I'm getting a bit sick of air travel. I feel like I've spent about half of the last month on an airplane. This is definitely an exaggeration, but between flying from Nigeria to South Africa-- quite an ordeal with apparent airport closings (Lagos), delays into Johannesburg and missed flights (to Cape Town, barely getting by on standby)-- then from South Africa back to the states (10.5 plus a 9-hour), then, the next day, from Rochester to San Fran, and then, last night, from Sacramento to Minneapolis via LA, I'm just tired out from waiting in lines and sitting in cramped spaces (and losing luggage).
I started my journey leaving Sacramento on a (scheduled) 7:55 p.m. Delta flight. At first, they weren't going to check my luggage all the way to Minneapolis, but I brought how ridiculous that was to their attention, certainly not wanting to hunt down my suitcase (esp. with my luck) in Los Angeles and recheck it. The Sac airport was a very nice and manageable size (and very easy to get to, with virtually no traffic even on a Friday rush-hour, I might add), except that I got stuck at security behind a group of about 40 schoolkids (Kyla joked, just the other day, that she always stays away from the security lines with kids and old people [who apparently haven't heard about the new TSA regulations :)]. But there was only one line there!). Anyway, about half an hour later, I made it to the gate. The incoming plane was late and then, after scanning in our boarding passes, they decided to refuel it while we all stood in the airway bridge connecting the terminal and the plane. Not a pleasant way to spend 30 more minutes.
We finally took off from Sac, about an hour later than the scheduled departure. Luckily I, unlike some others, didn't have a tight connection to make in LA. In fact, I was kind of bummed I'd have to spend 3 hours in the LA airport at a time (about 9:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.) that I wanted to spend sleeping, awaiting my next flight, a red-eye from LAX to MSP. Well.... by the time we deplaned from our late arrival, took a bus what seemed like across the city of Los Angeles, got to the Delta terminal, figured out that, in order to connect to other airlines (I was flying Northwest), we had to leave that terminal, take another bus to the new terminal, recheck in to get a boarding pass, and go through security again (which was really packed! Where were all these people going at 11 p.m. at night?!), it was close to boarding time for the next flight (again, I'm just blessed that I didn't have a tighter connection at LAX-- I would recommend avoiding that airport at all costs!).
Except that that flight was also late. Yup. A bunch of exhausted travelers just sat at the gate until after 1 a.m. PST, when they finally let us get on. I was able to sleep quite well on that 3 and a half hour flight, despite it being about 40 degrees on the plane. The woman next to me even gave me her blanket because I was shivering so violently. I wish I were in charge of the airplanes' temperature control. But we arrived in Minneapolis late-- around 6:40 a.m. instead of 6:00, leaving many people scrambling off the plane to rush to their new gates. It is not great to start out a day of travel with missed flights. I sympathized with them, myself having planned to catch the 7:00 a.m. shuttle back to Roch which I figured I'd probably miss. However, at least I could just jump on the next departing shuttle with my stuff a couple of hours later and make it back late morning.
Except that my luggage did not arrive. Grr. I stood there as the last lonely bags went around the carousel and didn't see mine. The lady at the baggage counter said that it seemed, from the computer tracking, that it had apparently made it on the flight from LA, but it definitely didn't make it to baggage claim. Who knows what happened-- maybe in the rush, it got thrown off the plane in MSP with the other luggage that was headed for other destinations. Maybe it's still in LA, as everything in that airport seemed to move slower than molasses in January. I don't know. In any case, I boarded the 9 a.m. shuttle to Rochester and arrived home a little while ago. It's a bit after 11 CST, but I'm not sure what time my body thinks it is. A nap may be in store shortly.
I sort of wonder when my luggage will arrive. Probably sooner than the 10 days it took ours to arrive at our apartment in Nigeria. However, I don't really care. It was labeled, they have my phone number, and should be dropping it off in Rochester sometime in the future. But at least I've figured out how to get by with 2 shirts, 2 pairs of underwear, and borrowed deoderant and soap from our time in Nigeria.... And I both packed a little bit smarter this time and am coming home to a house of plenty. I really have, in my lifetime, for the most part, been impressed with the airlines' ability to get my luggage where it needed to be, despite tight connections. But I have to say-- due to at least four events in the last year or so, my confidence has dwindled considerably. If it weren't for that darn 3-oz liquids rule (which, I might mention, had me chugging my water at the security point in LA because I didn't realize that I'd have to go through security again after filling it in Sac and which I had totally forgotten about), I would really try to get away with never checking luggage again. I'll have to dramatically improve my packing skills, but it may very well be worth it. Hmm. In any case, thank goodness, I don't have to get on another plane for..... 2 weeks!
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