Which indicate I finally made it to Arizona. The flying method of getting here took a lot longer than the driving method I used last October.
On day two of trying to get to Arizona I got to spend around six DFW hours wandering from terminal to terminal and gate to gate, as American Airlines moved the boarding location time and time again as Flight 1666 out of Charlotte, North Carolina was delayed over and over again.
The original departure time of 6:30pm was changed to 8pm even before I left my abode to drive to the Wichita Falls airport. By the time I got to the airport the departure time had moved back another hour. By the time I actually made it to DFW, around 3:30pm, ahead of the scheduled arrival time, the departure to Phoenix gate had been changed again, with the departure even later than the previous delayed time.
Eventually I became part of a group of fellow weary travelers, traipsing from gate to gate, updating each other with new incoming info. Depending on the source, departure times and gates varied, due to, we finally figured out, the various timeliness of the various sources.
Eventually it became obvious that Spencer Jack and his dad, my favorite nephew, Jason, were our best info source, due to tracking our flight from its stalled position to finally being in the air. As in I was getting text messages along the line of telling me that Flight 1666, an Airbus 321, has just crossed the Mississippi and should be to DFW within the hour.
Followed by she should be on the ground at about 9:05pm, Texas time, and arrive at gate A24 at approximately 9:14pm. Jason further advised that from his personal experience with these type scenarios it would take about an hour to get the aircraft ready to fly again, which indicated it should take off about 10:15pm.
Spencer Jack and Jason were on target, except for one detail. Due to the long delay messing up everyone's schedule the pilots and flight attendants arrived slightly later than 10:15. So, the actual departure was sometime around 10:45.
The riotous groans of the weary passengers was amusing when the gate keeper announced we were now delayed by an expected half hour wait for the pilots and flight attendants. And then when the group of flight attendants showed up a couple minutes later the cheering was worthy of a Super Bowl touchdown.
By the time I finally was in my seat I was way past my regular bedtime and the most tired I think I have been this century. The Wednesday re-booking had me in a seat not of my choosing, as in middle seat on row 8. The plane was almost fully boarded when the window seat occupier showed up.
It was one of my co-commiserators, a young lady escaping Dallas, where she currently resides, to return to her home location in Spokane for a wedding. We had been venting about our misery for hours and now we were seatmates for the final stage.
Finally in the air the leg to Phoenix went fast. Interesting seatmates on both sides helps. That and a touch screen laptop.
It was coming up on midnight I found myself rolling through Sky Harbor til I found Miss Daisy and her regular driver, my sister Jackie. It was a relaxing ride from the airport to the Miss Daisy abode.
And now a little over 12 hours later I have already had my first trip to Costco...
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