Joshua and Bryn agreed to be my personal Park-N-Fy for this trip: I show up at their house at 5:45am and they shuttle me to the airport and keep my car for the week. Wilbur, their Boston Terrier, was in the back yard and thrilled to see me arrive on schedule. I gave Bryn a hug, packed Joshua's snorkeling equipment he is lending me, and in 5 minutes I was at the airport. Thanks, Joshua!
My scheduled flights were all on Delta, and the first leg to Atlanta boarded smoothly and pulled back from the gate on time. I was ready for a smooth day of travel, but it was not to be. Just when the pilot should have been saying "we will soon be on our way on our short hop to Atlanta", he said there was fog in Atlanta and incoming planes were being spaced out much further apart than normal; we would wait on the runway in Nashville until we had a landing appointment in Atlanta. An hour later, we were underway. My schedule showed 55 minutes between my arriving flight and the next departure, so I knew it would be close. But the pilot said that all of the flights would be delayed, so not to worry.
I came in at gate E1 and needed to get to gate T1, the longest gate-to-gate transfer possible in Atlanta! After walking/running past many gates and riding the train from one end of its route to the other, I managed to arrive at the Delta gate at exactly 9:50 for the 9:55 scheduled departure. As I approached the gate, I thought I had made it, but I soon learned that I was wrong. They had shut the door a few minutes earlier and were intent on having an on-time departure! The plane was sitting there, and the agent was visited the plane several times before it left, but they would not accept another passenger. I was disappointed but did not complain to the agent, and as it turns out I am very glad I was not on that plane.
Delta re-booked my travel and I learned that instead of going through Los Angeles, I would be going to Seattle today. The good news was that I would still get to Kauai today, just at 7:30 pm local time instead of 4:10. The flight into Lihue, Kauai, would be on Alaska Airlines instead of Delta.
The flights to Seatlle and on to Kauai were longer than they would have been through Los Angeles, but we landed in Kauai during a beautiful sunset. Since the airport is small, I decided to go immediately to get the rental car first, and then pick up my bag at baggage claim in order to save time. (Being first in line at the rental car counter can make a big difference, I have learned.) That worked great; when I got back to the baggage claim area most of the bags had been picked up and the crowd had thinned. Only a few more bags came out, but sadly none of them were mine. I had my Delta baggage claim and went to Delta's spot in the airport to find out where my bag was. I immediately noticed a big crowd of unhappy people around all of the Delta agents and soon learned that the flight that I had been booked on had not landed a few hours earlier as planned; apparently, a minor mechanical problem caused it to land in Honolulu instead of on Kauai. So these people were unhappy because their flight to Los Angeles had been cancelled, the one that would have used the plane that was not there. If I had make the Atlanta connection, I would have been stuck in Honolulu.
At this point, I don't know where my bag is. But Alaska Airline is going to find it for me and get it to me on Kauai. I have everything I need: shorts, sandals, cell phone, laptop, books, and maps!
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