I'm starting to wonder if travel to Kalamazoo is just jinxed, after the last two years involved spending hours at O'Hare in 2008 and then being ridiculously delayed and my luggage lost until a couple of hours before I left Michigan last year.
This year I made a point of avoiding O'Hare in my transfers and actually flew out of Philly rather than any of my usual New York-and-Connecticut airports. This was because while my outbound flight allowed generous time for screw-ups, my return plans were very tight -- I had to finish my presentation in Kalamazoo at noon and be on the dance floor at 8:00 that evening teaching at the Steampunk World's Fair. That was down in New Jersey, so flying back and forth from Philly meant I'd be much closer to where I needed to be. The timing would work if everything went perfectly. And yes, that was enough of a gamble that I arranged a backup teacher in case I didn't make it.
So how did it work? Well, let's just say the trip out was not quite as planned.
First, my flight was canceled and I was rescheduled on one two hours later. I found this out by email moments before I was supposed to leave for the airport from Connecticut. So I left a little later. And that was a disaster. I hit huge traffic delays everywhere from I-95 to the Tappan Zee Bridge to 95 just north of the Philly Airport. I got to the airport at the last possible minute, found a parking spot -- amazingly -- on the first floor of the garage -- and zoomed in to check in. Fortunately I was not checking luggage. I jigged anxiously through a long security line and got to the gate just in time to board.
And the flight was delayed. Why was it delayed? They gave every excuse from the plane not being there to tornados in the midwest to -- seriously -- a large pothole on the runway.
And it was very delayed.
And then it was delayed some more.
Needless to say, by the time we finally landed in Detroit, I had missed my transfer.
They could rebook me on a later flight. Or I could gamble on standby on one leaving sooner. But if I did, I would probably miss my chance at the later one, since it was nearly sold out and I was not the only stranded person. The gate agents said the earlier flight was sold out and standby was unlikely. I took the safer option.
And then that one was delayed. I went and got food. It was still delayed. It was delayed so long that it would have been faster to have rented a car and driven to Kalamazoo. But I had to keep my return trip in mind, which was through Grand Rapids and which meant I needed my car rental there rather than in Detroit. And keeping the return trip unchanged was critical. So I waited. And waited. For hours.
Eventually, a plane came and they finally let us on. I got to Grand Rapids nearly ten hours after my scheduled arrival. So much for my planned leisurely afternoon at the conference, chance to catch up with friends, and good night's sleep. I picked up my rental car and arrived at the conference a little after midnight. At least my luggage wasn't delayed this year.
But...sigh.
After all this, I was rather paranoid about the return trip. But apparently I had earned enough travel karma with the awful trip out: everything going back worked perfectly.
I got started right on time: finished my session at noon and five minutes later was back in my rental car on the way back to the Grand Rapids airport.
Traffic was fine. I got there in ample time to return my car and stroll to the gate in a leisurely manner. I had time to wonder why exactly the Grand Rapids airport was called an international one (Gerald R. Ford International Airport) when it only seems to take small planes.
My flight left at its scheduled time. The transfer in Cleveland went smoothly. We left a few minutes late, but nothing we couldn't make up in flight, and did.
I walked off the plane in Philly and went straight to the garage where I retrieved my car. Could I get from the Philly airport to Piscataway in less than two hours? Sure! There were some bits of heavy traffic and a sudden downpour that lasted only a short time but slowed the highway to a crawl. But I walked into the hotel at 7:45 and was ready to teach at 8:00 on the dot.
So of course the room wasn't ready.
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