Travel Project First Quarter 2024: Week 5

First, my flights were good and bad.  Things started well as my flights out were on time.  I arrived on time so that is good. Unfortunately, my return flights were somewhat of a nightmare.  As I was in the airport, waiting for my 3:30p boarding time, I got a message that said my flight is delayed.  The delay time kept increasing.  The gate agent said to talk to customer service to find alternative options.  The representative on the phone couldn’t get me on any other flight home that evening so I decided to just take my chance with the original flight.  The end result was I got off my plane at 7:50p at gate 30 and my connecting flight departs at 8pm at gate 1 so I did my best to get there.    It was not a direct gate 30 to gate 1 scenario.  It had multiple turns and way too much space to cover when you are short on time.  As I was turning into the hallway of gate 1-10, I got a message telling me to take a few moments to breathe as they would hold the flight for me.  Thank you Lord!  I made it to gate 1.  The agent tried to scan my boarding pass but it didn’t scan for some reason so he told me to just go as they were just waiting for me.  I quickly boarded.  As I was boarding, I heard people saying that I am the person that they were waiting for.  Yes, it was embarrassing.  I felt horrible that they had to wait for me but I was very grateful that this airline made the decision to do this for me.  The flight departed on time.  Hmmm, I wonder if it’s because I had a similar issue with this airline just two weeks prior?  The wonderful result is that I made it home safely and on time.  I was concern that my luggage didn’t make it as the app said my luggage was in still in Texas, most likely due to the gate agent not being able to scan my boarding pass, but it did.  I am very grateful when things go as planned.

Second, the hotel was tolerable.  However, the room that I had this week is next to a suite of sort and I had a different neighbor each night .  On my last night, it was sad.  It was like 2 adults and 1 toddler.  I can hear the toddler crying out throughout the night and heard talking all night, not shouting but enough to understand the conversation so it was not a restful sleep.

Third, the rental car was great.  I had a Camry, just the sedan that I wanted.  Size and gas mileage were great.  

Fourth food: LOL, we wanted Italian but when we got to the Italian restaurant, it was closed so we decided to go to a pizza place nearby.  I ordered a medium pizza with wings.  It was a great pizza but just a big medium size.  Sadly, I had leftovers for lunch and dinner most of the week so needless to say, I will not be eating pizza for a while.  I need time to get over having pizza for too many days in a row.

Overall, not a horrible travel work week.  Work is busy and the travel issues are just icing on the cake.  Just kidding!  The truth is, I don’t have any control over my flights so I have to just go with the flow.