Now I know we've all had our travel tales to tell. Little sleep the night before for fear that you will miss your flight. Flights delayed, lost luggage, and on and on. Unfortunately for us, all of those things tend to happen on the same day. Some of my colleagues and I traveled up to Vermont for a conference this passed week. Of course I'm always excited to visit new places and filled with anticipation of how my presentation will go, and the least of my worries should be travel to the location.
On this day, I was a little more groggy than usual, not surprising that I didn't sleep well the night before. Driving to Charlotte was tough at 6 am, but uneventful. I checked in, arrived at the gate where they asked for volunteers because the flight was oversold. At that point I didn't have to arrive at a specific time so I jumped up and volunteered. Hey, a free ticket was totally worth it for a person whose bags are always packed. I waited until the flight was boarded and then the agent apologized and said I wasn't needed. I think I should have been given a free ticket for my enthusiasm and willingness to help out, but no luck. When I got on the plane, people were still in line with the travel gaze in their eyes looking forward and backward as the flight attendant was announcing there's no more room for luggage we'll have to check your bag to your final destination. I look at my backpack and my small wheeled briefcase and immediately thought the briefcase has to go. I walked out onto the bridge and the agent wrote the flight number and gave me the carbon copy. I asked where I get my bag, he said baggage claim and I said but I'm not going to baggage claim in New York, I'm flying to Vermont. A little annoyed at the extra work I made him do, he had to write the Burlington flight number on there. As he started to wrap the tag around the briefcase I made a last minute decision and yelled out NO! I know what now? My computer with my presentation on it was in there, and in the off chance the bag didn't make it, I'd be up a creek with out a paddle. Luckily I remembered to take my purse out of my backpack. Back to the plane, and someone was in my seat, maybe they needed me to volunteer after all. No such luck but I did get the bulkhead seat because the guy didn't want to move. Thank you to the stranger out there who gave me a foot more room in my seat.
So we make it to New York. A little traveling piece of advice, NEVER book a layover in a city that you are dying to visit! We flew over town and central park, at which point I almost decided to use my seat cushion as floatation device (air not water) and exit the aircraft. We get to the gate and realize that we are delayed because of bad weather up north. Can't control weather so we were fine, but still not enough time to venture into the city. The agent says we'll get an update at 1:20, liar. So I used to work for an airline, and there are a few tactics used to calm people down and keep them away. My suggestion, try to stay calm because escalating the situation doesn't help. Anyway cnn was on and an update on severe weather comes up. Uh oh, the northeast specifically the area we are flying to is under a tornado watch until 6PM. Not good news, at this point it is almost 2, but just after that broadcast was over the agent came on and said we are now ready to board. WHAT!?!?! We left, and this flight was definitely not for the weak stomachs. We flew over Lake Champlain and I swear the airplane was going to roll over and I was going to need that cushion after all. The wind was just ripping across the lake and I kept thinking, just clear the lake, just clear the lake. As if we would have been in a better position if the airplane had started rolling over land instead of the lake. So we landed, and no my backpack did not land with us. Come to find out, the nice observant agent wrote new york in the line that says final destination via burlington. Hmmm, logical, I think not. So later on that evening we were finishing up a session and not allowed to leave the building because a tornado cell had been seen forming over lake champlain. I think I could have lived the rest of my life without hearing that last bit of information, but I am safe, and yes I did get my bag the next day.