home. 

And now I have another airport to maybe avoid. (Will I avoid Denver in the future? Will I avoid Nashville? Meh.)

And that was a good reminder that I need to continue my daily walks. Which I will do once I've recovered from this trip. 

Missed Connection

I went to visit my brother and family in Ohio. (I mentioned this a few times already.) Every other post this week I wrote before I left for my trip. As I write this for today, it is Wednesday the 9th. I got back yesterday (Tuesday). 

I was supposed to arrive home on Monday. 

(This is going to be a long one. So... TL/DR: I got stuck in Denver overnight for reasons.)

The last time I visited was for Thanksgiving. As I was leaving, my sister-in-law mentioned that I should return to see the 4th of July with them. (My brother loves setting off fireworks.) Okay, then...

I was set to return on Monday. Because the Long Beach Airport is small, it does not have direct flights to/from Columbus, Ohio. So, for my return flight, I was going to change planes in Denver, Colorado. I had a little over two and a half hours layover. (I was scheduled to land from Columbus at 3:10 and take off to Long Beach at 5:45.) 

I got to the Columbus Airport early. I got through the TSA line (shoes off). I found my gate. And then, because I had time, I went to find someplace to have lunch. I checked my takeoff time, and we were delayed. By a couple minutes. 

Me at lunch.

It was probably 1 o'clock (EDT). I took my time. Had a nice lunch. And then I went to find my gate again. At this point our takeoff was delayed again. It got pushed back a couple times, so instead of taking off at 2 PM as originally scheduled, we were looking at more like 2:30. 

But I had that 2 1/2 hour layover. I'd be fine... 

The gate next to us was headed for Nashville, Tennessee. And instead of getting ready to board, they got some bad news. Weather delay. And announcement after announcement was about having them reschedule connecting flights. I was sorry for their troubles, thinking they weren't my troubles. Ah... 

It was time to board. They had the first boarding group line up. (I was in the second boarding group.) They waited. And they waited. And they waited. Still, no call to start boarding... 

Finally, the boarding guy told those in line they might as well sit back down. It would be a while. 

Most of the passengers got out of line. We waited. 

"That alarm you heard is for a lightning strike. Because it struck within three miles of the airport, we are on a 20 minute mandatory delay. No flights can take off or land." 

I turned to find that it was now raining outside. Okay, then. 

After a while we got another announcement. We were going to start boarding soon as the plug that had popped out (my memory on the exact phrasing is fuzzy, so I may have incorrect terminology here) had been fixed. 

Hey, what? 

The announcer chuckled. "Oh, you weren't informed of this?" He realized that we hadn't been told why they had halted boarding, so he explained the problem. As they were getting the plane ready for us to board, they found a popped plug (?? or something like that). They called maintenance. Who were on the other side of the airport. Then, of course the lightning delay meant no personnel outside. 

But now it was all fixed. Finally, we were going to board. Hooray!

We took off sometime after 3:15. (My last texts to everyone letting them know I was sitting on the plane were at 3:15. Then I put my phone in airplane mode.) 

We got to Denver in good time. However, we couldn't land. Something-something weather. We circled for a while. Then the pilot explained that we could land pretty soon, but we were going to need to refuel first, so we were being diverted to Montrose. Montrose? What's a Montrose? 

It was twenty minutes away. And, we landed at about 5:10 PM (MDT).

Welcome to Montrose, Colorado. This was out my window on the plane. 

We could not get off the plane. So, everyone got into the aisle to use the restroom (including me). Hey, they said we could stretch our legs a bit. 

Remember my connecting flight? 5:45 MDT. According to my phone, it had been delayed to 6:10. When we took off at about 5:35, the pilot said it would take us about 35 minutes to get back to Denver. 

We landed in Denver at about 6:45. 

I took my phone out of airplane mode to find a text. My connecting flight to Long Beach had been rebooked. 9:15 AM. (Long Beach does not have late flights. My original flight had been the last one of the day.) 

Now, I did have options. It's not like Long Beach is the only airport. But LAX? Maybe John Wayne. I was tired. I'd get back late and then I'd have to figure out how to get a ride from the airport. I decided I might as well get a hotel for the night. 

First, I wanted to get my checked bag. Baggage claim was down an escalator and a train ride away. Did you know the Denver Airport has a train? 

I found a very nice lady in the baggage claim area (for bag issues), and I asked if I could get my bag. She said she could ask. My bag was checked through to Long Beach, and it was currently booked on a flight to Sacramento, and then somehow it would make its way to Long Beach. (It turns out that tag that they tell you to keep is useful for something.) She sent a request. Said to check back in twenty minutes. At twenty minutes she said to check back a little later. 

A little later she found me. Said she found a baggage handler who found my bag and had retrieved it. They just needed to find a vehicle to transport it back to baggage claim. This would take some time, of course. 

I was just so happy to get the bag. I needed to take my contact lenses out, and my stuff plus my glasses were in my suitcase. 

While I was waiting on the bag, I booked a hotel. My brother was kind enough to do some internet research and find me a phone number. I got my bag a little after 9 PM, and then I headed out to get a shuttle to the hotel. 

I didn't get on the shuttle until about 10:30. The shuttles weren't well identified. The one with the correct hotel name had the wrong hotel address. (Same name. One was on Airport Tower Road--where I wanted to go. This shuttle was for Gateway or Garden Park something or other.) When I finally identified the correct shuttle, I realized that it had come by three or four times. 

I got into my room about 11:30. The shuttle back was for 6:30 AM. (That was the only time they had available, but I didn't mind as I wanted to actually make my flight back. Early was way better than late.) 

I got a shower. For dinner they had frozen dinners available (for a very inflated price) in the lobby (microwave in the room). Besides snacks on the plane, my last meal had been at 1 PM EDT. I took out my contacts. And I got a couple hours sleep. 

My hotel room. Just what I needed.

The hotel had breakfast included. And then it was back to the airport. I was dropped off at the wrong airline, but one of the employees directed me towards where I needed to check my bag. I went to print a label for the bag, but that wouldn't work. Sigh. 

There was an available clerk at the bag drop off. I explained the situation. He said I had a bag checked. I pointed to my bag and said this was the checked bag. He understood, and he printed out a new tag. Then I was off to find the TSA line. 

(The workers I encountered at Denver Airport were so very nice and helpful considering the situation. This could have gone so much worse.) 

The line went quickly. I went through screening (shoes on!?!). The TSA agent said we could leave our shoes on. I double checked. Really? Yup. I found out (after I got home) about that rule change. 

Then it was back to the train and back to the C gates. But reversing my path from Monday after having a bit of rest and some food helped me mentally. (I was still fried, but a little less so.) 

I was way early. 

The flight home, day 2.

Better early than late. I texted the family. I ate another breakfast at the airport. 

But one thing just pissed me off. For the flight I missed, I had managed to snag an A group boarding. I was so excited. I'd get on the plane early. But for my rebooked flight, I was downgraded to a C group boarding. That that just... Because, seriously? (Had to be said.)

As we got ready to board (pretty much on time), the guy in front of me and I got to talking. He was on the flight with me from Columbus. (Truck driver. He was picking up his load in Long Beach and he would be driving it to New York.) He also had the same boarding issue. However, he had not been able to retrieve his checked bag. Apparently, it had made it to Long Beach ahead of us. 

I got stuck with a middle seat. Sigh. But the flight into Long Beach was uneventful. 

We landed around 10:30 AM PDT. And home is about 10 minutes away. (I commute farther to work.) 

I got home. Unpacked. And then fell asleep for about three hours. Still, today, Wednesday, I'm feeling a bit wiped. But I'm home. Yay!

Maybe next week I'll talk a little about the trip itself. Although, family, so it wasn't a big touristy thing. 

And now you know why I was a bit late visiting blogs this week.