Flight Failures...

Y'all - it happened again! I think someone should change my middle name from Shea to Flight Travel Troubles - at least then all this business with airplanes and always having issues would make sense. I'll keep this short(ish) and sweet because I've got things to do, delicious foods to bake and time to spend with my family - plus, at 5 tonight I finally get to see Catching Fire! Yes!

I was booked out of Meridian; which we thought was taking a chance anyway but we went ahead with it because it meant I didn't have to drive home from Jackson later at night...because, let me be frank...the old Silver Bullet is on it's last shot and I try not to do too much with it besides work/home/church. I got up at 4 AM (which, side note: who knew 4 came twice in one day...I thought it was only that hour before I got off from work in the afternoons...) dragged all my stuff to the car in the freezing cold and drove to the airport...to discover that my flight had been cancelled - and not because of any type of weather, oh no...it had been cancelled for maintenance. Better yet? The next flight didn't leave till 12:36. I got booked on that flight and a different connecting flight out of Atlanta: my new arrival time in DC was now 6 as opposed to when I was supposed to arrive: 11. FAIL.

It gets better though...it certainly does. I went home and went to sleep for a couple hours and then talked to my Dad at 10; my flight had been delayed now until 2:36 - so if I stayed in Meridian, now I would have to be on yet another flight out of Atlanta and I'd arrive in DC around 7:30. I should mention that at this point I'd cried about 4 times. Earlier in the week one of my "kind" co-workers had mentioned how funny it would be if I ended up stranded alone on Thanksgiving and here it was Wednesday and it seemed like it was about to come true.

Finally on a plane.

I headed toward town around 10:30 to just sit at the Meridian airport and hope that plane leaving at 12:30 (which was now supposed to be 2:30) might arrive early. I got a call from my family right about the time I got to the four way stop in Collinsville: I was to go into the fitness center, tell Hope I was ready to go, get in the car with her and she would drop me at the Jackson airport in time to catch the flight leaving at 1:09 for Atlanta, arriving at 3:30, giving me 50 minutes to race through the airport and catch the flight leaving for DC at 4:20. I can't say if Hope was speeding or not but I do know we left Collinsville at 10:45 and I was stepping out of the car and onto the curb of the airport at 12:02. Amazing. It also makes you amazingly thankful for friends who are in the right place at the right time and don't mind having a tag-along on the journey to Jackson.

Blessedly - from that point on, everything went so smoothly it was like a miracle. The flight from Jackson left a few minutes late but managed to get into Atlanta 10 minutes early. The flight from Atlanta to DC should have left late but everyone did such a great job boarding the plane (so said the pilot) that we still left on time and arrived in DC almost 15 minutes early. I won't lie - when the plane landed, I had a moment up against the window of the plane where I cried. And when I finally rounded the corner at the airport and saw my family all clustered together smiling so hard it had to make their faces hurt...I almost cried again, but instead I just got lots of hugs and took it all in. I made it - even if it took all day.

Some pictures from the window of the plane - flight one.

In the boarding tunnel - the computer countdown to take-off. I thought it was funny; I've never seen one of these before. 

Hello engine - I was sitting right in front of it, so every once in a while I'd open my window (I had two windows) and watch it spinning....

The sunset on the second flight - so beautiful.

Plane two was HUGE - and I was on the third row from the very back. I thought I'd never get off.

Reagan International Airport - I made it, I finally made it!

NOW - let me off this plane!!!

So - there you have it. As always, I can't just have an easy travel day. Hopefully that won't be an issue on the way home...but you know, I'm not hoping for much. Like I said - my middle name should be Flight Travel Troubles. I'm not going to worry about that for now though; I've got turkey to eat and things to do with my family. Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!