My North Carolina Adventure

I spent last weekend with my Mom and Maggie in North Carolina. A great 48 hours with them was sandwiched between two awful days of traveling. I got up about 4:45a Saturday morning to make it to the airport in time for my 7:00a Continental flight with layover in Houston. I cut it close (I almost always cut it close) but was on the plane in plenty of time. Right before we should have been backing up from the gate, the flight attendant came over the intercom and announced that there was a maintenance issue and they would come back on in 15-20 minutes and give us an update. I started to freak a little considering I only had a 40 minute layover in Houston, but sat patiently in my seat. After an hour sitting on the plane, they announced that the device that holds the altimeter was broken. A half hour later they determined that they did not have a replacement part in Denver and would have to fly one in from Houston. We de-boarded the plane and stood in line at the ticket counter for the agents to handle each of our unique situations. I, unfortunately, was seated at the back of the plane which meant I was at the very back of the line for re-booking. After another hour and a half, I finally had a new flight plan - flying Frontier to Atlanta and then Delta to Asheville. My Frontier flight went off as scheduled but then I got stuck in Atlanta without a crew. My five hours of traveling turned into 11 hours.

Maggie with "Goat"

Saturday night we ate a late dinner and headed back to Valdese, by the time we got to Dayna's house it was Maggie's bedtime. Sunday we went to church, the grocery store, played outside with the caterpillars (the most active caterpillar Maggie named "Goat"), cooked dinner, ate ice cream from Myra's and again it was bedtime.

Maggie's photo of Ama and Aunt Leigh

Monday, we played in the morning and then had to head back to the Asheville airport for my flight back to Denver. After a quick late lunch, I departed on time, thankful for one decent flight segment. I spoke too soon. We got within range of Houston and the captain came over the intercom to announce that Houston Airport was closed due to weather and we were going to circle for as long as we could. After an hour of circling, we were running low on fuel and were diverted to Lafayette, Lousiana to re-fuel. Once we landed, we were not able to take off again until after Houston opened, so we sat on the tarmack in Lafayette for a couple hours. The ground crew there were nice enough to have pizzas delivered, which we ate in our little seats on the plane. Finally, when they opened the airport, we were able to make our way back to Houston and finally arrived there at 10:45p. My 8:25p scheduled flight to Denver thankfully was still delayed and set to leave at 11:15p. I ran across the airport to make sure I made the flight and when I got to the gate, heard that our plane would be arriving soon but we had no crew. About 12:30a Tuesday we finally took off in route to Denver and I think I made it home around 2:30a. To say the least, I was exhausted the rest of the week. But thankful for my little bit of time with Mom and Maggie Moo.