Plains, Trains, and Charter Buses

Things started off well enough. We asked the amazing Larry if he could drop us off at the airport on Tuesday no later than 12:30pm. No problem. The flight was scheduled to depart at 2:29pm, so we wanted to leave plenty of time so that we could make our flight with no rush, no stress...some lunch in the airport, an easy walk to the appropriate gate, a tiny bit of waiting around, and then a nice flight to Chicago. Then a short flight to South Bend, Indiana. At least, that was the plan.

Here's the thing: the weather in Chicago was horrible. They weren't letting planes land or takeoff. That meant that our plane wouldn't even leave the ground until Chicago gave the thumbs up for us to do so. Hurry up and wait, folks.

So, we waited. And waited. And...............waited. At around 4pm, they said that we would begin boarding at around 4:45pm, so Monkey and I wandered off to get some sandwiches for the ride. As soon as we had placed our order (at about 4:15pm), Christina called. "They're boarding!" Oh. Crap.

We hustled back as fast as we could, only to find that the horde of folks awaiting our flight were still slowly filing on board. No problem. We ambled on the plane and settled in for the flight.

This was all well and good, but little did we know that our waiting skills were to be tested this day. Our plane fired up the engines, taxiied around a bit, and then...it parked. We were apologetically informed that Chicago weather had worsened, and that we had to wait again. At least they showed a movie to pass the time.

I'm not sure when we actually got off the ground, but we landed safely in Chicago long after the last flight to South Bend had departed. So we dutifully stood in line to reschedule. Christina had a bright idea, and we called a number from one of the pamphlets at the information desk. Suddenly, we had secured a fabulously cheap rate for one night at the Hyatt Rosemont! Whoa! Then, we touched base with the airline folks about our luggage and next flight, and they suggested we take the bus...and gave us free tickets. Whoa! Cool! So we hustled off to find the hotel shuttle.

I'll shorten this for you...we waited an hour for the shuttle, 20 minutes to check in at the hotel, and 20 minutes for our to-go order to be filled at the hotel restaurant. At nearly midnight, we staggered into our room to a couple of fabulous surprises: 1. the room was super-nice(especially for only $69!), and 2. the food was friggin' FANTASTIC! Expensive, but fantastic.

This morning, things went much better. We found our bus after only an hour and a half of fun conversation with Debbie, a fellow-traveler, and the ride to South Bend was relaxing, fun, and uneventful. We even managed to locate two of our bags at the airport when we arrived! Of course, the one with all of our clothes, presents, and medicines was nowhere to be found. "F$#% you, stripey bag!" They said they'll call us when it shows up. Maybe next time, we'll just take the train from Texas.

So we're here at last. It's great to see Mom, and we'll see everyone else tomorrow. Ho ho ho!

One other note...we just got word that little sister Joanna has apparently been stricken with ecclampsyia. Fortunately, they caught it before things went haywire, and she's only 2 weeks from her due date anyway. All is well, and it looks like she'll be having a Christmas baby boy! I'll keep everyone posted.

Happy Holidays, folks. Share the love. Hug everyone in sight. And maybe give your spouse a little holiday spankin'. ;-)