Death by Airport

February 26, 2:45pm
I'm writing this as I sit in the Gainesville airport. After 4.5 hours of sleep last night I got up early to get here today by 7:15am. One of the things I love about the Gainesville airport is that you can show up 45 minutes before take-off and feel comfortable that you'll have plenty of time. Ha.

Around 9am this morning I found out that the reason we were delayed was because of extreme weather in Atlanta. I then began a game of debating about waiting it out or renting a car to drive to Pensacola (my destination). I'm the biggest loser. I would have been in Pensacola by now. I'll spare you the hour by hour updates and delays that resulted in me sitting at this Gate for the last 7.5hrs. Suffice it to say that our flight was "supposed" to take-off at least 4 different times including once when were on the plane and taxiing to the runway before they called us back and made us de-board.

3:07pm
Our flight that was supposed to leave at 3pm has been rescheduled again to 4pm. I'm stuck again. If I rent a car and drive right now I will be in Pensacola by 7:30pm. If all goes well with the flight I could be there by 6:30pm without the stress of having driven 5.5 hrs after an already long day. What do I do? I'm in limbo.

4:10pm
Standby comes through! I got on a standby flight that should get me through to Pensacola by 6:30pm.

5:30pm
Arrive in Atlanta and get to the gate. Somehow the ticket agents messed up my ticket but I do have a seat and they can make it work. Who knows what all that means but I'm at my gate and reasonably happy?

[side note] Sometimes just being able to complain to people helps a lot. I feel like a wimp for that but texting people kept me sane today.

6:15pm
Everybody is here at the gate and ready to go. Except for the pilot! We'll see how this unfolds but I smell another delay.

7pm (Central Time)
Finally arrived in Pensacola. Everything is great. Except my luggage didn't arrive...